A state-owned agricultural company in western China has announced an aggressive business plan with expectations to almost triple table grape production by 2018.

Xinjiang Western Luzhu Fruits and Vegetables Co Ltd general manager Luo Peng told www.freshfruitportal.com he expected to grow 35,000 metric tons (MT) of grapes this year, but that figure would likely rise to 100,000MT within three years.

He said the company's Flame Seedless grapes would hit the market in early August with a season that lasts 1.5 months, while the Red Globe and Crimson Seedless varieties would be available in early and late September respectively, selling for around five months.

When asked about whether table grape prices could be hit by the production hike, Luo did not seem to concerned.

"We have considered the potential impact, but we still hold that the key to market success lie in product quality and marketing strategy," he said.

"So we believe that as long as we get these two things right, we could outplay our competitors."

He said the Xinjiang Western Luzhu would be focused on developing its agricultural product trading center into a top-tier wholesale market in northern Xinjiang, while also building complementary sorting and processing centers as well as cold storage facilities.

Luo said these moves would help the firm improve product quality while striking a balance between in-season sales and deferred sales. Additionally, he plans to bolster investment in processed products like raisins and wine.

The company's parent company, the Eighth Agricultural Division of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), owns nearly 140,000 acres of wine grapes, 100,000 acres of table grapes and nearly 70,000 acres of muskmelons, along with an agricultural facilities base over 30,000 acres in area. Xinjiang Western Luzhu is tasked with the packaging, branding, pricing, sales, standardization and account settlement of XPCC-affiliated farms.

To boost the group's presence at the consumer end of the supply chain, Luo said he planned to extend Xinjiang Western Luzhu's sales network across various Chinese provinces. He pointed out the grapes were mostly supplied through wholesale channels, with the help of cold-chain road transport.

He said key domestic destinations were the Pearl River Delta area, coastal cities in Fujian and parts of southern China, while the rest of the grapes were exported to South East Asian nations like Thailand.

"In the coming years, we are planning to restructure our sales network into three blocks: the Beijing-centered northern China region, the Shanghai-centered eastern China region and the Guangzhou-centered southern China region.

"On top of that, we will put into place a comprehensive online marketing strategy, which incorporates e-commerce platforms, WeChat subscription accounts and O2O (online-to-offline and offline-to-online) business model and other e-factors. The end goal is to deliver our goods to our customers."

Known for its dry climate, Xinjiang remains a relatively pest-free region that enjoys sufficient sunlight and significant temperature variation, highly favorable for producing sweeter fruits with rich nutritional content. Besides this favorable environment, Luo said the city of Shihezi was further blessed with selenium-rich soil which was beneficial for grape production.

"There is over 200 sq km (77.22 sq mi) of selenium-rich land within the bounds of the Shihezi munipality, which means we could produce large volumes of selenium-rich fruits," Luo said, adding the company was poised to receive certification for 'selenium-rich geographical indication'.

According to Chinese standards, soil that contains 0.4mg/kg of selenium content is identified as selenium-rich, but the selenium content in the Shihezi area averages at around 0.8mg/kg, exceeding rates from other selenium-rich regions in Hainan, Guizhou and Qinghai.

Luo added that Xinjiang Western Luzhu had also collaborated with the Agriculture Ministry's Agricultural Development Consulting Center in setting up a platform for table grape traceability through QR code scanning.

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