Persimmons a sweet solution in rural Shaanxi

Qiao Binbin, head of the company, is believed to be the first young person from Yangjia village to return after leaving. In 2012, the 37-year-old resigned from his executive position at a State-owned company in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, to pursue selling dried persimmons online — a venture he had been nurturing in his spare time since 2006.

"When I mentioned to the villagers in 2012 that I was selling dried persimmons online, none of them believed me," he recalled. Undeterred, Qiao maintained a steadfast belief in the substantial potential of the business because of his own experiences.

He managed to rake in 50,000 yuan in sales of the preserved fruit in just one month on the e-commerce platform Taobao, he said.

By 2014, he'd made 1 million yuan in online sales, so he decided to found New Farmers. The company has even sold as much as 4.5 million yuan in dried persimmons in a single day.

Last year, the company sold 1,500 metric tons of dried persimmons and over 6,000 tons of various other agricultural products. With an annual sales volume of 100 million yuan, the company now employs more than 300 seasonal workers throughout the year.

Approximately 7,100 tons of persimmons can be yielded annually in Yangjia, according to Qiao, and around 1,750 tons of dried persimmons are processed, contributing to an increase of about 5,000 yuan in the per capita income of the village of 545 households and almost 2,400 residents.

As the local government intensifies its efforts to integrate water and soil conservation with the development of an industry around persimmons, people in other parts of Fuping have also benefited.

In the past decade, the county has constructed 30,000 hectares of terraced fields. While a total area of 8,600 hectares has been afforested especially for water retention, 3,000 hectares of economic trees such as persimmon and pepper trees have been planted.

As of last year, Fuping boasts 24,000 hectares of persimmon orchards, with the annual production of dried persimmons in the county reaching 70,000 tons. The overall annual output value of the persimmon industrial chain has surged to 6.5 billion yuan.

The booming industry now directly employs about 130,000 people, with 70,000 more engaged in the whole industrial chain.

With a significantly improved economic situation, Yang and his family have bid farewell to their old and dilapidated cave dwelling and moved into a new home with modern amenities.

Reflecting on the past, Yang recalled how leaving their hometown to work as migrant laborers was once thought of as the only means for young villagers to sustain themselves. Enticed by the thriving persimmon industry, however, many young villagers are now returning, making the community once predominantly inhabited by seniors and children bustle again.

"Previously, sightings of young individuals in the village were rare. Nowadays, encountering them is a common occurrence," he noted.