Resorting to deep processing technology, Hongli Health & Food Industry Research Institute (hereinafter referred to as "Hongli Institute") has improved the added value of plums and solved the sales problem. [Photo by Tan Huajian]

A group of students of Zhongshan Torch Polytechnic currently take summer jobs at Hongli Institute. On the afternoon of July 22, they were busy operating the mechanized equipment for production in the workshop. 

Located in an old factory on Chuangye Road in Torch Development Zone, Hongli Institute has a humble look but a good reputation for its technology-based poverty-relief work. 

"We have started cooperation with local agricultural enterprises in Suijiang County, Zhaotong City for the first time this year, and received an order of 10,000 boxes of mooncake made from plum with bergamot and red bean paste," said Sun Jianwei, a researcher at Hongli Institute and Chief Strategy Officer of Chuangwei Shejian Freeze-dried Food Technology (Zhongshan) Co Ltd.

Sun said, this year, the famous "half-red" plum in the mountain area of Suijiang County, Zhaotong City has aroused the interest of the scientific and technical personnel of Hongli Institute and the Zhongshan Agricultural Special Product Promotion Research Center. They then partnered up with local cooperatives and e-commerce associations in Suijiang to innovate "half-red" plum deep processing. They finally developed a collaborative poverty-relief product, the Plum Mooncake with bergamot and red bean.

With the help of the vacuum freezing technology, a box of Plum Mooncake can be priced 100 yuan on the market, Sun said. This has raised the value of plums in another form, and at the same time find out a solution to the sales problem for fruit growers.

In this April, Hongli Institute established its branch in Suijiang's Yunong Agricultural Development Co Ltd. The branch institute has conducted research on local agricultural and farm products and, introduced advanced food processing vacuum freeze-drying technology to innovate and upgrade local agricultural technologies, products and industries. At present, the branch institute has developed such new, popular products as instant freeze-dried plum chip, freeze-dried kiwi drink, etc.

"Here is a three-story office building of the Guangdong Bakery Product Industrial Technology Innovation Alliance, the food pilot test base and Hongli Institute, where both R&D in laboratory and production can be realized," Sun added.

Sun revealed that they will carry out special agriculture cooperation in 20 counties across the country, with local companies supplying raw materials and food companies and industrial platforms in Zhongshan providing services such as technological R&D, production, branding and marketing. Currently they have established cooperation with 3 counties in Zhaotong, Yunnan Province and counties and cities in Guangdong, Tibet, Henan and other provinces, in a bid to boost regional economic development and rural revitalization with technologies.