Yunnan embraces bumper fruit, vegetable harvest

A bountiful harvest of fruits and vegetables is expected to increase income for farmers in Yunnan Province in southwest China.

Farmers are busy picking jackfruits on a 600-mu (about 40 hectares) farm in Yuanjiang County. The harvest is expected to generate an estimated revenue of over two million yuan (about 314,000 U.S. dollars).

Farm workers said they've spent years improving the fruits' taste.

"Our fruit trees were planted in November 2017. We didn't put a lot of fruit up for sale until this year. We wanted to offer consumers something of a high quality, something different," said Chen Yongyun, a farm worker.

With thick, spiky skin and yellow or greenish in color, jackfruit has plump, stringy pods that are sweet in flavor. The tropical fruits are often eaten fresh after being peeled.

Meanwhile, an agri-tech company in neighboring Kaiyuan City has developed two peach varieties after years of efforts. The new varieties ripen two months earlier than most, allowing the farm to be the first to cash in on peach lovers' thirst for the summertime delicacy.

"We've been cultivating these two varieties for six years. We can earn about 20,000 yuan (about 3,141.6 U.S. dollars) from each mu (0.07 hectare) of land," said Li Shuangli, the head of Kaiyuan Yeqing Green Industry.

Elsewhere, pea farming is growing into a profitable business for residents in Luliang County.

" We’ve planted peas over about 1,500 mu (about 100 hectares) of land, bringing in a revenue of about 24 million yuan (about 3.8 million U.S. dollars) in total," said Tang Zewen, a local official.

Broad bean harvesting is also underway in Yongsheng County.