Anyue lemon harvest abundant

Although lemon farmers are happy with the abundant harvest this year, they also have some concerns. Output increase leads to price decline. "Last year, the lemon purchase price per 0.5 kilo started at 4.4 - 4.5 Yuan. At the end of the period prices were between 3.2 - 3.3 Yuan. But this year I sold lemons for 1.3 Yuan per 0.5 kilo", said fruit farmer Deng Yongke from the Seven Group in Huagou Village, Longtaizhen.

Last year he had a lemon growing area of 0.12 hectares (1.8 mu), harvested more than 950 kilo and sold his lemons for more than 8000 Yuan. This year he has the same growing area but his output has reached up to 2650 kilo. He sold his harvest for about 7000 Yuan.

Besides Anyue, Yao is a small village were lemons are also produced. Liu Yong, owner of 13.4 hectares (202), stored his lemon harvest in a warehouse. He is only selling for a good price. "On October 20, the price was approximately 1.2 - 1.3 Yuan per 0.5 kilo. At this moment prices dropped to 1 Yuan per 0.5 kilo." Liu Yong said: "I did not sell from the beginning of the season, because to make a profit, the purchase price must be 1.5 Yuan per 0.5 kilo or higher."

However, vice mayor of Yao Village, Geng Dahong said: "Products with a good quality sell for approximately 1.6 Yuan per 0.5 kilo and the manufacturing costs are 0.9 Yuan per 0.5 kilo. Some can still make a profit."� Director of the Long Taizhen Agricultural Service Center, Zhou Zongwen, said in addition: "90% of the villagers are individual growers. Although the output is high this year, the costs are also slightly lower, so people will not lose money."

"Since the opening of the season, the average price of Anyue lemons is 1.5 - 1.6 Yuan per 0.5 kilo. This is a large decline in prices from the same period last year." Bureau chief Tian Zaize of the Anyue Lemon Industry Office explains that the lemon growing area expanded from 32000 hectares (480,000 mu) last year to 33333 hectares (500,000 mu) this year. The output increased from 420,000 tons to 600,000 tons. This is an increase of approximately 48.5%.

Despite the drop of the Anyue lemon price this year, Tian Zaize said: "This shapes also an optimistic market situation. The selling rate this year increased by 15 - 16% compared with last year. This indicates that the capacity of the Anyue lemon market is increasing and that the amount of consumers is expanding."� In addition, this year's lemon import amount also returned to nearby 8000 tons. After all "the costs of foreign imports is more than 4 Yuan per 0.5 kilo".

"This year's Anyue lemon price is low, this is also a good opportunity for our lemon on foreign markets,"� said Tian Zaize. Anyue County already organized market expansion of seven companies to Poland, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Singapore, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and other countries and regions. Already 50,000 tons of lemons have been exported and the supply does not meet the demand.

Tian Zaize considers that since 2011 the domestic lemon demand has expanded yearly by 200,000 tons, to 560,000 tons last year. The estimated demand for this year is 650,000 tons. This year's Anyue lemon output is 600,000 tons, the overall output of other regions is 100,000 tons, the overall output amounts to 700,000 tons. However Anyue also exports a few tons of lemons, more than 100,000 tons are processed and in addition close to 10,000 tons of lemons are imported. "It is a fundamental balance between domestic supply and demand."