Yantai in East China's Shandong province issued the Opinions on Further Promoting the High-quality Development of Yantai's Apple Industry (2023-25) on March 12, outlining the blueprint for the city's advancement of the apple industry in the next three years.

By 2025, the output of the apple industry in Yantai is expected to reach 5.6 million tons per year and the proportion of high-quality fruits produced will exceed 92 percent.

Since the 2020-22 period, the city has invested 230 million yuan ($33.43 million) in promoting the high-quality development of the apple industry, which is closely related to the livelihoods of 1.7 million local fruit farmers and Yantai's rural vitalization efforts.

The apple industry in Yantai demonstrates quality features in seven aspects, covering production capacity, structure of tree age, average income per mu, varieties, technology applications, large-scale production management, and brand influence.

The city's apple planting area and output were adjusted from 2.8 million mu (186,648 hectares) and 5.59 million tons in 2019 to 2.48 million mu and 5.58 million tons in 2022. Thanks to the application of innovative methods in varieties, products, technology, and equipment, the per unit yield of apples in Yantai has risen from 1.99 tons per mu to 2.25 tons per mu.

Nine major production areas in Yantai have renovated the 1.32 million mu of old orchards, with the average age of trees surpassing more than 20 years. At present, the area of old orchards accounts for one seventh of the total and the proportion of orchards where apples are in the full bearing period and mid-growing stage is more than 60 percent.  

Yantai has diversified its apples varieties from the original Hongfushi to many brands. The proportion of the planting area for traditional Hongfushi dropped to 20.92 percent and that for superior varieties increased to 63.6 percent.

According to the newly released policy, Yantai will also guide leading enterprises to build large-scale modern orchards, support the concentration of orchard land to business entities, diversify varieties, as well as accelerate labor-saving and efficient growing modes. By 2025, it will build 20 demonstration gardens and 10 ecological orchards.

By 2025, the output of the apple industry in Yantai is expected to reach 5.6 million tons per year. [Photo by Qi Xuan/For chinadaily.com.cn]