LANZHOU, May 9 (Xinhua) -- In Northwest China's Gansu province known for arid climate, potatoes are a main crop that, however, had failed to create much fortune for growers in the past.
About 15 years ago, when Li Xingze began to chair the Lantian potato industry group (Lantian group) in Dingxi city, the biggest challenge to run the company was that there were few quality potatoes available on the market.
The situation had existed for years. Potato farmers used to sell their produce to dealers, but instead of paying cash, dealers issued IOUs in many cases and farmers ended up with no income by the end of the year.
Li Caihua has been growing potatoes for over two decades. "All I got were a bunch of IOUs, I disliked the dealers but had no other choice," she said.
The biggest loser in the long run of the IOU practice was potato companies, because no farmers were willing to sell their produce any longer, and many had given up on growing potatoes.
So Li Xingze came up with a new pattern by signing contracts with local cooperatives and purchasing potatoes directly from the growers.
"We depend on the farmers to make profits. If they abandon the land, what can we do?" he said. "We encourage farmers to grow high starch potatoes by providing them seeds and subsidies and purchase at higher prices, so the growers can have more income."
Li Caihua joined a local cooperative last year. She sold all her potatoes to Li Xingze's company and was paid tens of thousands yuan in cash on the spot. "Never do I have to worry about the sale of my potatoes," she said.
More than 50,000 households have registered with Lantian group, of which over 5,000 are low-income families. The total potato growing area tops 6,600 hectares in Dingxi and over 6,000 such cooperatives have been established across the city.
Now Li Xingze is nicknamed "Mr. Potato," as his company produces a quarter of the country's potato starch on the market.
Liu Xiaoping, a local official of Xingyuan township, said the new pattern had attracted more locals to grow potatoes. "Every October when the potatoes are ripe, there is a long queue of growers riding tricycles to sell potatoes. Sometimes it can be over 200 cars and we are busy until midnight," Liu said.
Quality produce brings Li Xingze more profit. In 2010, Lantian group was just one of the small potato starch companies in Dingxi. Last year, Lantian had become the biggest potato starch producer in China.
Farmers have also seen their purse getting bigger. The average income of local growers was 20,000 yuan (2,947 U.S. dollars) last year, 8,300 yuan higher than the previous year.
"We hope that we and the growers can become partners of mutual benefit, and together we can help promote the development of the local economy," Li Xingze said.
