Farmers harvest melons and load the packed fruit onto a truck in Haikou, Hainan province, last month. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

As he surveyed the 50 metric tons of spinach growing in his fields early this month, Shi Xuecheng was mainly concerned about getting a good price for his crop.

The matter was pressing. His plants had reached a height of about 25 centimeters and could not stay in the ground much longer because the rising temperatures would cause them to rot. The 67-year-old also had more than 60 tons of cabbages and 25 tons of sweet potatoes in his fields.

Anti-epidemic measures have had a significant impact on the production and sale of agricultural produce

Many farmers nationwide are facing problems selling this year's crop and sowing next year's as a result of the novel coronavirus outbreak, which started in Wuhan, in the central province of Hubei, late last year.

Since January, almost all provinces and cities have seen highway traffic restricted, people placed in quarantine and factories and schools closed in a bid to contain the spread of the virus. Those measures have had a significant impact on the production and sale of agricultural produce.

Agricultural produce that has been loaded onto a train in Kunming, Yunnan province, is sent to Hubei province last month. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

Hopes dashed

Shi, from Jiaxian county in central China's Henan province, has been growing vegetables for more than 30 years. Before the outbreak, his experience told him that the market would be good－especially during Spring Festival－but the epidemic has dashed his hopes.

He said the closure of factories, schools and supermarkets has caused a decline in demand for his produce, while wholesalers are not willing to take the risk of storing too many vegetables. Those factors have seen prices plummet.

Shi usually sells his spinach and cabbages at 1.60 yuan (23 cents) per kilogram, but the most wholesalers are willing to offer right now is about 1 yuan per kilo. His expenses, including seeds, fertilizer and labor, mean each kg costs about 1.40 yuan to grown.

Although the peak sale time for spinach was already a week late compared with last year, Shi wanted to wait and secure a higher price. However, with the support of the media, which publicized his plight and told customers where they could obtain his goods, he sold more than 5 tons of sweet potatoes at 1 yuan per kg.

"I didn't want to sell at such a low price. Now, I will lose money, no matter if I sell or not, so I want to wait. Many farmers have sold their vegetables at low prices, but in a few weeks, when supermarkets and factories gradually start to resume work, there will be a shortage of vegetables and I may get a good price, at least 1.60 yuan per kg," he said.

Shi farms about 1.3 hectares of land, and although he generally does all the work himself he also employs laborers at a cost of 60 yuan per day. Last month, he paid nearly 15,000 yuan in labor costs, which increased his financial burden.

His three married daughters have comforted him in their phone calls. They live in the downtown and local epidemic prevention and control measures in force last month meant they were unable to visit and help out, which would have lowered costs and eased Shi's loneliness.

"I only told them about my situation on the phone. They know I am stressed and they have tried to comfort me. As the regulations are no longer so tight, my second daughter and her kid visited me two days ago," Shi said.

Despite his expectations of an upturn, he still feels stressed and his cigarette consumption has almost doubled. "I don't know how the epidemic and weather will develop in the coming days, but the spring planting season will definitely be affected," he said.

Chickens eat ripe mangoes that have fallen from trees in Sanya, Hainan, last month. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Losses

By Feb 18, Pan Yulin had sold nearly 60 tons of mangoes through Taobao, an e-commerce platform, and offline wholesalers. The sales period came about three weeks later than last year.

After the coronavirus outbreak, fruit wholesalers who had arranged to visit the 34-year-old at his farm in Sanya, Hainan province, were unable to make the meeting, while local wholesalers bought very few of his goods.

Pan's peers in Hainan are using a number of e-commerce platforms to sell their produce. Though the situation is improving, there is still a large backlog.

The native of Nanning, capital of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, and his family have been planting mangoes in Sanya since 2012 and they own more than 1,000 trees.

"In previous years, fruit merchants would gradually come to Hainan after Lunar New Year. This has been the first time my mangoes haven't sold out in the first month of the lunar year," Pan said.

Wholesalers have also offered lower prices this year, with the worst being less than 2 yuan per kg, far lower than last year's 5.80 yuan. When Taobao offered about 4 yuan per kg, Pan immediately decided to sell his mango crop.

"My income is nearly 100,000 yuan lower than last year, but I was lucky to sell about 60 tons of fruit and break even," he said.

Pan's market normally includes Beijing and the provinces of Zhejiang and Sichuan. Fruit merchants usually go to his orchard to buy his produce and the price is higher than the online market, so normally he makes few sales on the internet.

Wu Youxiang, 54, and other residents who joined a fruit cooperative in their hometown of Mangshi, Dehong Dai and Jingpo autonomous prefecture, Yunan province, registered a combined loss of about 1 million yuan as sales declined.

The villagers decided to sell their 50 tons of tangerines and 400 tons of passion fruit at low prices. As of Feb 19, all the fruit they had in storage had been sold, except for some "secondary" fruit, such as those of smaller size or poor quality.

Wu's village planted 53 hectares of passion fruit and 11 hectares of tangerines. When wholesalers came to the village after Feb 10－later than last year－they offered 1 yuan per kg for the passion fruit, half the price from 12 months ago.

"I've calculated that due to the outbreak, we have lost about 1 million yuan compared with last year. People can wait for the market to improve, but the fruit can't, and we can't allow it to rot in the fields," Wu said.

Mangoes are loaded into baskets to be sold in Sanya last month. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Anxiety

At the beginning of the outbreak, the control measures in Hainan were not particularly strict, so Pan thought he would be able to sell his fruit at a good price.

Later, when Hainan announced controls on the migrant population and arrivals from outside, he started getting anxious and unsettled.

"Fruit merchants couldn't get in, so I was worried about the situation. My heart was heavy and I couldn't sleep for a long time because the sales were related to my family's harvest this year," he said.

The fruit fell off the trees soon after ripening, and as time passed more and more fruit ripened and then fell, causing huge losses.

"Some local farmers have been particularly hard hit. With the mangoes ripening at the same time as the outbreak came, the trees have shed a lot of fruit. The fallen fruit can only be used to feed pigs and domestic fowls," Pan said.

Mango trees can bear fruit once or twice a year, depending on weather and technology, but farmers planting the fruit in tropical Hainan also need to consider the potential losses from typhoons.

"If I use expensive techniques to induce buds on the trees and then a typhoon comes along, all my time and money will be in vain－and there are many typhoons in Hainan," Pan said.

Wu and his friends were extremely anxious. "If we cannot sell this year's fruit, it will cause a huge loss. Maybe several million yuan. We spend so much time and effort on planting and management," he said.

Now, farmers are knocking secondary fruit off the trees to ensure the growth and quality of the crop later this year.

Wu planted fruit across 1.3 hectares, but he earned about 40,000 yuan less than last year.

Each hectare costs him 90,000 yuan to cultivate and harvest every year. To ease his anxiety, he is busy pruning his trees and waiting for them to flower next month.

Fruit growers sort strawberries in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, last month. (FANG DONGXU / FOR CHINA DAILY)

Resumption

Zhou Dengping, who grows navel oranges, is struggling to hire enough people to work in his orchard and fruit processing plant, because large groups are not allowed to gather for fear of facilitating the spread the coronavirus.

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The 46-year-old, from Fengjie county in the southwestern city of Chongqing, farms 533 hectares of land across four villages. All the land is rented from local farmers and Zhou's total annual harvest is more than 2,000 tons.

"The fall in sales started in late January when there was competition from similar products, such as tangerines. The situation got worse as the epidemic progressed, especially after Spring Festival. Many supermarkets and factories downstream closed and use of the expressway was restricted," he said.

On Feb 7, Zhou organized for local villagers to donate 25 tons of oranges to doctors in Wuhan, who are on the front line of the fight against the epidemic.

"Wuhan is Chongqing's neighbor, and people there need all kinds of food. We grow oranges, which are high in vitamin C and therefore good for boosting immunity, so we want to donate some to them," Zhou said.

At age 16, he was taught to grow oranges by his parents, who started cultivating the fruit in the 1950s.

In 1989, he moved into marketing work for orange growers in Hubei province, but in 2012 he returned to his hometown and founded a company to plant, harvest and sell the fruit.

"I love oranges. I was raised with oranges by my parents, and now I want to share them with everyone," he said.

Zhou's two eldest children work in the education industry, while the youngest is at primary school. He doesn't want them to become involved in the fruit business because he believes they have to go their own way.

To avoid problems with this year's harvest, he has decided to sell some of the oranges cheaply. He can sell about 150 tons per day through online and offline channels, but the price is about 4 yuan per kg this year, much lower than the 10 yuan he earned last year.

Due to the closure of many factories and restrictions on gatherings of people, Zhou cannot get enough fertilizer or workers for his orchard.

"The process of pruning the branches and fertilizing the trees has not finished yet. In previous years, the first fertilization would have been done by now," he said.

Zhou has raised the daily rate for his employees to 50 yuan per person, so his costs have risen by several thousand yuan per day. After the local government gave permission to resume work last month, about 70 people started working in his orchard and processing plant.

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To reduce contact with other people, he needs to pick up the workers at 6 am and take them home at 11 pm every day.

He has also received help from the local government, which has accelerated the procedures for issuing certificates to allow his vehicles to pass through inspections and encouraged wholesalers to purchase his products.

"If anyone tells you there are no difficulties right now, it is a lie. We mainly rely on ourselves to overcome such difficulties, so if you ask me whether I am anxious, the answer is yes, but there is no need to overreact－I know there must be a way to get out of this mess," Zhou said.