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Across China: New forms of business sweeten huaniu apple industry on Loess Plateau

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E-mail Xinhua, January 09, 2025

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LANZHOU, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Ju Aiguo only completed the first grade of elementary school, but now, at the age of 55, he is an agricultural technician with a medium-grade professional title, as well as a successful apple farmer.

"Trimming, fertilizing, field management and plant protection are four vital steps of planting huaniu apple trees," said Ju, who has been planting the huaniu apple for more than four decades.

Ju lives in Maxian Village in the city of Tianshui, in northwest China's Gansu Province. Located on the Loess Plateau, Tianshui is known for its huaniu apples, named after a local village. The special apple variety is known for its ruby color and crisp texture.

The Loess Plateau offers optimum natural conditions for huaniu apple farming, such as a deep soil layer, abundant sunshine and moderate annual rainfall. The planting area of Tianshui covers 790,000 mu (about 35,333 hectares) with the yield totals at about 1.93 million tonnes last year.

Ju has learned the apple planting techniques not only through practice, but also from years of training. Now he is always invited to give lectures to local farmers throughout the year.

He is among 355 local farmers given medium-grade professional titles, along with another 13,000 with primary-grade titles, according to Xie Rui, an official with the local fruit industry office.

They include farmer experts, apple beauticians, market information collectors, etc. The variety of new business forms is breathing new life into the decades-old industry of huaniu apple cultivation.

At a fruit company in Qin'an County, huaniu apples of varying sizes are rolling on a transmission band, which sends them into a sorting machine before being categorized by attributes such as weight and sweetness.

Wang Le, the machine operator, is affectionately known as the "apple doctor". "The image technology can easily recognize bad apples and sift them out, making sure that customers receive high-quality ones," said Wang.

"With rising sales, quality control is increasingly important," said Cai Quanbin, deputy general manager of the corporation, adding that the automation sorting line facilitates the intelligent sorting of 30 tonnes of apples every day.

Big companies also help accelerate the integration of the industrial chain, creating job opportunities and boosting incomes.

During the buying season for huaniu apples, every household in Huaimiao Village, Qin'an County, has bright red apples piled up outside ready for sale.

"It was a bumper year," Li Xiaosheng, a village official there, talked about last year's harvest. "More than 10,000 tonnes of apples have been sold, including about 1,000 tonnes of huaniu."

Deng Wen, an "apple agent" from Hubei Province, has been purchasing huaniu apples in Qin'an since August. "The huaniu apple is distinctive in flavor and easy to store. It is quite popular in the high-end market," said the man who buys more than two trucks of apples every day during the peak season.

"Thinking ahead of the market is key to making more money," said Wu Zhengquan, manager of a local farmers' cooperative specializing in huaniu apple planting and marketing.

He told Xinhua that the cooperative holds meetings on technological production, gathering "apple agents" to share their market information, such as which size sells better and what taste is most popular with customers. "The information guides us in planting," he said.

These days, huaniu apples are being embraced by a broader market. In September, 7.6 tonnes were exported to the Maldives for the first time. In the opinion of Yan Gang, general manager of an agricultural export enterprise, there is big international market potential to be tapped.

"We have received orders from many foreign countries and areas since August. The apple is well-liked by foreign customers," Yan said.

Xie disclosed that a total of 18 leading enterprises in Tianshui have been approved of direct export of their apples, with the annual export value reaching 200 million yuan (about 27.3 million U.S. dollars).

In the first three quarters of last year, the export value of apples in Gansu has exceeded 430 million yuan, up 22.4 percent year on year, according to local customs.

A diverse range of products based on huaniu apples is making its way to overseas markets.

Tianshui Great Wall Fruit Juice Group Co., Ltd. has purchased a total of 330,000 tonnes of apples in the first 11 months of last year. Their concentrated apple juice has been sold to the United States, South Africa, Japan and other countries.

Tianshui is accelerating the transformation of the single industrial chain of apple juice into more diversified processing, such as apple fruit powder and apple paste.

Xie noted that there are 18 deep-processing companies in Tianshui, where the annual processing volume has reached 200,000 tonnes, with a total added value of 197 million yuan.

Ju Aiguo, the farmer, would like to expand his orchard this year. Seeing the benefit from huaniu apples, his son, who is currently working elsewhere, plans to return to his hometown and help his father.

"Life is getting better, and we hope to see another bumper harvest this year," said Ju. Enditem