According to the Municipal Agriculture Bureau, the accumulated sales volume of citruses in Yichang has reached 2.4 million tons, accounting for 77 percent of the estimated total production.The price of “Yichang Tangerines” has doubled, its output efficiency and export volume both exceeded the historical period, which has shown a gratifying situation, in which there is no reduction in income despite lower production.　

By 2015, with a cultivated area of 2.06 million mu of citrus in Yichang, the citrus output is expected to reach 3.1078 million tons, decreasing by 6.2 percent, compared with the actual output- 3.3135 million tons in 2014. The estimated outputs include 1.96 million tons of “Yichang Tangerines”, 0.55 million tons of oranges, 0.55 million tons of ponkans and 40000 tons of other kinds of citrus. From the sale of the precocious tangerine to now, the price began high and keeps high. The beginning price of “Yichang Tangerines” was 1.83 yuan per kg, raising46 by percent, compared with the corresponding period last year.

The price continued to rise in the latter period. On December 9, 2015, “Yichang Tangerines” prices rose to 2.6 yuan per kg, realizing a year-on-year increase of 113 percent. The price of “Yichang Tangerines” continued to run high, and this is rare for many years. The beginning price of ponkan and Newhall navel orange exceed that of the same period last year, by 0.2 yuan per kg.

At present, 2.4 million tons of citrus have been sold in Yichang , realizing the output value of 6.2 billion yuan. There are 707800 tons of citrus which haven’t been sold and the output value is about 2.1 billion yuan. It is estimated that the total output value reached 8.3 billion yuan, with growth rate reaching 14 percent, hopeful realizing “seven years continuous increase” from 2008. The export volume of fresh citrus has reached 200,000 tons, expected to reach 250,000 tons in the whole year and mainly exported to Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia, North Korea, Myanmar. Compared with the previous year, the export volume can be increased over 30 percent and the export prices reached 4200-4500 yuan per ton, rising about 700 yuan per ton.　　

In the later working period, the citrus sales focuses on the sale of navel orange and ponkan, sales progress is slightly slower than that in the last year, but prices will remain at a reasonable level. Agricultural sector experts recommended that the related departments should continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation, make every effort to do service work, actively respond to the factors, including market shocks, bad weather, ensure the successful completion of annual citrus selling, further strengthen the export market development, actively encourage and support the navel orange and pankan to explore the international market.

(Reporter: Cao Yang, Correspondent: Liu Juan)