Ice grapes

Ice grapes

　　In the depths of winter, it’s the season for harvesting ice grapes. Recently, over 2,200 farming households in Beidianzi Township, Huanren Manchu Autonomous County, Benxi, hauled wagonloads of glistening ice grapes straight to local ice wine wineries, exchanging them for stacks of hundred-yuan bills. On the very same day, the second phase of the local Changyu Ice Wine Winery successfully went into production, with ice wine produced from the grapes rolling off the production line in an unbroken stream.

　　 Beidianzi Township in Benxi is China’s only ice wine industry base. To date, the township has developed an ice grape planting area of 6,000 mu, producing over 2,000 metric tons of ice grapes annually. In 2006, the township successfully introduced Changyu Winery, establishing a long-term sales platform for this industry. In September of that year, Changyu Winery initially invested 50 million yuan to build the country’s first processing enterprise focused on ice wine production. Adopting a “company + base + farmers” business model, it purchased 1,500 metric tons of ice grapes that year, generating sales income of more than 10 million yuan for the farmers.