In northwest China's Shaanxi Province, new digital infrastructure is transforming kiwifruit production and processing. At the Zhouzhi Kiwifruit Integrated Development Demonstration Center, each fruit is photographed 240 times to detect surface defects, while near-infrared scanners measure sweetness, firmness, and dry matter.
Developed by Xi'an Urban Green Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd. and equipped with a six-lane TOMRA sorting line, the center assigns each box a unique code for traceability from orchard to market. Its intelligent cold storage facility, with a 20,000-tonne capacity, maintains a ±0.5°C range to reduce dehydration and extend marketing periods.
"Rather than being a mere aggregation of machines, the center aims to build a fully connected industrial chain covering variety development, standardized planting, intelligent sorting, smart cold-chain logistics, and brand building," said He Liandi, director of Xi'an Urban Green Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd.
Zhouzhi and neighboring Meixian County are key kiwifruit hubs, advancing standardized cultivation, cold-chain logistics, and digital agriculture across the northern Qinling Mountains. According to Wen Qiwei, Party secretary of Zhouzhi County, nine "enhancement projects" have been launched to upgrade the sector through improved varieties, standardized planting, deep processing, and digital systems.
The Zhouzhi Agricultural Science and Technology Experiment Station, founded in 1956, focuses on variety selection and new cultivation techniques. "Our kiwifruit germplasm repository provides a wealth of genetic resources for developing new varieties that are large, high-quality, disease-resistant, drought-tolerant, and sweet," said Zhang Xiaobin, senior agricultural engineer at the station. The 'Cui Xiang' variety now covers about 10,000 hectares in Shaanxi and 20,000 hectares nationwide.
Zhouzhi also hosts the China-New Zealand Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Kiwifruit, focusing on canker resistance and low-temperature adaptability. In collaboration with Northwest A&F University (NWAFU), an expert workstation led by Professor Huang Lili is developing disease-control and post-harvest methods that extend kiwifruit shelf life from 15 to 30 days.
In Meixian, Shaanxi Qifeng Fruit Industry Co., Ltd. and NWAFU have created a digital cultivation system using IoT and AI to manage soil, meteorological, and crop data. The system has reduced water use by 30%, fertilizer by 25%, and pesticides by 35%, while increasing yields by about 10%.
At the third China Kiwifruit Expo held in Meixian in September, sales agreements for 41,900 tons of kiwifruit valued at US$57.6 million were signed. Qifeng Fruit now operates a production base in Chile and exports to 32 countries, including Canada, Singapore, the UAE, Russia, and Thailand.
Source: English News
