FENGDU ORANGES POWER MODERN AGRICULTURE, RURAL PROSPERITY IN CHONGQING

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 12 (Bernama) -- The harvest season is in full swing in Longkong Town of Fengdu County, a major orange-producing hub in west China’s Chongqing Municipality, as freshly picked fruit moves rapidly from orchards to nationwide markets through an increasingly modernised supply chain.

At the Common Prosperity Orange Orchard in Nanzhu Village, crates of oranges are transported directly to Fengdu Orange’s integrated production base, where the fruit is cleaned, polished, dried, graded and packaged before being shipped across the country.

According to a statement, to ensure smooth operations during the peak harvest is Bai Xiaohua, director of a local agricultural development professional cooperative, who coordinates picking schedules between orchards and processing facilities while personally overseeing quality control.

Raised among orange trees, Bai founded the cooperative in 2018 to organise scattered growers and promote standardised, large-scale citrus production through unified management.

To strengthen technical capacity, Bai conducts monthly on-site training sessions for farmers and has actively introduced modern practices. After completing professional agricultural programmes and study visits across China, he obtained a drone operation licence in 2020 and pioneered the use of drones for orchard management, which has since been adopted across the cooperative.

His efforts reflect the broader upgrading of Fengdu’s orange industry. Longkong Town now has 25,000 mu of orange orchards, producing more than 30,000 tonnes annually with an output value of 110 million Chinese yuan. Its citrus received National Geographical Indication trademark certification in 2011. (100 Chinese yuan = RM56.58)

Nanzhu Village was named a national speciality product demonstration village in 2019, while Fengdu oranges have been exported to the Middle East and other markets, establishing a strong regional brand.

Countywide, Fengdu Orange covers 52,500 mu, with an annual output reaching 70,000 tonnes and a total income of 150 million Chinese yuan. Through cooperative organisation, digital tools and brand development, the local orange industry is evolving from a traditional speciality into a modern agricultural value chain driving sustained rural prosperity

-- BERNAMA