A group of business elites and experts across the country converged in Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province on March 25 to take part in a seminar discussing strategies to promote high-end development of the apple industry.

Yantai’s fruit sector has taken a leading position in recent years in fruit processing, industrialization development, technological research and market development. The Yantai apple is a golden brand of Chinese fruit and a highlight of Yantai agriculture products.

After continuous technological innovation, variety improvements, quality upgrading and brand building, the Yantai apple has not only dominated the domestic market but also taken the lead in China's apple industry.

Nevertheless, it still faces challenges in quality promotion and refined fruit processing

At the conference, apple managers gained consensus that high-qualified apples are becoming more popular, according to statistics.

"The sales value of ordinary apples is declining while that of high-end apples with higher prices is increasing," said Zhang Aidang, an apple wholesaler in Beijing.

Fruit experts from universities and enterprises also shared the latest development trends in creating a high-end apple industry chain.

The fruit sector is in a critical period of transformation and upgrading and should be market-oriented and develop large-scale management to promote consumption upgrades and meet middle or high-end consumer demands.

The Yantai government is stepping up efforts in the fruit sector to boost productivity and economic growth.It will promote the construction of high-standard orchards, establish an apple quality safety trace system, improve production deep processing and extend the apple e-commerce system, all parts of the Yantai quality brand strategy.

Business elites and experts across the country converged in Yantai, a coastal city in East China’s Shandong province on March 25 to take part in a seminar discussing strategies to promote the apple industry’s high-end development. [Photo/ jiaodong.net]