Lijiang's Yunlong county: Snow peach harvest 2014

Lijiang’s snow peaches are currently being harvested. Over the past six years, snow peaches have become increasingly popular during the National Day holiday.

“I’ve grown 0.67 hectares of snow peaches, and my annual income has reached more than 100,000 yuan ($16,331),” said Mu Shouchun, a villager of Fengle village in Lijiang.

“I’ve just picked 60 snow peaches, and I sell them to a businessman in Heilongjiang province. The businessman can make about 20 yuan in profit by reselling each snow peach,” Mu added.

According Li Chongyang, deputy chief of Lijiang Lashi county, Lijiang snow peaches are the result of scientific farming. The snow peach industry is Lijiang’s key industry of biological resources development.

Lijiang snow peaches have high requirements in regards to elevation. An elevation between 2,200 meters to 2,500 meters is the most suitable for snow peaches to grow. Villagers in Lijiang started to grow snow peaches in 1995 with a planting area of about 100 hectares. In recent years, the planting area of snow peaches has increased about 100 hectares every year. In 2014, the total planting area of snow peaches is 496 hectares, with 367 hectares of them yielding fruit. Even though the snow peach market has been influenced by the hail, the output of the snow peach industry is expected to exceed 11 million yuan.

“Lijiang snow peaches bloom in March, and the flowering period of snow peaches is as long as 40 days. Also, their growing season is twice as long as other peaches, bringing them larger fruit,” said Zhao Hui, deputy researcher of Lijiang’s biological resources development office. “Lijiang snow peaches are big and delicious thanks to the high elevation, strong sunlight, low temperature and clean environment,” Zhao added.

In China, most peaches ripen in July. In Yunnan province, only 3 percent of peaches ripen after August. Lijiang snow peaches are ripe between Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day, which makes them more rare and precious.

Li Yong, president of Lijiang Snow Peach Development Limited Corporation, said that they have major technology for planting snow peaches, and their peaches have entered Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

Lijiang snow peach [Photo/Xinhua]