Hello, everyone, you’re listening to the Window of China program by China Radio International. I’m Zhang Ping, my partner Liang Bing and I would like to send you our best regards from Inner Mongolia of China.

Today, we’ll have a special program prepared by People’s Broadcasting Station of Inner Mongolia for you. This program is a story about a lady and her branded potatoes.

Madam Wang Xilian and her family have been quite busy since this fall; her house is located in Hale Village, Wuchuan County of IMAR. The traffic to her house gets busy during harvest time, trucks and tractors and people with different dialects all come toward her Chuanbao. “Chuanbao is a registered name for my potatoes, it is a branded potato in fashionable words” said Madam Wang.

Potato is a popular farm produce by all ethnic villagers in Wuchuan for generations, it is seen as a cheap stuff, usually no more than 1 Yuan per kg. However, things are changed since Madam Wang

registered Chuanbao for her potatoes through her company Chuanbao Green Farm Produce Co., Ltd. The price of potatoes arise almost double, not a cheap stuff anymore.

So how did Madam Wang come to the idea of branding her potatoes?

“I used to sell my potatoes through dealers, but potato dealers sell Wuchuan potato to outside market without any brands. By realizing this disadvantage, I came to an idea to make Wuchuan potatoes a famous brand”, said Madam Wang.

Wuchuan County is Madam Wang Xilian’s hometown located in middle of IMAR, on the north side of Big Green Mountain. Wuchuan is recognized as a good place for potato production due to long hours of sunshine, cool weather, big temperature difference between day and night, sandy soil and free of industry pollutions. Wuchuan is not far away from the grassland, so farmers usually use organic fertilizers like manure of sheep and cows, which enables the potato an advantage of meeting the criteria of green food or organic food. Madam Wang said that all farmers in her hometown grow potatoes as staple food all the year around.

As an old saying in IMAR, there are three treasures on the north side of Big Green Mountain, which are potato, oats and sheep, potato ranks the top. Hence, potato in Wuchuan receives a nickname of Fruit from Underground due to the features of rich nutrients, big in size, yellow or red outside and white inside, and good tastes. Unfortunately, potato farmers did not benefit from the potential value of high quality potato in the past as they have poor access to market information and new technologies. Their average yearly income is just around 2, 000 Yuan.
    

Madam Wang is over 40 years old. She has lived in Hale Village since she got married at her 18 years old. Farmers in this village who relies on potato production were very poor during that time. “Although my husband was teaching in a local primary school, but my family could not live better than the others, I even could not afford a 5 cent ice bar for my 3 year old son. I fully understand the hardship in farmer’s life”, said Mdm. Wang.

Madam Wang graduated from senior high school;

she was not willing to be poor all the time. She started trying new ideas on her rented tens of Chinese Mu farm land, such as improving the saline soil with extension technician’s help, building a green house to grow vegetables, importing new variety of potato. As a result, she is out of poverty and becomes a good model of being well off by hard working. To recognize the achievements, Madam Wang is awarded as one of the Top Ten Best Farmers and Herders in IMAR in 2001 and the Deputy to the People’s Congress of IMAR.

Through Madam Wang’s business travel to other cities, she saw a funny phenomenon; consumers like Wuchuan potato, but farmers do not benefit a higher price from that. Even funny, potatoes produced from Wuchuan are sold to Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai or Guangzhou but under an origin name of Hebie or Ningxia. She got the answer to this question after a market survey.

“We did poor management on potato production, another problem is the single marketing channel, and we sold out potatoes as raw materials without value added. We can get a better income if we have our own channels of distribution in the market. In other words, farmers must build their own brand”, commented by Madam Wang.

Not until seeing a successful case of branded millets (Mengqing) produced from the neighbor county called Qinghe in Beijing and Shanghai supermarkets, Mdm Wang started to brand the potatoes from Wuchuan.

“Wuchuan potatoes are so well known for its quality and in sufficient supply; we should register a brand for it, and try our best to make it famous”. After consulting with her husband, the name of Chuanbao came to their mind, which means the treasure of Wuchuan and they are committed to make it happen.

“As a farmer, I have to learn by doing, I also consult with outside experts when problems occur”, said Madam Wang. Madam Wang’s idea gets support from the county government, as well as the CIDA project called Small Farmers Adapting to Global Markets. Her application for Chuanbao registration was sent in on May 8 and approved by the State Trademark Bureau on July 28.

The middle area of IMAR was struck by a serious drought this year, and potatoes yield in Wuchuan dropped sharply. How to get a better price for the potatoes? By realizing that urban residents have limited storage space, Madam Wang packed the potatoes with nice design in 5 KG weight and branded as Chuanbao, and sold through the supermarkets in Hohhot City. “The pictures of mountain, potato plants and sky taken from my village on the cover of potato box try to tell the features of nature and no pollution”, said Madam Wang.

The branding and packing strategy succeeds. Many customers buy a pack of potatoes when they go shopping in supermarkets. Potato dealers from Beijing, Shanghai, Shandong and other provinces started knocking the door of Madam Wang for her packed potatoes after Wang’s story is reported in the Medias. Wang Xilian did a simple calculation of how much potential benefits Wuchuan potato farmers can get; there are about 750,000 Chinese Mu (about 50,000 hectares) of potatoes in Wuchuan, the average potato yield in Wuchuan is about 800 million KG every year, even 10 cents higher price generates 80

million Yuan extra, that is a lot of money.On the other hand, there are extra benefits from created employment opportunities. For example, a packer can earn 30-50 Yuan a day. Most important of all, I want my neighbor farmers to have a steady income and not to worry about where to sell their potatoes, I am not just thinking of myself, I hope the branding strategy can bring farmers a better market opportunity ”, said Madam Wang.

“If potato dealers from outside come to buy the potatoes at 0.8 Yuan per kg in the village, I will pay 1.2 Yuan per kg. I will try to pay farmers the best price”, said Madam Wang.

Below conversations conducted between the reporter and Mdm.Wang. Reporter: “How much do you sell per package?” Mdm. Wang: “12 yuan per package” Reporter: “How much do you sell for the same quantity without package?” Madam Wang: “about 4-5 Yuan”.

Madam Wang’s husband, Mr. Yu Zhuangtong is busy meeting with customers from outside. Mr. Yu told people proudly that their potatoes were selected with care; the weight for each potato is above 0.2 kg. “Our potatoes are free of pollution, good tastes. We use organic fertilizers like manure of sheep and cows”, said Madam Wang. “Why do you select your potatoes with such care?” the reporter asked. “Because we want to build our own brand”, Madam Wang replied.

Chuanbao potatoes are now well sold in the supermarkets of the cities; it is obvious that the first step is quite successfully. What will Madam Wang do next? “I have a plan, we will set up our own distribution system and put more efforts on a reputable brand, then may be involved in the processing business, such a making French fries, potato chips and various potato starch made products like noodles, eventually make a national famous brand”, said Madam Wang.

Sounds ambitious, eh? This is the end of story of Madam Wang Xilian and her branded potatoes. We thank Madam Wurinile, the editor in charge, and Mr. Siqinbatu, the recording director. Thanks for listening. Bye for now.