Hechi holds 2020 Walnut Harvest Festival

Hechi holds the 2020 Walnut Industry Development Meeting and Walnut Harvest Festival on Sept 16. [Photo/Hechi Daily]

Women in traditional ethnic minority clothing show walnuts picked from the trees. [Photo/Hechi Daily]

The 2020 Walnut Industry Development Meeting and Walnut Harvest Festival was held in Fengshan county, Hechi, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region on Sept 16.

The festival included a series of activities like folk performances, agricultural products exhibitions, special food culture displays, and industrial development forums, fully demonstrating the fruitful results of the development of the walnut industry in Hechi, enhancing farmers' enthusiasm and confidence, as well as promoting business opportunities for the development of the walnut industry.

The event aimed to promote the deep integration of the walnut industry with culture, tourism, and other sectors, accelerating the high-quality development of the walnut industry in Hechi, as well as making additional contributions to help fight poverty and promote rural revitalization.

Since 2012, Hechi has promoted the development of the walnut industry as a key industry for ecological restoration and increasing the income of impoverished residents. After eight years of diligent efforts, the city's walnut planting area has grown from 130,000 mu (8,666.67 hectares) at the end of 2011 to the current 2.61 million mu, making it the largest walnut production base in South China.

In 2020, Hechi's walnut production area is more than 90,000 mu, with an estimated output of more than 6,300 tons and an output value of 250 million yuan ($37.02 million). The city's walnut industry covers 1,052 administrative villages in 122 towns and villages of 11 counties (districts), with 1.2 million farmers from 360,000 households participating in planting, of which 398,400 are impoverished people. By the end of 2019, the walnut industry has helped lift 39,000 people out of poverty.