The reporters learned from the agricultural sector yesterday that at present, more than half of the citruses in Yichang have been sold. The citruses get ripe earlier this year, which brings about quick sale, better price and stable export.

　　According to statistics, up to November 25, the city\'s total sales of citrus are up to 1.56 million tons, accounting for 52.8% of the estimated total production. And the sales are dominated by Yichang sweet citrus of mid-maturation. As the navel orange and ponkan go into the sales period, the average price of these fruits has reached 0.362 dollars/kg, with an increase of 113%, raising 0.192 dollars/kg over the same period of last year. Currently, 75,000 tons fresh fruits have been exported, accounting for 40.3% of the annual plan.

　　Since the starting of citrus marketing, the Municipal Agricultural Bureau has been practically strengthening organizational leadership; pushing forward citrus brand publicity and actively exploring the market. Yichang City has set up a special team for citrus sales, instituted a joint conference system and founded a special working team, which forms a four-level management network for citrus marketing covering the urban areas, counties, towns and villages. The whole city vigorously promotes the three regional brands building of "Yichang Sweet Citrus", "Zigui Navel Orange", and "Qingjiang Ponkan". To expand the citrus markets, the Municipal Agriculture Bureau has organized the city\'s leading enterprises to convene Yichang citrus promotion conference in Xinjiang, Wuhan, Fujian, Shanghai, Beijing and other cities.

　　In order to form the concerted forces for citrus sales, the Municipal Agriculture Bureau actively contacted the member units to promote communication with each other and coordinate overall work. The city’s Citrus Sales Office established weekly reporting system to impose real-time monitoring on citrus production & sales and prices, so as to guide and promote the sales of citrus; Sinopec Sales Company in Yichang opened green channels across counties and urban areas ensuring that vehicles transporting citrus enjoy the priority of oil supply; The City Transportation Departments actively unblocked the road to ensure the smooth running of citrus sales vehicles; The city’s Publicity Departments took the initiative to carry out the citrus sales promotion, and vigorously create a good atmosphere for citrus sales; the Meteorological Bureau of Yichang issued weather information on time, making every effort to promote citrus selling.

　　In regard to the shortage of acquisition money for citrus selling corporations, the whole city has strengthened duties and responsibilities and urgently sought for solutions. The Municipal Agriculture Bureau established special funds of 6,248 dollars to reward advanced units and individuals with large sales ; The Yidu City loaded a capital of over 2,499,200 dollars from the Rural Cooperative Bank, guaranteed by Fengyuan Security Company, in order to solve the issues such as lack of liquidity and sales personnel, difficulty of finding loan guarantees; The Municipal Government offered 31,240 dollars to guarantee smooth running of citrus marketing around the whole year. (Reporter Cao Yang, Correspondent Liu Juan)