The coastal city of Yantai in East China's Shandong province has benefited a lot from one of its pillar industries - apples, which are one of Yantai's most famous agricultural products. For over the past 150 years, the fruit has been sold worldwide and has brought a stable source of income to the local residents.

Yantai apples have a brand value of more than 15 billion yuan ($2.35 billion), according to official data, and have ranked number one among China's fruit brands for the past 13 years. Apples from Yantai are exported to over 30 countries and regions around the world.

Yantai has increased its efforts in recent years to speed up the transformation and upgrading of its apple industry, as well as to boost the market competitiveness of apples by producing new products. Efforts have also been made to promote the transition from the traditional production mode to a modern one. Currently, Yantai is expanding its market value with its crunchy, pink and red apples by upgrading old orchards and investing in automation, sorting and transportation to boost the quality and quantity of its products. The city built a modern and high-standard demonstration park for growing apples in the city’s Haiyang earlier this month, which is expected to help promote the mechanized and large-scale apple growing.

Yantai will focus its efforts on accelerating the transition from a regional to a globally recognized brand, with the goal of expanding the global market for its apples.

The coastal city of Yantai in East China's Shandong province benefits greatly from one of its pillar industries - apples. [Photo by Gong Xiaochen/for chinadaily.com.cn]