Beijing Leili rated high-quality agricultural international trade development base

Several days ago, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs organized an evaluation and identification of a high-quality agricultural international trade development base, with Beijing Leili Marine Bioindustry (Leili) being endorsed for 2022. 

The endorsement means that after 23 years of international market development, Leili has developed into a prime agricultural foreign trade entity with the ″five high″ features, which are high industry concentration, high production standards, high export-added value, high brand recognition and high service level, providing support to high-quality agricultural development. In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs launched an initiative to  develop a high-quality agricultural international trade base, which officially kicked off in April 2021 and is currently running, with the aim of supporting high-quality agricultural development and high-quality trade development to achieve rural revitalization and accelerate China’s agricultural and rural modernization.

Picture 1: Leili’s brand products delivered to growers in Colombia, Nicaragua, South Korea, Malaysia, Romania, Bulgaria, Peru, Costa Rica, Malaysia and Ukraine.

In 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs endorsed 116 international trade bases, where Leili has used its proprietary algae biostimulant technology and product to have provided 80 countries with sustainable new application technologies and solutions over the past 23 years. In the meantime, Leili’s ecosystem is being utilized to help customers integrate their downstream industries to cope with the issues of weather, marketing, labor cost rises and energy challenges, as well as stricter demands from consumers. 

Key technologies and solutions are constantly evolved, providing farmers with increased earnings

Technological advancement is the most important foundation for improving agricultural productivity. Since developing China’s first algae biostimulant in 1998, Leili has focused on global cutting-edge agricultural technology through a global vision, and has released five rounds of updates for biostimulant and biofertilizer products, being supported by its good command of the processes used in full algae enzymatic hydrolysis, alginate oligosaccharides and dual enzymatic hydrolysis, which are all key algae biostimulant technologies. The company’s portfolio consists of five categories of products, being seaweed bioactive extracts and derivatives, seaweed bioorganic compound fertilizers, mineral nutrient and synergist, natural organic biochemical products and novel microbial agents. 

Picture 2: Malaysian farmers growing melons by applying Leili crop solutions

Picture 3: Colombian grapes treated with Leili’s Alga600 to solve coloring problems

Picture 4: Field trial in a Colombian corn field, highlighting the outstanding effect of Alga600+Hai Bu No.1 solution.

Leili created the world’s first concept of ″balanced agriculture,″ which assists farmers in many countries to solve the problems related to sustainable agricultural development, as well as to tackle the problems facing cost-effective farming under extreme weather. In particular, the adoption of modern technology and management, including modern biotechnologies, resource management and industry chain services, can fully meet the requirements for controlling the costs of production and labor, improving the quality of agricultural products, and reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers. 

Figure 5: Leili’s balanced nutrients increase ginseng yields in South Korea 

Taking South Korea as an example, labor costs are high in the country, where large farms and agricultural cooperatives are demanding transformation towards ecological agriculture, which does not allow artificial chemicals to be added to products. Therefore, Leili’s balanced nutritional granular fertilizers, which have been accepted by the agricultural associations of the South Korean Ministry of Agriculture, becoming a substitute for traditional composting. Through continuous trials, demonstrations and promotions, Leili’s balanced nutrients are recognized by Korean farmers and considered excellent soil conditioners.

Figure 6-7: Leili’s country manager meeting with ginseng growers

Supported by China’s stable supply chain, 400 tons of Leili’s balanced nutrients are delivered to South Korea by sea for each plantation season. These balanced nutrients are used on ginseng, onion, apple, pear and pepper, greatly reducing labor costs for farmers, as composting that originally takes one man-week is now shortened to one man-day using Leili’s solutions based on fertilizer applicator. At the same time, Korean farmers have noticed that over three years, ginseng treated with Leili’s nutrients can grow to the size of 5-year-old ginseng, while per unit yield increased by 15-20%.

Figure 8-9: Application of Leili’s crop solutions enables the intensification of blueberry harvesting in Peru, while reducing management costs

In Peru, the application of Leili’s innovative solutions has enabled Peruvian blueberry harvesting to be more intensive, therefore, reducing the management cost caused by harvesting in different periods.

Leili’s innovative solutions has also been successfully used on field crops in Eastern Europe and CIS, where Russia is suffering from year-round drought, with a high temperature difference between day and night. Such weather conditions affect the yield and quality of spring wheat, which does not comply with the standards of local planting companies. At this point, Leili’s innovative solutions not only solves the problem of drought to ensure higher yields, but they also increase wheat gluten from 11% to 15.62%. Currently, Russian farmers call Leili’s innovative crop solutions the ″power of life.″ So far, 5 million hectares of crop land across 3,000 farms have been treated with Leili’s crop solutions, solving the problems facing plantations worldwide.

Resources consolidated to improve service and upgrade value chain and business model

Figure 10: Leili’s cooperation partner providing growers with field services 

Leili’s concept of ″balanced agriculture″ is based on the idea of solving agricultural problems to safeguard the ″food system,″ through utilizing the comparative advantage of agricultural products. Leili has, in succession, established its ″balancing service″ work team and services platform in the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia, having continuously expanded its localized ″3 in 1″ technical service, which focuses on the issues facing the planting of crops. In this regard, Leili’s technical services have facilitated three major actions, which are ″field demonstration, farmer exchange and model establishment.″ Through these actions, Leili is able to solve the problems of rice lodging and yield loss, durian nutritional imbalance and nematode damage.

Picture 11-13: Leili’s work team in Peru delivering technical lectures to growers

To meet the requirements of Peruvian farms for exporting high-value economic crops and after nearly five years of research and field trials, in cooperation with competent third-party laboratories, Leili’s work team has hand-carried soil rapid detection equipment, fruit sugar concentration detectors and chlorophyll meters to monitor field applications in favor of growers. Based on subsequent data, Leili makes constant adjustments to its solutions. The data and images collected from crop fields are made into videos and placed on the service platform as learning tools and references for farmers. Every week, Leili’s work team and local service platform invite authoritative experts to give lectures on key planting techniques and management skills. Today, the Alga600+innovative crop solution has been applied widely to major export crops, such as avocado, mango, citrus, lemon, blueberry and table grape, making Leili’s products well known in the Peruvian market. Leili’s balanced agricultural solutions not only improve quality and yield, but they more importantly ensure a sustained high yield, especially under stress conditions, to protect framers from losses. Its continuous application also significantly improves the resistance of crops to diseases, helping to reduce the costs of pesticide and labor, as well as  pesticide damage to farmers’ health and the environment.

Figure 14-17: Leili’s crop solutions being increasingly in demand for use on Albanian facility tomato

In Albania, the continuous cropping of facility tomato led to a drop in soil fertility and the frequent occurrences of soil-borne diseases, such as root-knot nematodes. Leili’s crop immunity enhancer, SoftGuard, effectively counters nematodes, and its immediate effect has made it a success at its first attempt to enter the Albanian market. It can be applied more than five times in one season, making it a growing necessity for farming. 

Due to the impact of COVID-19, the fruit and vegetable industry has faced many challenges, such as higher costs of production and logistics and longer transportation times. In Italy, the application of Alga600 can improve the quality and post-harvest freshness of soilless fresh cut flowers and premium organic vegetables, extending shelf life by 3 to 5 days. For Yangfeng crispy persimmon produced in China, shelf life can be extended by 8 to 10 days, greatly relieving shipping pressures.

Figure 18: Ongoing promotion of Leili’s crop solutions for use on Indonesian rice

Currently, there is still a great potential for the growth of global agricultural production. If there is a way to increase agricultural productivity in countries with potential for yield increases, global food production will be significantly improved. In response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, Leili has worked with its major destination countries to draft agricultural productivity improvement initiatives, leading to the launch of Leili’s balanced agricultural rice growth program in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Cambodia.

Figure 19-21: Leili’s crop solutions facilitating increase in rice production in Malaysia

Through ″farmer side″ demonstrations, technical meetings and the rapid response of Leili’s balanced agricultural service center, the company’s service area has covered nearly 100,000 hectares of crop fields, having achieved the goals of high rice yields, lower pesticide use and the minimal occurrence of diseases. Accordingly, rice yields increased by 12%, helping increase rice production in Belt and Road countries by nearly 200,000 tons.

Figure 22: Leili providing crop solutions to the ″durian farmer master,″ as title given by the Malaysian government

Figure 23: Malaysian farmers growing chili seedlings using Leili’s crop solutions 

Over 20 years of overseas business practices, Leili has created a high-level agricultural service team. To continue strengthening connectivity and cooperation, Leili’s work team and partners from Belt and Road service platforms have aimed to maintain the ″hard connection″ of products and improve field operation techniques, as well as ensure the ″soft connection″ of the provision of fair-priced high-quality materials and fertilization tools. Leili’s overseas work team has served the ″durian farmer master,″ a title given by by the Malaysian government, and the production of low-residue vegetables for export to Singapore. The services provided by Leili have reduced the use of fertilizers and pesticides, while improving yield and quality. Malaysia’s Musang King is successfully marketed and sold on Pagoda, which is greatly appreciated by durian lovers.

To shape Leili’s comprehensive strength to serve community 

Picture 24: Leili launching L-organic Cereals & Beans Global Program at the Global Annual Partner Meeting 

Leili believes that global agricultural development should be undertaken to ensure international food security, ecological security and sustainable agriculture. In 2019, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary celebration of international market development, Leili, together with representatives from Russia, Ukraine, Peru and Romania, launched the L-organic Cereals & Beans Global Program.

Figure 25: Bulgarian wheat field demonstration 

The L-organic Cereals & Beans Global Program is a bilateral or multilateral program launched by Beijing Leili Group to provide technical support and promote industry chain integration for developing countries and regions, which are suitable for organic grain plantation. As the initiator and promoter of the program, in addition to providing a series of technical support and resources, Beijing Leili Group works closely with its partners as a bridge different countries for connecting crop cultivation, promoting dialogue, and providing platforms and frameworks for cooperation. These measures include sharing skill, knowledge and successful initiatives in the industry sectors of agricultural development and combatting climate change, which will significantly enhance food security, alleviate poverty, and improve the sustainable management of natural resources.

Picture 26: Leili’s international launch of 100 Superb Fruits Program in Berlin, Germany

In light of consumers’ rising demand for high-quality fruits, Leili launched the Global 100 Superb Fruits Program in Chengdu, China, in November 2018 and Berlin, Germany, in February 2019, backed up by its unique advantages in production over the past 20 years. The launch of program was supported by the China High-Quality Agricultural Product Development & Service Association, as well as its strategic partnership with the Pagoda Group and iFresh, which has received positive responses from more than 100 fruit industry institutions and enterprises from both home and abroad.

Figure 27: Leili’s crop solutions caring for Malaysian dragon fruit 

The Global Launch of 100 Superb Fruits Program aims to improve quality, increase grower’s earnings and ensure consumer health via collaborations with high-quality fruit plantation bases, services providers, buyers, industry media and associations both at home and abroad, to build standardized orchards, improve fruit quality and create famous fruit brands, support the scale-up and sustainable development of 100 fruit brands, and realize the value of famous and excellent fruit brands.

Click on the image to get Leili’s fruit and vegetable apk

Currently, more than 20 famous fruit brands built by Leili have been registered with Leili’s fruit and vegetable apk, which is Leili’s extended industry chain service to encourage sales and exports under the Global 100 Superb Fruits Program. The e-commerce platform provides Leili’s balanced agriculture-associated members with opportunities for the online selling of agricultural products, accompanied by interesting stories of planting and the sharing experiences in the production of high-quality fruits and vegetables. The platform serves as consumers, promoting Leili’s corporate mission of ″extracting marine essence and benefiting human health.″

Figure 28: Malaysian Musang King regarded by consumers as ″seafood-like durian,″ which is plump and tasty with a distinctive flavor

In the future, Leili will enable key destination countries to make continuous improvements to the quality of their mai  crops via the use of Leili’s crop solutions; recommend its fruit and vegetable platform to international partners and distributors; incubate more high-quality agricultural products, which will be covered by Leili’s ″balanced agriculture″ solutions in key destination countries, and facilitate the registration of its fruit and vegetable platform.

This year and next year, Leili will continue to optimize its product structure; strengthen its international certification and recognition, as well as its overseas brand marketing; continue developing its global application-oriented support and service platform for promoting its balanced agricultural solutions targeting regional crops; promoting the continuous growth of its products and solutions in the international market through platform-based services; and maintaining its market share in exporting Chinese seaweed fertilizers and agricultural seaweed biostimulants. Leili is prepared to further expand its overseas localization team and service platform, to form regional technical support centers for promoting its vision of balanced agriculture in Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, with the aim of supporting and guiding regional agricultural farmers in the effective and efficient application of its crop solutions.

In all major regions, Leili will create a networked crop-centric connectivity plantation, based on its headquarter, its regional local team, key employees of partners, regional crop experts, third-party institutions and planting experts, to advance its balanced agriculture-oriented fruit and vegetable platform, field crop platform and specialty crop platform, which are backed up by Leili’s seaweed biostimulants and plant nutrient products. Therefore, Leili’s market influence, brand image and market share are significantly enhanced in the regional agricultural planting industry.

Supported by its high-quality agricultural international trade development base, Leili will speed up the process of upgrading, enhance its international competitiveness, create an independent international brand image, and integrate its home and international markets to become a model for Chinese enterprises in this industry sector.