As autumn breezes bring refreshing coolness and fruit fragrance fills the mountains, over 200,000 mu of mid-season apples in Zhaoyang District are entering concentrated market release, with varieties such as "2001" and "New Century" making their批量 debut.

As the largest apple trading distribution center in Southwest China, the apple trading market in Sayu Town of Zhaoyang District is bustling with brisk buying and selling, with tens of thousands of tricycles and minivans loaded with apples flooding into the market daily for transactions, and merchants gathering from all over, while fruit farmers, purchasers, and sorting workers remain busy, allowing Zhaotong apples to spread their fragrance across the country, driving coordinated development of related industries such as catering, accommodation, logistics and transportation, and net套 paper boxes, painting a new picture of rural revitalization with thriving industries and prosperous people.

Zhaotong apples are renowned for being "early, sweet, fragrant, crisp, and colorful," benefiting from unique climatic conditions of low latitude, high altitude, large temperature differences between day and night, and long sunshine hours, allowing full sugar accumulation in the fruit, with fine and crisp flesh, abundant juice without residue, and rich aroma.

Compared with northern apple production areas, Zhaotong apples mature 20 to 30 days earlier, and their off-peak market release precisely fills the gap in the high-quality apple market during summer fruit season.

As the largest county-level apple production area in southern China, Zhaoyang District had 730,000 mu of apple planting area in 2025, with an annual output of 1.15 million tons and a comprehensive output value of 13.5 billion yuan.

Technology Empowers Quality Fruit Cultivation, Standardized Planting Improves Quality and Efficiency

To solve the problem of "apples being delicious but not selling at a good price," Zhaoyang District earnestly implements the provincial and municipal apple industry development deployments, adheres to technology-driven fruit cultivation and brand-strengthening agriculture, promotes quality and efficiency improvement of characteristic industries, consolidates the industrial foundation for rural revitalization, and continuously polishes the Zhaotong apple brand.

A relevant person in charge of the Zhaoyang District Apple Industry Development Center introduced: "Zhaoyang District attaches great importance to the promotion of apple selection, breeding, and renewal transformation technology. First, through the renewal of special excellent apples, we build high-standard apple orchards; second, through the national key assistance county and the expert team of the science and technology special commissioner group, we have introduced more than 130 varieties from across the country for experimental planting, and selected and bred special excellent varieties such as Honglu, Zhongtian, and Qincui for promotion; third, the Zhaoyang District Apple Industry Development Center has also innovated a grafting technology of one main variety with multiple auxiliary ones, achieving rapid recovery in three years. From last year to this year, we have successively transformed 25,000 mu of apple varieties. Through variety renewal, technological improvement, and industrial chain extension, Zhaotong apples have achieved a new model from large-scale development to quality improvement."

In the subsequent processing of Zhaotong apples after picking, Zhaoyang District has equipped and put into use multiple intelligent sorting production lines, which through cleaning and precise grading of sugar content and color, allow good apples to sell at good prices.

In the packaging process, targeting e-commerce logistics needs, Zhaoyang District adopts a packaging method of "net套 + foam tray + thickened carton" to reduce fruit friction and transportation loss, protecting the "golden apples."

Apple Market Trading Booms, Full Industry Chain Develops Coordinately

Sayu Town is the birthplace and core production area of Zhaotong apples. As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the Sayu apple trading market is bustling with voices and brisk buying and selling, with merchants from all over the country gathering here to compete for purchasing high-quality fresh fruit.

In the market, fruit farmers drive tricycles and small trucks to transport picked apples, while workers are busy sorting, boxing, and loading, with boxes of selected good fruit successively loaded and shipped to various places.

According to Peng Xing, publicity committee member of Sayu Town: "Our Sayu apples have an annual output of about 420,000 tons, and the comprehensive output value is expected to reach about 3.5 billion yuan. Through the apple industry, we drive surrounding people to work nearby, with daily income of around 150 to 200 yuan, and also drive warehousing, logistics, and online sales. Now Sayu has many internet celebrities who conduct live-streaming sales of apples every day. Since the apples hit the market, we have dispatched town and village cadres to form a market town management task force, maintaining order from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day to ensure smooth traffic and orderly transactions."

Linking Farmers to Promote Income Growth, Adding Momentum to Rural Revitalization

The vigorous development of the apple industry has built "doorstep" income channels for local people.

Sayu Town market town currently has 1,651 shops, 25 express logistics companies, and 3 financial institutions.

The entire town has 12 apple distribution companies, more than 1,000 purchasers, more than 500 online sellers, and 23 cooperatives in physical operation, covering 36,800 mu of orchards and benefiting 4,796 households.

The market's maximum daily trading volume can reach more than 3,000 tons, with an annual trading volume of 500,000 tons for the entire town, and online direct sales accounting for about 15%, making it an apple distribution center radiating to surrounding areas.

The booming apple industry transactions strongly drive the vigorous development of surrounding supporting industries.

With the large influx of merchants and workers, catering and accommodation businesses in the market town are thriving; packaging materials such as cartons and foam net套 are in strong demand; logistics, express delivery, and transportation fleets are operating at full capacity, with 25 express companies rooted in the market town, sending trucks of apples quickly to all parts of the country.

At the same time, fruit transactions drive simultaneous prosperity in financial services, agricultural input supply, and temporary employment, allowing a large number of people to achieve doorstep employment and income growth, and a complete industrial chain from orchard to market with coordinated development of supporting industries is growing stronger.

Sayu Town has also built a digital service platform for the apple industry—the "Sayu Fruit Check" WeChat mini-program, which after only half a month online has reached 12,275 registered users.

This localized public welfare service platform, focusing on "connecting production and sales, employment, and agricultural inputs across the entire chain," will inject strong digital momentum into the high-quality development of Sayu Town and even the Zhaotong apple industry as the mini-program is promoted and improved.

Wang Conglin and Wang Congmei, siblings from Group 32 of Xunlong Village in Sayu Town, are optimistic about the good prospects of Zhaotong apples. After graduating from university, the siblings resolutely chose to return home to start businesses. In addition to helping their parents manage their own 7 mu of apples, they also work as online streamers, selling Zhaotong apples through the internet.

Looking at the red 2001 apples hanging all over the branches, the siblings are full of confidence in the future.

Wang Conglin told reporters that all 7 mu of their family's apples have borne fruit, with an income of about 150,000 yuan this year.

If online sales are done well, life will definitely get better and better in the future.

Wang Conglin said: "We have now returned to plant, and young people have young people's ideas. When we come back to plant, we hope to make it easier. Our mainstream now is online sales, with online sales accounting for about half."

In addition to offline sales, Zhaoyang District also particularly values online sales.

In the orchard of Xunlong Village in Sayu Town, internet celebrity "Rural Bald Brother" from Yibin, Sichuan, is live-streaming with his team to sell Zhaotong apples, while also training apple sales streamers for Sayu Town, selling Zhaotong apples to thousands of households through e-commerce platforms.

"Friends, this is our Yunnan high-altitude Zhaotong apple. This apple is crisp and sweet. Let me take a bite to show you." Rural Bald Brother passionately recommends Zhaotong apples to netizens.

There are more than 500 online sellers like this in Sayu Town.

Through live broadcasts from fields and orchards, they promote and sell Zhaotong apples to all parts of the motherland.

"Rural Bald Brother" even said directly: "Our family is in Yibin, very close to Zhaotong. Zhaotong apples are what we grew up eating. This year is my first year coming to Zhaotong to promote Zhaotong apples. Zhaotong apples are naturally ripened by sunlight, with relatively high sugar content, crisp and sweet."

At the apple purchasing point in Sayu Town, apple purchaser Chen Wenbin has been in the apple business for more than 20 years. Currently, he purchases 20,000 to 30,000 jin of apples daily, with dozens of workers busy sorting apples and boxing them.

Chen Wenbin said: "What we mainly purchase now are 2001 and New Century. They are mainly shipped to Guangzhou, Fujian, Hubei, and Shanghai. These places have quite good evaluations of our Zhaotong apples."

A small apple strings together a complete industrial chain from planting, sorting, packaging, and logistics to sales and cultural tourism, absorbing a large number of people for nearby employment and injecting continuous momentum into rural revitalization.

Qin Mingding, a resident of Daqiao Village, said: "I have elderly and children at home, so going out to work is unrealistic. During the apple market season, I load apples in the market town, earning 150 yuan a day. Over three or four months, the money earned is enough for household pocket money."

Today, Zhaoyang District has 730,000 mu of apple planting area, becoming a pillar industry for rural revitalization and people's income growth.

In 2026, the output is expected to be 1.3 million tons, with a comprehensive output value of 15 billion yuan.

Next, Zhaoyang will continue to strengthen the apple industry, expand domestic and international sales channels, let Zhaotong apples spread fragrance everywhere, and continuously inject strong momentum into rural revitalization.