Yonghe Red Dates

Yonghe Red Dates

　　Yonghe red dates are well known for their small pits, thin skins, thick flesh, natural pest resistance, and being pollution-free. They have been awarded national green food certification and medals, and the National Forestry Administration has designated Yonghe as the “Chinese Date Capital.” It is the first county in China to produce completely pest-free red dates.

　　Yonghe County is an area reliant on rain-fed agriculture. Particularly in the dozens of river bends along the 80-kilometer stretch of the Yellow River across four townships, the large diurnal temperature variation and sandy soil that is sheltered from wind and exposed to sunlight yield red dates that are pest-free and unpolluted, earning the county the title of “China’s No. 1 Pest-Free Date County.” In light of the realities of a sparse population, vast but infertile land unsuitable for grain production, the county Party committee and government have established a key industrial development strategy: “a hundred dates trees per capita, ten acres of grass per household.” A number of red date production bases have been built, giving rise to dozens of specialized villages—such as Weijiawa Village, Lijia Mountain Village, and Baijiayao Village—with per capita yields of a thousand jin (500 kg) of dates, as well as top producers like Ren Fuxi.

　　Today in Yonghe, red dates blanket the hills like brocade, and new seedlings carpet the land in green. Wang Xing’an, the County Party Secretary, told reporters that the area planted with red dates has expanded from the original four Yellow River-area townships to all seven townships in the county. Four ten-thousand-mu red date bases and eight thousand-mu premium red date gardens have been established, with the total number of red date trees reaching 8.5 million. The annual production of 15 million kilograms of red dates sells out completely, bringing an average additional income of 1,600 yuan per person in the main Yellow River-producing areas, making red dates a primary source of income for local farmers.

　　Yonghe red dates have been awarded national green food certification and medals, and the National Forestry Administration has designated Yonghe as the “Chinese Date Capital.” It is the first county in China to produce completely pest-free red dates. In October 1997, at the first Shanxi Provincial Dried Fruit and Economic Forest Products Evaluation and Exhibition, Yonghe black jujubes were named one of the “Top Ten Famous Dates of Shanxi.” In October 2007, Yonghe County was designated by the provincial Department of Agriculture as a characteristic agricultural product (red dates) production base county. In December of the same year, the Qiankun Bay organic red dates of Yonghe County were recognized by the Organic Food Committee of the State Environmental Protection Administration as organic conversion products for the year 2007.