Eggplants grown on Taicang Qingyuan Farm have become a favorite pick among discerning vegetable shoppers from Shanghai lately.

Zhu Yongqing, the farm's owner, said that they supply 20,000 to 25,000 kilograms of eggplants to Shanghai on a daily basis.

The farm covers 10 hectares of land north of Liuhe River, across from which sits Shanghai's suburban district of Jiading. The land was deserted until Zhu obtained the rights to use the land in early 2014.

After obtaining rights for the land, Zhu began to improve the soil quality by importing organic fertilizers from Norway and applying horse manure to the land under the advice of an expert from Shouguang city, Shandong province. Shouguang is an area renowned for vegetable growing.

So far, the farm has spent more than 600,000 yuan ($93,834) on soil improvement. It also runs regular vegetable picking events.

In the first year of operation, the farm netted 2 million yuan in sales. The farm's main product and source of income is eggplant as of now. Zhu plans to grow more wax gourds, following a successful trial planting phase. Sponge gourds and Makino bottle gourds will also be planted at the farm.

By Liu Sitong and edited by Jacob Hooson