Off-season peas, no buyers

With the off-season peas in Yunnan province near Dali, every day 16 to 17 tonnes of peas go on sale. But stores are not as eager to buy as before. "If the peas aren't consumed, the loss for the farmers will be huge," says Mr. Yang, a pea farmer in Bingchuan.

The climate and ecology are somewhat primitive, but the peas produced here are of good quality. "Off-season peas weren't cultivated often in the past, so they were easy to sell. Based on the quality, the price fluctuated between 5 RMB and 8 RMB. But this year, everybody started cultivating off-season peas. In Bingchuan farmers expanded the cultivation area too. Prices are now at 2 RMB for 500gr. That is already lower than the prime cost, but still the peas are difficult to sell."

Mr. Yang explains that, "at home we have 0,6 hectares for the cultivation of peas. 0,06 hectares yields 1 ton of peas. But the cultivation area of the whole village combined is some 667 hectares. We use crop rotation, so when this crop is harvested, we start planting the second crop. We can sell until September. The peas have to be harvested when they are ripe, otherwise they can only serve as animal fodder. The village also has no cooled storehouses or other ways to keep the peas fresh. So the peas can only be preserved for two days after the harvest. There is no factory for processing, but the farmers are able to process the peas themselves. But even after processing, selling the peas is still difficult."

Without fixed sales channels, the expansion of the cultivation area didn't lead to more profit. In fact it is the other way around. "Although these are off-season peas and there isn't much competition, these farmers aren't skillful when it comes to sales. If we can further process the peas or find sales channels, we can provide peas of outstanding quality," says Mr. Yang.

For more information about Dali Bingchuan off-season peas,

Mr. yang

Bingchuan pea cultivator

Telephoneï¼š 15125253228