The loquat industry in Kaiyang county, Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, is developing rapidly after years of strenuous efforts.
Kaiyang has a long history of loquat planting and is the largest loquat production base in the province. The existing loquat-planting area in the county is 83,000 mu (5,533.33 hectares), and its annual loquat production is about 29,700 metric tons.
In recent years, Kaiyang has attached great importance to the local selenium-enriched loquat industry's standardization, output, branding and industrialization, and greatly improved its quality and brand influence.
To achieve such goals, Kaiyang has strengthened cooperation with the Guizhou provincial agricultural science institute. The two sides have promoted loquat biological selenium-enriched nutritional enhancement technology and formed a standardized production model for selenium-enriched loquats.
Meanwhile, Kaiyang has supported leading loquat planting enterprises and increased the construction of production lines for loquat sorting, packaging and storage.
Previously, most selenium-enriched loquats were planted and sold by various independent farmers, which proved inefficient, but now the system is more centralized.
Additionally, Kaiyang has extended the loquat industrial chain and developed a series of deep-processed products such as selenium-enriched loquat juice, loquat dew, loquat cream and loquat wine.