A farmer picks up honey peaches in Yangshan town, Wuxi. [Photo/wxrb.com]
Peach farmers in Yangshan town, East China's Jiangsu province are currently busy picking thousands of ripe honey peaches, which usually appear in shops in large quantities in July.
Well known throughout the country for their sweet taste and succulent texture, Wuxi's honey peaches, especially those from Yangshan, enjoy a reputation as one of the tastiest fruits in East China.
Yangshan has about 2,133 hectares of peach trees, yielding 50,000 metric tons of peaches per year, worth more than 500 million yuan ($71.4 million). With their beautiful round shape and melt-in-your-mouth taste, Yangshan's honey peaches are popular in the high-end market.
Not all kinds of peaches can bring in money for famers like those planted in Yangshan. A box of eight Yangshan honey peaches is often sold at over 100 yuan, as they are grown in special volcanic soil with zero pesticides and using intensive farming methods.
"Sixty percent of our peaches are ordered and sold as gifts for friends, families and business partners," said Wu Xiaobo, a peach farmer in Yangshan town.
Yangshan town encourages locals to open inns. [Photo/wxrb.com]
Yangshan's booming peach industry is also changing its business model and local lifestyle.
Processing enterprises, partnered with local farmers, extended the peach farming industrial chain and developed products such as peach flower tea, peach flower cakes, honey peach wine, and peach-wood artworks, increasing the income of local farmers throughout the year.
In 2018, local authorities pledged to facilitate land transfers in Yangshan to promote cultural tourism. They encouraged residents to rebuild their houses to host visitors and promote cultural products.
The development of local tourism has also raised people's awareness of environmental protection, according to officials.
