Yangchun banks on growth of lemon industry

Shredded lemon chicken, lemon-marinated chicken feet, pan-fried lemon spareribs, stir-tossed rice noodles with shredded lime leaves, and sour-spicy poached fish with pickled mustard greens and lemon.

These are signature dishes that attract tourists and diners in Yangchun, Guangdong province. But to Lu Yuan, head of Yangchun's crop cultivation management section with the city's bureau of agriculture and rural affairs, lemon is not only a seasoning, it is also a flagship product that drives local farmers' prosperity.

Lemon has become a pillar industry in Yangchun, with the city vigorously developing its fragrant lemon industry guided by growing market demand in recent years, said Lu.

Yangchun's fragrant lemon products are well-known across the country, making the rural county-level city become an important fragrant lemon planting base in Guangdong, he said.

To promote the sector's development, Yangchun is now building a modern agricultural industrial park for the lemon industry and has successively issued preferential policies and provided subsidies to guide farmers to expand lemon planting areas.

By 2025, Yangchun's total lemon planting area had reached 31.4 square kilometers, making it one of Guangdong's leading industrial bases for fragrant lemons.

"Efforts have been stepped up on agricultural product branding, as well as cultural tourism promotion," said Lu.

Last year, Yangchun's output of fresh lemons stood at 16,000 metric tons, with an output value of 398 million yuan ($59.46 million), playing a big part in the city's high-quality development, he said.

According to Lu, in 2020, Jianshe village in Shiwang town was designated as a provincial-level lemon specialized village and Shiwang as a provincial-level lemon specialized town.

Luo Xuemei, deputy head of Shiwang, said positioned as a provincial-level specialized town for fragrant lemons, Shiwang township government is making every effort to turn the lemon sector into a pillar industry for enriching local households, revitalizing villages and boosting the town's high-quality development.

Lu Yuan said Yangchun boasts favorable soil, water sources and climate for fragrant lemon cultivation.

"The city has abundant land available for planting, and the locally-grown fragrant lemons feature a rich, intense aroma," he said.

To this end, guidance and support will be provided for enterprises, cooperatives and other operators to develop a wide range of products including lemon juice, fruit wine, jam, freeze-dried slices, essential oil, pectin and functional food, said Lu.

Processing firms are also being urged to upgrade equipment and adopt smart technologies, while construction of cold-chain warehousing, intelligent sorting and deep-processing lines will boost whole-lemon utilization and product added value, he said.

Relying on research institutes, leading enterprises and agricultural technology extension institutions, Yangchun will further promote high-yield and high-quality varieties suited to local conditions, integrating and demonstrating key technologies including water-fertilizer integration, green pest control, dual-reduction and efficiency-enhancement, and machinery-friendly cultivation, said Lu.

A number of standardized planting demonstration bases will be built to drive the shift from "planting based on experience" to "planting driven by data", he said.

Meanwhile working together with relevant departments, Yangchun will further tap into the ecological and cultural value of local lemons, Lu said.

He added that it will develop leisure fruit-picking, study-tour experiences, lemon-themed home-stays and rural cultural tourism routes tailored to local conditions, and stage signature events, including lemon culture festivals and origin lemon experience day.

The integrated model of "planting base + processing workshop + cultural tourism scenario" will be further popularized, helping farmers further increase their income, he added.

Xu Zhi, a local lemon grower, said he can usually earn an extra 30,000 yuan a year from planting 666.67 sq m of lemons, as he can harvest about 5,000 kg of lemons a year.

Huang Jiaying contributed to this story.

zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn