Pears, peaches offer taste of the future

Entrepreneurs are updating farming techniques in a county in rural East China. Zhu Lixin reports from Suzhou, Anhui.

If Dangshan county in the eastern province of Anhui distributed locally grown fruit to every one of the country's 1.4 billion people, they would each receive more than 1 kilogram.

With annual output of 1.7 million metric tons, the county, which has a population of 1 million, is one of China's largest fruit-cultivation bases, according to the Dangshan government's calculations.

"With such a large output volume, marketing could be a huge challenge for local planters," said Duan Xuxu, founder of a startup that processes pears.

In 2015, Duan, who has a doctorate in finance, quit her job at a private equity fund in Shanghai and moved to Dangshan, which is administered by Suzhou city and is close to Huaibei, her hometown, in Anhui.

More than 70 percent of the county's fruit output consists of Dangshan's suli, or crisp pears, a local species known for its large size, juiciness and sweet taste.