Chinese grapes? Absolutely!

In recent years, the Yunnan province in a remote area of Southwest China, has grown to become one of the country's largest grower of table grapes, thanks to its favorable climate and available arable land. Here vineyards cover an area of 250 square kilometers – more than eight times the size of the City of London! However, a lack of fertigation and crop nutrition knowledge has limited farmers' productivity.

Grapes from Yunnan Province are fast becoming a bestseller – in China and abroad. In only 5 years, the area covered by vineyards has increased by 85%. A favorable climate allows Yunnan farmers to harvest grapes from March to August, thereby avoiding the peak season which runs from October to November.

Table Grape Symposium

Together with the local distributor GDTH, local grower associations and various press media, Yara China organized the "Table Grape Symposium" in Jianshui, in Yunnan Province, China. This symposium, which took place in August, hosted some 400 table grape growers and dealers, some of whom travelled more than 2,000 km to attend. Several industry experts shared their knowledge of fertigation technology on growing table grape, while Yara China agronomist Shuangcheng Xiao presented crop nutrition solution for table grape.

"Yara puts the farmer first. And we will continue to share our knowledge with farmers around the world, including China, so as to help them increase their profitability and drive them towards sustainable agricultural development," Lawrence Yau, Commercial, Supply & Trade Director of Yara China, told a captive audience.

At the symposium, Yara set up a booth to demonstrate the "Yara Crop Nutrition" program for table grape. This attracted a lot of interest and questions from the growers, which were answered by Yara China agronomists. The booth also demonstrated the use of DiscoverIT on iPad, and how the growers can access Yara product information and Crop nutrition programs via DiscoverIT.

Seeing is believing

The participants of the symposium were then invited to visit a table grape demonstration plot, managed and owned by GDTH. Here growers could witness the benefits of Yara Crop Nutrition solution first hand.

In addition, growers also visited the "Yara Authorized Retailer" Flagship store – the first flagship store in China. "Overall, this symposium was a great success and set a new benchmark for crop based symposium in China," said Lawrence Yau, Commercial, Supply & Trade Director of Yara China. "Not only did it deliver crop nutrition solution and knowledge to help farmers increase their profitability, it also educated the farmers in saving water resources and protecting environment so as to create a sustainable development for table grape industry."