Ready to uncork rich wine on trouncing virus

Wineries in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region are offering both incentives and supplies to medical staff who had worked on the front lines of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The province in Northwest China is continuing to persuade local wine businesses to discharge their corporate social responsibility with utmost dedication.

The Party committee of the Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothill Wine Industry has circulated a proposal to all wineries in the region to offer a free holiday for the medical staff around the country who have been involved in the epidemic fight in Hubei province.

The three-year initiative will offer many services, including free health facilities, wine-tasting, dining and accommodation. The region said it will also offer each medical worker two bottles of wine customized with a "heroes" label, as a mark of the industry's respect and gratitude.

"The wines are for the medical staff to open when they finally put their masks down and celebrate their victory over the epidemic. It is our social duty and responsibility as Chinese entities, companies and just as human beings, to take good care of the medical staff who take care of patients every day," said Christelle Chene, the French director of the Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothill Wine Education Institute.

Chene said she experienced from close quarters the deep involvement of the whole local wine industry in helping combat the epidemic since the very first day of the outbreak. A group of wineries had generously donated money and medical supplies to support the virus fight.

Since the beginning of May, Ningxia He Jinzun Winery has welcomed groups of local medical experts returning from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for a rest while being under isolation.

"Ningxia, like the rest of the country, has supported not only its fellow countrymen and countrywomen but also its foreign partners and sister regions in their efforts to fight the virus, sending many medical workers and supplies abroad," Chene said.

"The corporate social responsibility efforts here in the region did not start with COVID-19, nor will they end when COVID-19 is gone. For decades, the wine industry in Ningxia has been creating wealth and fulfilling the dreams of local people," she said.

Chene, a French woman who has been living in China for 10 years, decided to settle down permanently in the region last year, as she saw a greater and meaningful cause behind the business where local companies work together to help build and develop society and change people's lives for the better.

In Minning town, which is located at the foot of the Helan Mountains in Ningxia, nearly half the current migrants are engaged in the wine industry in different ways. Some are farmers growing grapes, some rent land to other companies to grow grapes, and others work in wineries' production or other departments.

"Once farmers, they have become 'blue collar' workers. Migrant workers' income has increased more than 20 times in the last 10 years," she said. "For a region like Ningxia, a small, quiet, and remote inland place in northwestern China, having a booming industry that creates so many stable jobs is a godsend."

By the end of last year, the number of impoverished people in Ningxia fell to less than 19,000 from nearly 900,000 in 2012.