Professor Lv Hong is one of the many Fudaners trying to help an impoverished county in southwest China achieve sustainable growth with its natural assets.
Would you like a bottle of cider made from organic apples grown at an altitude of 1700 meters where the water and air are the clearest?
Look no more. We have just the booze for you. Collaborating with “A-qing Sao”, a local pickled vegetables brand in Yongping county, Lv Hong, a Fudan professor of life sciences specialized in strain engineering released “C9”, a champagne-color cider made from apples harvested from Yongping’s mountainous area.
Yongping county is located in one of the most disadvantaged areas of Yunnan Province in southwest China. In 2012, Fudan University was designated by China’s Ministry of Education to partner with the county for poverty reduction. Over the years, Fudan has been sending faculties, students and medics from its affiliated hospitals to Yongping to assist its educational, medical and industrial development. Many have even stationed there for years and formed strong bonds with local people.
C9 cider
“People tend to think products coming from poor areas as plain and primitive. So we hope to use modern technology to help Yongping sell products that will trend in cities,” said Lv Hong.
Professor Lv Hong (middle in floral-print dress) poses in front of the factory of A-qing Sao Company.
In October 2018, Lv paid a visit as a member of the Fudan delegation from the School of Life Sciences to the factory of A-qing Sao in Yongping county. She said that the revenue of the company was limited because pickled vegetables— its main products— has low added value.
Lv proposed making fruit-based products which had a bigger global market. She thought, since fermentation was also the key technology adopted in the current assembly line at A-qing Sao’s factory, why not try producing fruit beverages with higher added value, ciders for example?
Ma Lejun, the board chair of A-qing Sao hesitated as first but later decided to follow Lv’s advice. “Indeed the target market of our pickled vegetables is small, yet around the world there is a large demand of fruit drinks. We thought this could be a great opportunity,” said Ma.
Lv quickly gathered a group of researchers and started experimenting on over 20 types of fungi that could act as the yeast. Finally, they chose a strain patented by Fudan University which worked well with fermentation of apple juice. The researchers also analyzed the most popular ciders on the market to optimize their formula.
Bottled C9 in the factory
Professor Lv Hong (middle) poses with staff of A-qing Sao Company.
“Developing the technology is only the first step. It also takes hard work to bring a product from lab to table.” After repeated experiments to ensure the reliability of the fermentation process, Lv sent experts to Yongping to help A-qing Sao build the assembly line for the new product.
Even when C9 was still a formula in the lab, Lv had thought about the actual set-up of assembly lines in factories. “We always need to think ahead on factors such as temperature control, ventilation, stirring, filtration and bottling,” said Lv. She believes product development should also involve working out a proper layout for each and every piece of equipment in the production process. Lv explained, “It is like playing with Lego. You have the plastic blocks ready, but the real effort lies in how you want to stack them up.”
Inside the workshop that produces C9
Lv stresses the importance of creating a virtuous cycle when talking about poverty reduction using technology. In the case of C9, the cycle refers to more sales of fruit produce, more jobs in local cider makers and more demand from the consumer end. “If this cycle works out as expected, it can continue to benefit Yongping residents and make sure they never fall back into poverty again,” said Lv.
On April 30, 2019, the Yunnan Provincial People’s Government announced success of poverty reduction in 33 impoverished counties in the province. For Yongping county, that means 19401 residents started living beyond the national poverty line.
It is worthy of celebration, but there are quite a few precedents where impoverished families fell below the poverty line after external assistance stopped. Therefore, today, Fudan University is helping Yongping in its own ways, with many Fudaners still stationing there to assist various operations of the county.
On May 27, 2020, Fudan University streamed its 115th anniversary celebration online, which included two live-sale sessions for Yongping specialties. C9 also made its debut on the day.
If you’d like a tipsy moment while helping the farmers in Yongping lead a better life, visit the mini program “卿云鲜商城” on WeChat and type “C9” in the search box to find the item and place an order. There are other Yongping specialties you may also find delicious in the shop.
Product detail page for C9 in “卿云鲜商城” WeChat mini program
Editor: Deng Jianguo
