Ma Weihua, while packing and dispatching goods, also does not forget to promote Donghai agricultural products through short videos. Photo by Wu Qiong. Journalists from this newspaper, Wu Qiong. In the afternoon of October 4th, around 5 p.m., the reporter walked into the factory area of Ma Dajie Food Co., Ltd. in Caopu Village, Tuofeng Township, Donghai County. In front of the factory building, a cold-chain vehicle fully loaded with Donghai specialty agricultural products was ready to depart. Ma Weihua, the founder of Lianyungang Ma Dajie Food Co., Ltd., was carefully counting and arranging the goods to be shipped together with workers. This vehicle of cold-chain supplies, filled with the local treasures of Donghai, would travel over 1,700 kilometers and arrive in Shenzhen in the early morning of the 6th. This cold-chain agricultural assistance channel was built on deep hometown ties. Shenzhen gathers many talents of Donghai origin, including fellow townspeople engaged in the catering business. Through this channel, agricultural products such as Donghai local honey sweet potatoes, free-range grass roosters, seasonal tomatoes, omega-balanced nutritional eggs, specialty small fried dough twists, black peanuts, and fruit radishes continuously leave rural northern Jiangsu and reach end markets in the south. From initial annual sales of one to two million yuan to now exceeding ten million yuan, the market visibility and influence of Donghai's high-quality agricultural products have continued to rise. "On the basis of traditional seasonal agricultural products, we have also added specialty categories available year-round, such as reed-leaf zongzi and pure fresh corn kernels without ice glaze," Ma Weihua said. To better adapt to market demand and increase the added value of agricultural products, she has been optimizing the product mix. For Donghai's core specialty, honey sweet potatoes, she established a refined grading and utilization system to achieve zero waste across all agricultural product categories and maximize value: sweet potatoes of about three liang are specially supplied to central kitchens for steaming and cooking, premium sweet potatoes of half a jin are made into gift boxes for high-end gift channels, large and irregular fruits of one jin or more are processed into dried sweet potato, and substandard fruits that do not meet export standards are also put into pet feed trials, so that every field output can be fully utilized. In Ma Weihua's view, agricultural product brokers in the new era are not just middlemen who buy and sell, but "guides" who drive farmers to standardize planting and help local treasures enter the market. She proposed the concept of "plant 1,000 mu well and drive 100,000 mu," promoting cooperation between large growers in Shanzuokou Town and research platforms such as the Sweet Potato Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and Lianyungang Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Through soil testing, crops suitable for local conditions are matched, virus-free high-quality seedlings are uniformly adopted, planting records are standardized and implemented, and help is provided for bases to obtain green certification and famous, special, excellent, and new certification. As an agricultural product broker, Ma Weihua, who has worked deeply in rural areas for more than 20 years, admitted that changing traditional farmers' old habits of mixed packing of large and small fruits and non-standard planting and selling is a long and cumbersome process. Previously, a batch of honey sweet potato samples sent to Shenzhen was of excellent quality, but during large-volume shipment, it was rejected by merchants because farmers sorted irregularly and the sizes were uneven. To protect the reputation of Donghai agricultural products, Ma Weihua immediately organized personnel on site to re-sort and ship the goods. After that, whenever she had time, she traveled through fields and ridges, explaining market standards face to face to farmers and teaching sorting techniques hand by hand, gradually reversing farmers' traditional thinking about planting and selling. Standardized planting and standardized sorting have freed local agricultural goods from the dilemma of "low-price bulk packaging" and achieved high quality at high prices. At the same time, she revitalized local reed-leaf resources, driving dozens of villagers to engage in reed leaf picking and zongzi wrapping, breaking the seasonal limitation that zongzi sell mainly during the Dragon Boat Festival and achieving stable year-round export sales, allowing idle local resources to continuously transform into income growth for farmers. Differences in dietary tastes and cooking methods between north and south are another barrier to exporting agricultural products. To help Donghai agricultural goods truly "retain reputation and open markets," Ma Weihua went many times to the kitchens of Shenzhen restaurants to demonstrate on site how to handle and cook Donghai ingredients, teaching southern chefs hand by hand how to use local agricultural products well and opening the last link in production-sales coordination. While serving well as an agricultural product broker, Ma Weihua also strengthened the local food industry, empowering agricultural products with deep processing. The company's flagship product, crystal pork knuckle, undergoes 48 hours of refined craftsmanship, holds two national patents, and has won world record certification. It is currently the defatted pork product with the lowest fat content in the world. To adapt to different market demands, while selecting domestic pork knuckles as raw materials, the company also introduces small knuckles from Spain, the Netherlands, and Germany to fit small-portion household consumption scenarios. At present, a specialty stall for tiger-skin pork knuckle rice bowls has entered the campus of Lianyungang Technical Secondary School. The next step will focus on opening the canteen market of more than 40 schools in Shenzhen, bringing Donghai cuisine into southern campuses. The company also continues to enrich its dish production line, turning Lianyungang's local small seafood into standardized packaged "marinated small seafood," which has become a popular livestreaming sales product, and has also innovatively developed specialty dishes such as octopus dumplings and octopus chili sauce. Based in Donghai and looking across the province, Ma Weihua has a clear industrial development plan. "I want to use Donghai as a model to polish a mature model of standardized county-level agricultural product operations, branded promotion, and all-channel sales," she said. She hopes to rely on the regional public brand "Su Nong You Pin," build standardized product inventories based on a complete agricultural product certification system, make two-way efforts online and offline, and replicate and promote mature experience to counties across the province. At the same time, leveraging Jiangsu's counterpart cooperation platform, she aims to export Jiangsu's agricultural product production and sales operation experience, help cross-regional agricultural product circulation, and drive income growth for farmers in a wider range. As the founding president of the Donghai County Agricultural Products Industry Chamber of Commerce, the warm-hearted "Sister Ma" is committed to bringing together local agricultural entities to develop as a group and jointly enter the market. She innovatively created the cultural and creative customization project "Local Food in Stories," writing original poetry and prose for local agricultural products and customizing specialty gift boxes, giving local products cultural connotations. Under her leadership, the sheet jelly of Wangxiaobu Village bid farewell to scattered street vending, upgraded to premium gift box packaging and all-domain online sales, with annual sales exceeding one million yuan, becoming a local model of "one village, one product" enriching the people. "To do one thing well, without passion you cannot persist, without vision you cannot grow big, and without expertise you cannot do it well." This is Ma Weihua's most genuine reflection after taking root in rural areas and deeply cultivating agricultural assistance for many years. As night grew darker, the cold-chain vehicle loaded with Donghai treasures slowly drove out of the factory area, its headlights piercing the night and heading south all the way. Carrying the fragrance of soil and the hopes of farmers, Donghai agricultural goods will appear on Shenzhen dining tables on time, continuing the warm story of a grassroots agricultural product broker connecting fields and markets and protecting harvest and people's livelihood.