On October 19, a centralized departure ceremony for exported Shimen citrus was held at the Xiuping Horticultural Farm Citrus Logistics Park in Shimen County. Eleven cold-chain logistics vehicles loaded with 275 tonnes of Shimen citrus set off here. After customs declaration and quarantine by the Changde Customs Authority, these citrus fruits will be sent to more than 20 countries and regions, including Canada, Russia, and countries in Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and the Middle East. With this shipment, Shimen citrus has been exported for 59 consecutive years.

Shimen has a long history of citrus cultivation. Shimen citrus has long been renowned at home and abroad for its well-balanced sweet-and-sour flavor, early maturity, and high quality. In recent years, the local government has continued to promote industrial upgrading and actively seized foreign trade opportunities. It has successfully established a National Base for Foreign Trade Transformation and Upgrading (Citrus),enabling Shimen citrus to make the leap from a fine mountain product to a premium international commodity.
 
Shimen County has actively built platforms to help local citrus enterprises band together to showcase their products, expand into international markets, and enhance their brands, forming a diversified development pattern featuring self-operated exports, entrusted exports, and border trade. Xiuping Horticultural Farm where the ceremony was held is China's largest production and export base for early-maturing tangerines. The Hunan Xiangjia Juyou Agriculture Co., Ltd., a leading enterprise in the citrus industry, has long been engaged in the entire citrus industrial chain. It has worked with local farmers on green and technology-driven cultivation, ensuring citrus quality from the source and achieving self-operated exports for four consecutive years.
 
From 2021 to 2025, Shimen County's citrus exports rose from 7.39 million USD to 14.59 million USD, with the number of citrus export enterprises increasing from five to ten, doubling both the citrus export scale and the number of foreign trade entities. The county's annual export of fresh citrus has remained at 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn. 

Translator: Pang Yuehui 

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn