Shaanxi's Hutai N°8 ready for harvest

Hutai N°8 grapes are a famous grape variety from Shaanxi province. The grapes are mainly cultivated in Hu county on the Northern slopes of Qinling. "Last week we harvested a small amount of grapes as a test. We estimate that the formal large scale harvest can start this week," says Mrs. Qiang Yaning from Napian Senlin Agricultural Technology. 

Compared to last year, "the production volume of Hutai N°8 was reduced slightly this year. The main reason is that we make a selection of leaves and fruit during the cultivation stage. Thereby we reduced the previous 37,500 kg per hectare to between 22,500 kg and 26,250 kg per hectare. This way we guarantee that the cultivated Hutai N°8 has a lustrous colour and a pure taste. Some bunches of grapes have so many grapes that they are ripe on the outside, but unripe on the inside. Other bunches have too great a difference in berry size. Those bunches are nipped in the bud. In other words, a small amount of the grapes are sacrificed to guarantee the overall quality."

Hutai N°8 grapes were developed by the head of the Grape Research Facility in Xi'an. The agricultural scientist Ji jian performed multiple experiments in Taiping Lingkou. After 8 years of breeding, he came up with a new grape species. This grape variety was a crossbreed of the wild Tailing grape and the Juling grape. The raceme is normally round and firm, the grapes are close together and round. The peel has an intermediate thickness with a purple-dark or purple-red hue. The taste is sweet and sour. Mrs. Qiang says that "Hutai N°8 is the grape most loved by Shaanxi peple. When Hutai N°8 goes on sale, the sales volumes for other grape varieties in Shaanxi drops significantly."

Hutai N°8 grapes are a mid-to-late season variety. Only now are they going on sale in small quantities. Many famous grape varieties produced in China look similar to Hutai N°8 grapes. But the taste is totally different. From the outside, a ripe Hutai N°8 grape has a deep dark purple colour with the grapes knit tightly together in the raceme. The grapes are full and round, but not too big. If they are very big, it's a different variety. Secondly, Hutai N°8 grapes keep most of their firmness under high temperatures. Grapes of other varieties would go soft and leak juice. So the colour may be the same, but the feeling is different. What's more, if the peel of the grapes is hard to break and you see a lot of juice coming out with soft fruit flesh, than it's definitely not Hutai N°8. In terms of taste, Hutai N°8 is right between sweet and sour with a subtle but distinct aroma of roses and a very profound base around. 

"Currently we mainly sell the Hutai N°8 grapes through wholesale and large supermarkets. We don't sell much online. In wholesale, we already reach the markets of Beijing, Shanghai, Nanning and Canton. This year we plan to try even more different markets like Xiamen, Chongqing and Chengdu. In supermarkets, we cooperated with Wingmao last year. Hutai N°8 grapes reached a lot of high-end supermarkets. When the season was finished, we got a lot of demands and tips from the customers about sweetness, colour and weight of the individual grapes. Then we standardised our product based on those customer demands. From this year onward, we start standardised breeding and cultivation. This is why we reduced our production volume and increased the overall quality. At the same time, we hope that we can cooperate with more online shopping platforms to promote Hutai N°8 grapes to the final consumers."

 Mrs. Qiang (left) guiding visitors through the orchards

Mrs. Qiang says that "Napian Senlin has a young team. We firmly believe that Hutai N°8 becomes the representative of Chinese grapes. Certainly it can lay bare the inadequacies in Chilean cherries and cast a shadow over Australian red grapes. Hutai N°8 grapes can take on the world." 

 
Napian Senlin Agricultural Technology in Xi'an

The company mainly focusses on the exquisite local product from Hu county, Hutai N°8 grapes. The grapes are sold throughout China, also in Taiwan. The company now owns 33 hectares of cultivation ground. In contractual cooperation with eight families it has 200 hectares. Starting from this year, the company plans to build a packaging center for the Hutai N°8 to meet market demands. The center plans to integrate the cultivation base, packaging, storage, transport and sales into a main chain. This will realise a seamless connection between production and sales on the market. Currently we are already up to the neck in pre-orders. Hutai N°8 is already found at every big market in China.

For more information about Hutai N°8, 

Mrs. Qiang Yaning

Telephone: (+86) 181 8917 4577 & (+86) 029-88858849
Email: 114735027@qq.com