A cornfield in Mengzhe Town, Menghai County, basks in the sunlight of the 21st parallel north. Wang Rui, General Manager of Xishuangbanna Taiding Runchen Agriculture Co., Ltd., squats at the edge of the field, breaking open a freshly picked ear of small glutinous corn. Within four hours, these cobs must be sorted, vacuum-packed, sterilized at high temperatures, and loaded onto trucks bound for distant markets.

Wang Rui repeatedly emphasizes this critical four-hour window. "The entire process from picking to processing must be compressed within four hours." This seemingly "extreme" time constraint reflects a fundamental shift in industrial logic. Once a humble "local specialty" grown and consumed around villagers' homes, or at best a souvenir for tourists, small glutinous corn has now become part of a modern agricultural system built on standards, efficiency, and cold-chain logistics. It has journeyed across oceans to grace supermarket shelves in countries like Germany, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates.

Inside the production facility, a fresh, sweet aroma fills the air. Corn harvested just before dawn moves along assembly lines for sorting, vacuum packaging, high-temperature sterilization, humidity control, inspection, and final packing. Wang Rui, standing in the quality control area, picks up a few ears: "Those too dark in color or with overly mature kernels won't do. Ones that are too tender have only skin and no flesh. Only ears with neatly arranged, plump kernels can enter the market."

Several years ago, as this corn variety began gaining market recognition, it hit a bottleneck. Outdated equipment and inefficient management led to inconsistent quality control and lagging production capacity. Around this time, a group from Shanghai was searching for ways to foster positive change in Xishuangbanna.

In 2022, Shanghai officials assisting Yunnan's development visited rural areas to survey local specialty agricultural products. Invited by a farmer into their home, they tasted freshly boiled small glutinous corn. Those present recall the corn being "small in size, yet exceptionally soft, sticky, with high sweetness and a rich aroma." At that stage, the variety was largely still in a subsistence-farming phase. Compared to traditional crops like tea and coffee, small glutinous corn clearly had a broader potential consumer base.

The officials decided to introduce Shanghai's experience in modern agricultural development to Xishuangbanna, focusing their initial efforts on Menghai County, where cultivation was relatively concentrated. The first step was to cultivate a leading enterprise. Wang Rui, with his experience and vision, quickly came to their attention.

Shanghai's aid funds were injected into the enterprise. In collaboration with the local village committee, a standardized factory was built on collectively-owned land, integrating washing, sterilization, steaming, packaging, and boxing into one streamlined process. The factory's ownership belongs to the village collective, with the company leasing it and paying operational funds to the committee.

"The 'factory-in-front, garden-in-back' model significantly shortens the supply chain," Wang Rui explains. "It ensures fresh, controllable raw materials and stable quality and taste, making full-process quality traceability easier to implement." With the infusion of Shanghai's support funds, the company's challenges were resolved. As production capacity surged, the Shanghai-Yunnan collaboration opened a direct channel from the fields to dining tables in Shanghai.

Over the past three years, over 100 enterprises from Xishuangbanna have successfully been listed on Shanghai's "Hundred Counties, Hundred Products" platform. At the 7th Shanghai Counterpart Region Specialty Products Exhibition, several hundred cases of small glutinous corn brought by a Menghai County enterprise sold out in less than half a day, securing approximately 400,000 yuan in intended orders.

The collaboration also introduced a sophisticated distribution mechanism. Songjiang District's Shihudang Town in Shanghai partnered with Menghai County's Meng'a Town for targeted assistance. Xishuangbanna adeptly adapted Songjiang's "Five Golds" income distribution model. The original "Five Golds" referred to rent, wages, taxes, dividends, and public welfare funds. Considering that "dividends" were less familiar to local villagers, Meng'a Town tailored the model, renaming it a "development fund" to create a more accessible system: rent is the income paid by the enterprise to the village collective for leasing the factory; wages are paid to villagers for local employment; taxes are paid by the leading enterprise according to law; the development fund is used for upgrading the village collective's industries; and public welfare funds are invested in infrastructure, education, and other public services.

Simultaneously, the assistance team introduced the concept of "Three Concentrations": concentrating funds in advantageous areas, concentrating revenue at the county/township level platform, and concentrating distribution towards less developed villages. Gasai Village, with favorable conditions, received focused support, allowing its corn industry to rapidly become a leader. Revenues like rent are pooled into the town-level platform. During distribution, while ensuring the project's host village receives a certain share, the focus tilts towards supporting weaker villages, helping address urgent needs like infrastructure, thereby fostering shared prosperity across the entire town.

This institutional innovation has effectively broadened the reach of assistance benefits and amplified the comprehensive impact of the Shanghai-Yunnan collaboration.

More encouragingly, this "little corn" is now accelerating its entry into international markets. Taking Meng'a Town as an example, its small glutinous corn export business officially launched in September 2025. Partnering with foreign trade companies, it selects two premium varieties—small flower glutinous and thumb corn—for export from Shanghai and Shenzhen ports to the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and other countries. By January 2026, three batches totaling 20 tons had been successfully exported, generating an output value of approximately 400,000 yuan. The export price is about 20% higher than the domestic market price, significantly boosting industrial profitability.

Transforming resource advantages into development advantages, enabling Shanghai residents to enjoy Xishuangbanna's high-quality agricultural specialties, and allowing Xishuangbanna's people to share in the income gains from consumption-based assistance—this has remained the core focus of Shanghai's East-West collaboration work.

In just a few years, small glutinous corn has become a pillar product of Xishuangbanna's agriculture. In 2025, the prefecture's planting area for this corn exceeded 200,000 mu (over 13,000 hectares), with the entire industry chain's output value surpassing 5 billion yuan. Shanghai's assistance is building consumption platforms for the collaboration, introducing Yunnan's fine products to countless households in Shanghai.

Once a corn variety simply boiled and eaten in Dai bamboo houses, it now carries the labels of "Dai heritage" and "tropical rainforest genes" into the view of global consumers.