Pomelo festival to uplift Huanjiang's economy

Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county, Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region will celebrate the first Harvest Festival, or the forth Huanjiang Red Pomelo Festival from Sept 19 to Oct 7, according to a news conference held on Sept 16.

Renowned for its unique natural resources and refreshing landscape of lakes and hills, the county is rich in natural products with a good reputation, such as glutinous black rice, black chickens, tung-oil, and non-glutinous rice, especially the six specialty products with unique fragrances: black pigs, beef cattle, ducks, shitake mushrooms, rice and red pomelos.

The Huanjiang red pomelo, one of the pillar industries and the major poverty alleviation industry in the county, is a new species with essential trace elements, which was identified as China's geographical indication agro-product by the Ministry of Agriculture in August, 2016.

In order to further develop its red pomelo industry, the county has implemented supportive policies to set up a demonstration base, leading more and more farmers to plant red pomelos. The planting area throughout the country has reached 62,000 mu (4,133 hectares) up to now, with an output of 8,000 metric tons in 2017 and 10,000 this year and an estimated output value of 50 million yuan ($7.28 million).

Starting from 2015, this year's festival will offer the county a great opportunity to promote its red pomelos in various ways, including online presale, fruit picking, live streaming of the opening ceremony and fishing competitions. The county has built up a sales platform for specialty products with Jingdong Mall, one of the leading e-commerce firms in China to help sell the pomelos and assist the people to get rid of poverty and become better off.

Huanjiang red pomelo, one of the characteristic fruits in Huanjiang Maonan autonomous county, helps increase farmers' incomes. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A number of government officials take part in the news conference. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Red pomelos at Huanjiang [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]