Fruit-producing city hails sweet success
While satisfying domestic demand, fruits produced in the city of Yuncheng have been exported to overseas markets in recent years, helping the top fruit producer in Shanxi province earn international recognition.
Yuncheng-produced fruits began to vigorously expand in the international market in 2015. Since then, the number of export destinations has increased from 46 to 68 countries and regions and the export volume has grown from 117,000 metric tons to 293,000 tons at present.
According to Ding Xiaoqiang, Party secretary of the city, Yuncheng is one of the important fruit production bases not only in Shanxi but in China. It boasts 116,000 hectares of fruit farms, with an annual output of about 6 million tons in recent years.
“I should tell you the fact that of every 10 apples produced in Shanxi, seven are from Yuncheng,” Ding said at the sixth Shanxi (Yuncheng) International Fruits Expo on Oct 15. “The city also accounts for 10 percent of China’s output of apples.”
Pinglu, a county administered by Yuncheng, is the city’s major export base for apples.
“Our company has nearly 7,000 hectares of apple orchards dedicated to exports, with an annual export volume of more than 10,000 tons,” said Zhao Hailiang, an executive at local enterprise Jintong Fruit. “Our apples have been exported to more than 10 countries and regions including the United States, the Philippines and Bangladesh.”
The executive noted that the company is a rural farming cooperative with local farmers as stakeholders. “So the booming exports of the company have benefited more than 2,700 rural households.”
Zhao said export was almost impossible in the past when the farms were operated by individual farmers, who lacked the channels for exports and the ability to improve product quality according to international standards.
“Now with the help of farming cooperatives, farmers have training opportunities to master better skills,” Zhao said. “Companies like Jintong can mobilize all their resources to expand in international markets and improve product quality through standardized management and continuous investment in research and development.”
The Yuncheng International Fruits Expo attracted the participation of a number of overseas business representatives and foreign diplomats, who praised the quality of Yuncheng’s fruits.
Mohamed Chadi Blout, first secretary at the Tunisian embassy in China, attended the expo and had a tour of local apple orchards. He said he was impressed with Yuncheng’s practice of using the latest technologies to improve both the quantity and quality of fruits.
“The fruit industry in Yuncheng has reached a very high level in terms of technology and operation,” Blout said. “I believe the industry here has a very bright future.”
The city of Yuncheng is a leading agricultural production base in Shanxi. With its grain output accounting for more than a half of the provincial total, Yuncheng has been long known as the “granary of Shanxi”.
Building on its strength in agriculture, Yuncheng has made efforts to diversify its farming industry in recent years. It aims to grow the three sectors of wheat (flour), fruits and vegetables into pillar industries.
For this purpose, the city has applied for geographical indications for products in the three sectors and used unified branding strategies to promote such products to both domestic and international markets, according to local officials.