The story of Wanquan's fresh sweet corn serves as a living example of the city's implementation of its 2026 No. 1 Document, which focuses on cultivating and expanding county-level industries that enrich the people. The city's approach, centered on "one county, one product," guides each county to scientifically select one characteristic leading industry and two to three supporting industries for simultaneous cultivation, aiming for significantly expanded scale by 2030.

Foundation of the Chain: Seed Industry Advancement

How far can a single seed travel? While corn cultivation in Wanquan dates to the 1980s, its true transformation stemmed from seed industry independence. Under the coordination of the city's agricultural bureau, "seed industry revitalization" became a key part of agricultural restructuring. The city has now established ten municipal-level research and innovation teams for crops including millet, potato, oat, and corn, with Wanquan fresh corn breeding achieving national leadership.

Hebei Huasui Seed Industry Co., Ltd. stands out as a leader. "In the past, we only grew ordinary sweet corn with low yields and poor market prices," recalled General Manager Ding Shoubin. Founded in 1998, the company spent over a decade screening thousands of germplasm resources and purifying through self-pollination, ultimately developing the 'Wannuo 2000' variety. This variety features jade-white kernels, a soft texture and delicate fragrance after steaming, suitability for both fresh and frozen consumption, a fresh ear yield per mu of 1,200 kilograms (a 20% increase over traditional varieties), excellent disease resistance, and a thin, sweet, glutinous husk, leading to immediate high demand upon release.

Today, 'Wannuo 2000' is the first large-ear white waxy corn variety in China approved across four national ecological zones. Huasui Seed's annual seed production area exceeds 10,000 mu, yielding 2.8 million kilograms of high-quality seeds sold across 29 provinces, accounting for 10% of the national market share. The city now possesses 38 independently developed varieties, maintains over 2,000 mu of permanent seed production bases with an annual output of 490,000 kilograms, ranking first in the province for both breeding level and seed production area.

Expansion and Standardization of Production

Aligned with the 2026 document's goal of steadily improving comprehensive agricultural production capacity and quality, the city is optimizing its agricultural layout and promoting ten major projects, including enhancing the quality and scale of fresh corn. As the primary production zone for this "one county, one product," Wanquan District has fully implemented a standardized "company + base + farmer" contract farming model. Companies provide unified seeds, technical guidance, and procurement, linking over 18,000 scattered farming households.

The district now hosts 20 fresh corn processing enterprises, with a stable planting area of 185,000 mu and an annual processing volume reaching 680 million ears. The industry's output value has consistently exceeded 1 billion yuan, leading Hebei Province in both planting scale and processing capacity. Wanquan has become the nation's only integrated production base for fresh corn, encompassing professional breeding, standardized planting, clustered processing, diversified sales, and comprehensive straw utilization.

From Field to Fork: Ensuring Freshness

The core competitiveness of fresh corn lies in its "freshness." The shorter the time from field to processing, the better the taste. Against the backdrop of the city's initiative to cultivate a tiered system of agricultural processing enterprises—with plans for four "255" tiered cultivation projects in 2026 and aiming to add over ten new leading processing enterprises—Wanquan's leaders are already delivering results.

At Tianqin Agricultural Trade Co., Ltd.'s production facility, the entire process from field picking to fresh-lock processing and cold storage takes just five hours. "We maximize the retention of sugar and moisture," a company representative stated. Tianqin began its e-commerce布局 in 2016 and has since built an 80-person professional online marketing team, consistently ranking at the top of Tmall's corn category sales for years. In 2025, its e-commerce revenue reached over 90 million yuan, accounting for 55% of total sales. "Online sales break geographical barriers, allowing consumers in Guangdong and Zhejiang to enjoy fresh corn from the坝下 region," they noted, with orders coming from across the country and peak daily sales exceeding 100,000 yuan.

Another provincial-level leading enterprise, Hejiu Agricultural Development Group, also shows strong performance. Founded in 2009, it processes 44 million ears of fresh corn annually, with 2025 sales revenue reaching 88.05 million yuan. The group has expanded beyond fresh corn into the whole-grain health food sector. After seven years of R&D, in February 2026, its Yanyu "Crunchy" Noodles and "Crunchy" Rice Grains simultaneously received whole-grain food certification and healthy food certification, making it the only domestic company to achieve dual certification covering both noodle and rice categories.

Hejiu operates 5,000 mu of its own planting base and 14,000 mu of contracted farmland, with products exported to over ten countries including Japan, South Korea, the US, and Russia. During poverty alleviation efforts, Hejiu effectively helped 1,561 impoverished households comprising 3,977 individuals achieve stable脱贫 through contract farming, shareholding dividends, and employment opportunities.

Capitalizing on Proximity to Beijing

Leveraging its location around Beijing, the city has made "supplying clean vegetables to Beijing" a key breakthrough for 2026 agricultural work, setting an annual target of supplying 2.68 million tons of vegetables to Beijing and maintaining a market share above 14% in Beijing's major wholesale markets. Wanquan fresh corn is a vital supplier for this initiative.

In March of this year, Wanquan District held a precision对接会 for特色农产品, attended by 20优质 enterprises from the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The well-known fruit retail chain Pagoda reached cooperation agreements with local companies Jinzhu Agriculture and Jinwo Agriculture to jointly develop a 1,000-mu "Three-Zero" fresh corn planting base, complemented by an 80-mu demonstration field for flavor tomatoes, while promoting ecological循环种植模式 and BLOF soil improvement technology.相关 training has been completed, and base preparation is underway.

Statistics show Wanquan fresh corn is also exported to over 20 countries and regions, with annual export value reaching $10.3 million. "Beijing's market demand for fresh corn is substantial," said a relevant official from the city's agricultural bureau. "After years of development, Wanquan's fresh corn not only meets demand in quantity but its quality also stands up to scrutiny." Tests by the city's food and drug inspection center on 157 batches of 30 national varieties confirmed that fresh corn from Wanquan had average magnesium, strontium, and free amino acid contents 59.6%, 31.0%, and 32.9% higher, respectively, than corn from other regions—data that validates the reputation that "the best-tasting corn is from Wanquan."

Enriching Farmers: The Ultimate Goal

The完善 of the industrial chain ultimately aims to fill farmers' pockets. Amid the city's push for branded development of特色农业, Wanquan fresh corn has become a "golden名片" for Zhangjiakou's特色农业. The city has cultivated 72 regional public agricultural brands and 756 high-quality农产品. "Wanquan Fresh Corn" was rated one of Hebei Province's "Top Ten Regional Public Brands," successfully registered as the "Wanquan Waxy Corn" geographical indication certification trademark, and was included in the Ministry of Agriculture's agricultural brand精品 cultivation plan and the 2025 Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Top 50 Regional Public Brands list.

The industry's vigorous development has increased local incomes. In Wanquan District's Lüjiawan Village, large-scale grower Guo Zhengwei contracted over 900 mu of land and signed a waxy corn order contract with Suikang Company. "In the past, with just a few mu of my own land, I couldn't earn much. Now, contracting land and signing with the company guarantees at least 500-600 yuan per mu," Guo told reporters. The company provides full-process support from planting to harvesting, including统一 supply of plastic mulch and派遣 harvesters at rates cheaper than external services.

Many farmers like Guo are part of Wanquan's fresh corn industrial chain. From seed production, seedling cultivation, planting, and processing to sales and logistics, a single ear of corn strings together an entire employment chain. Data shows the industry drives income growth for over 18,000 farming households in the district, with 241 large-scale growers seeing significant increases, while also creating 1,645 permanent jobs and over 2,400 seasonal employment opportunities.

"Our goal by the end of the '15th Five-Year Plan' period is to expand the fresh corn planting area to 200,000 mu, increase processing capacity to 1 billion ears, and突破 an output value of 1.5 billion yuan," said the agricultural bureau official. "The key is ensuring farmers are not 'left behind' in the industrial chain, enabling them to grow well, sell well, and live well."

In one month, the first batch of fresh corn will be harvested, setting off from Wanquan's fields. It represents not just a modern agricultural industrial chain, but also a vivid demonstration of Zhangjiakou City's implementation of its municipal No. 1 Document and its推进 of comprehensive rural revitalization. Within the city's broader strategy of optimizing planting structures and strengthening the "one county, one product" model, the story of this ear of corn is only the beginning.