STORY: Apples link northwest China's Gansu with BRI countries
DATELINE: Sept. 6, 2023
LENGTH: 00:03:29
LOCATION: LANZHOU, China
CATEGORY: ECONOMY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of apples
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): XIE LILING, International Sales Manager of Long Yuanhong Fruits Selling Co.,Ltd.
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): CHANG ZHILIANG, Director of Commerce Bureau of Jingning County
4. various of apple packaging

STORYLINE:

China is a major producer of apples. One of its apple-producing regions, northwest China's Gansu Province has abundant sunshine and a significant variation in temperature between day and night, which is conducive to the growth of apples.

Over 80 percent of farmers in Jingning County are engaged in apple planting and related industries.

The export of fresh apples not only benefits the enterprises involved, but also contributes to the growth of the county's apple industry, benefiting 36,000 apple-growing farming households.

SOUNDBITE 1 (English): XIE LILING, International Sales Manager of Long Yuanhong Fruits Selling Co.,Ltd.
"We have Fuji apple, Qingguan apple, Huaniu apple and Golden Delicious apple. Our main market is the Belt and Road countries, such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal and so on. For the last three years, we have explored new markets in North America, such as Mexico, and the buyers told me that our Golden Delicious apples are very popular there. Till now, we have already received the order with (a total value of) about 4 million U.S. dollars. Throughout the whole process, we used the cold chain to deliver our apples so that the foreign consumers could eat the freshest apple from us."

SOUNDBITE 2 (Chinese): CHANG ZHILIANG, Director of Commerce Bureau of Jingning County
"Jingning apples are mostly exported to countries along the Belt and Road and other regions including North America. From January to August this year, the overall export volume of apples exceeded 10,000 tonnes, reaching a value of around 100 million yuan (about 13.66 million U.S. dollars), up by nearly 30 percent from the same period last year."

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Lanzhou, China.
(XHTV)