Yishui apples win gold at provincial competition

Apples from Yishui county, Linyi, East China's Shandong province, won one gold and one quality award at the 2026 "Shandong Nongji Cup" apple competition held recently in Yantai, a provincial contest featuring origin traceability and production-sales matchmaking.

The competition, organized by the Shandong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, received 229 apple samples covering 52 varieties from 42 counties of 12 cities. A panel of experts judged the entries on fruit shape, color, surface finish, soluble solids and flavor, awarding 15 gold and 40 quality prizes.

Yishui submitted 10 samples and took home one gold and one quality award. A Venus Golden apple from Guangying Family Farm in Longjiaquan subdistrict won the gold, while another Venus Golden entry from Zhengwu Ecological Garden Family Farm in Cuijiayu town won a quality prize. Two local companies also exhibited premium apples at the matchmaking session, where county agro-technician Wang Fuqing introduced the "Yishui Apple" regional public brand to buyers from across the country.

Yishui has about 4,667 hectares (70,000 mu) of apple orchards with an annual output of 180,000 tons and a regional brand value of 1.756 billion yuan. Apple cultivation in the county dates back centuries, with records in the local annals of the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and more than 4,000 ancient apple trees still stand in the county.

The county has promoted intensive cultivation with wide rows and dense planting, with dwarf rootstock apple orchards exceeding 2,000 hectares (30,000 mu), and built 40 large storage warehouses and 12 automatic sorting lines to ensure year-round supply. "Yishui Apple" has registered as a geographical indication product and earned mutual recognition between China and the European Union.

Editor：韩蒙蒙