MorgenLand Project

Inner Mongolia goji berries

Wang Yongsheng runs two organic farms at a total of 50 hectares of land with his two daughters. His life is defined by his two major passions: Organic farming and goji berries.

The way in which Mr. Wang has devel-oped as a business man and the fact that he is an active visionary for envi-ronmental protection in his home country of China is unusual.

Both of Mr. Wang’s farms are situated in Inner Mongolia. Inner Mongolia is an autonomous area of the People’s Republic of China and should not be confused with the Independent State of Mongolia which permanently split from China in

1921. However, the north of “Inner Mongolia” and “Mongolia” is connected by a long, shared border.

The climate in this part of Inner Mongolia is temperate continental with long cold winters and short hot summers, meaning it is an ideal natural location for goji berries. The amount of rainfall contin-ually reduces from the south east to the north west. There are deserts located in the west of Inner Mongolia.

F R O M T H E F I E L D T O T H E S H O P S H E L F » » » E V E R Y T H I N G F R O M O N E S O U R C E !

The small goji fruits, which grow on deciduous bushes, are harvested in summer and autumn and are very difficult to pick. If they are not cooked, freeze-dried or processed into juice, they are dried in the sun. The leaves of the young plants are also eaten as leafy vegetables.

MorgenLand Project

Inner Mongolia goji berries

Goji berry is the English term for the Lycium barbarum and Lycium chinense. They are also known as boxthorn, Chinese wolfberries or wolf-berry. In China they are called Níngxia gouqi. Goji berries are an integral part of Chinese cooking and also a vital part of traditional Chinese medicine.

Mr. Wang specialised in the sun and freeze drying of goji berries. A new processing plant was put into operation on 16th July 2014. On these days, Kees Maris and Arzu Koral Maris were also present as representatives of MorgenLand/EgeSun.

DE-ÖKO-001

The Lycium barbarum in Thomés Flora of 1885.

The organic goji berries

are dried on boards.

Processing Mr. Wang’s sun-dried organic goji berries:The fruits are harvested by hand between 15th July and 30th August and then dried on boards. The first drying phase takes 4 to 5 days.

Afterwards, leaves and foreign bodies are blown off with a blower. A second sun-drying phase of 3 to 4 days then ensues. The dried goji berries are then stored in bags labelled by batch. If a delivery is to be made, these goji berry batches are sorted in the new pro-cessing plant by size and colour. Before they are filled in boxes, they are passed through a metal detector. Analyses (residue analyses and microbiological analyses) of these num-bered batches are carried out in an accredited laboratory (Euro fins) before loading, and sent to us for checking. The goods are only loaded when they have been approved based on these analyses.

Cultivation and processing are certified by Ecocert in line with the EU organic regula-tions, and the processing facility also has HACCP certification.

Employees are paid a minimum wage through-out the whole year, child labour is not permitted.

ML-Ed.: “Why does MorgenLand trade organic goji berries from China?”

Arzu: “Ever since the properties of goji berries have become well-known, they have been sub-ject to increasing demand, especially in the organic sector. China is one of the main culti-vation countries. Goji berries are an important cooking ingredient here, which is why they are always traditionally cultivated here.”

ML-Ed.: “But China doesn’t exactly have the best reputation in terms of organic products!”

Arzu: “Yes, there are a few ‘risk countries’ for which organic certification alone does not suffice, but this, however, is MorgenLand’s greatest strength – We have personal rela-tionships with farmers and processors in the cultivation countries and are able to assess the on site conditions ourselves. We provide active support to these projects and of course form solid agreements regarding cultivation, processing and quality. Personal contact is an integral part of this.”

Interview with Kees Maris, Project Manager and Arzu Koral Maris, buyer at MorgenLand.

Kees Maris, Wang Yongsheng and Arzu Koral Maris

MorgenLand Project

Inner Mongolia goji berriesML-Ed.: “How did you get to know Mr. Wang?”

Kees: “Along with the supervision of the existing MorgenLand projects in Sri Lanka, Burkina Faso and Turkey, my job is also to find new projects which are of interest to MorgenLand. This is an exciting job. After having been active in this field for so many years, we have acquired a wide network of contacts. Sometimes we are also approached.”

ML-Ed.: “And how does this work, exactly?”

Kees: “Well, we got to know Mr. Wang more than four years ago. He’s really behind organic farming and is actively promoting environ-mental protection, despite the fact that local conditions relating to this are not always straightforward. We got to know each other and to respect each others’ views. Mr. Wang is a man with vision, and this just worked for us. We finally agreed upon a long-term part-nership and therefore a proper partnership, and set the quality parameters. It is relatively unusual for an organic farmer in China to work directly with a processor in Europe.”

ML-Ed.: “And you visited Mr. Wang in July?”

Kees: “Yes, we have visited him a few times over the last few years in order to support him in organic farming with our expertise. During our last visit in May, he invited us to

the opening of his new processing plant, and Arzu and I then flew over in July. It was a real extravaganza with several visitors, including official representatives from the region.”

Arzu: “And Kees was asked to make a speech!”

Kees: “I was happy to do that. If you are pre-sented with the opportunity to talk about organic farming and partnership in such a sphere, you can emphasise how important both really are. There was then also a large firework display, during the bright sunshine of the day!”

ML-Ed.: “Thank you for the interview!”

EgeSun GmbHAn der Autobahn 28 D-28876 Oyten Germany Tel. +49 4207 6884 - 60 Fax +49 4207 6884 - 61www.morgenland.bio

Vers

ion

08/2

016

DE-ÖKO-001Kees Maris assesses the on site conditions himself.

The cultivation and processing of the goji berries is certified by Ecocert in line with EU organic regulations.