Yunxiao Loquat

Yunxiao Loquat

Yunxiao loquat is a geographical indication protected product.

Yunxiao loquat is a geographical indication certification trademark.

　　Yunxiao loquat cultivation has a long history, traditionally producing mainly fresh fruits and medicinal dried leaves. In recent years, Yunxiao County introduced the new variety "Zaozhong No. 6", a hybrid of "Jiefangzhong" and Japan's "Morio Early", which combines the early ripening, premium quality, and large fruit size of its parent varieties, and can mature 15 to 30 days earlier than common varieties. It hits the market around the annual Lantern Festival. This variety features orange-red skin and flesh, tender texture, rich aroma, high sweetness, and low acidity. In 1992, it was rated by provincial authorities as an "excellent new-generation loquat variety." Additionally, Yunxiao loquat includes many other varieties such as Jiefangzhong, Dazhong, Hongrou Chang, Hongrou Yuan, Wenzhou, Putian, Xiabanshi Yuanyuan, Yadan Ben, Dahongpao, and Ruantiao Baisha, boasting a wide range of types, abundant yields, and fame across China and even overseas, making it the top fruit variety in Yunxiao.

　　Yunxiao County in Fujian Province, honored as the "Hometown of Chinese Loquats" by the National Forestry Administration. Yunxiao loquat is renowned as the "First Spring Fruit of Southern Fujian."

　　Located along the coast with a horseshoe-shaped terrain backed by mountains and facing the sea to the southeast, Yunxiao traps warm and humid winter air currents from the sea. The area remains moist without being dry in winter, with an average annual temperature of 21.4°C and only 2.7 frost days—making it one of the three counties in Fujian with the best overwintering conditions and the only one on the mainland without extreme minimum temperatures below 0°C. These conditions are highly favorable for the growth and development of tropical-type Yunxiao loquats.

　　Yunxiao loquat is a tropical-type evergreen small tree. It boasts excellent flavor and quality, with soft, juicy, and tender flesh that is easy to peel, a well-balanced sweet-and-sour taste, rich aroma, large size (around 50g per fruit, up to 150g), high edible rate (generally around 70%), and abundant nutrients. It helps soothe the throat, relieve coughs, aid digestion, and clear heat, making it a healthful fruit suitable for all ages.

　　Yunxiao County is the birthplace of Yunxiao loquat. The area’s unique natural environment and cultural background have given rise to loquats with strong local characteristics. Yunxiao loquats are known for their early ripening, tender texture, vibrant appearance, and fuzzy fruit surface, earning the title "First Spring Fruit of Southern Fujian."

　　Yunxiao loquat has a long cultivation history, documented as early as the Tang Dynasty. Over 1,300 years ago, Chen Zheng and Chen Yuanguang were ordered to move south, bringing Central Plains culture with them. Their subordinate and poet Ding Ru once wrote the popular lines: "Silk gardens yield crimson lychees, clear streams produce white fish. Bananas split golden and lush, longans drip jade-like juice. Honey gathered from floral dew, oranges treasured on branches." These describe Yunxiao’s fertile land, fragrant flowers, and bountiful fruits. As a premium fruit and seasonal tribute, Yunxiao loquat gained fame for its excellent flavor and quality, becoming known as Yunxiao loquat.

　　During the Song Dynasty, Yang Wanli, prefect of Zhangzhou, wrote in "Ode to Loquat": "Large leaves tower like long ears, one branch can fill a plate. Lychees come with many pits, kumquats lack any acid. Rain weighs down branches low, juice flows cold on teeth. Where is Changqing now? Don’t let him tend this garden."

　　By the Ming Dynasty, Yunxiao’s Yunshan Academy, dedicated to Lin Xiechun, housed 260 medical divination slips, many featuring prescriptions using loquat leaves. Both loquat flowers and leaves are medicinal, with the leaves clearing lungs and stomach, reducing qi, and resolving phlegm—an essential remedy for lung coughs. This shows loquats were already widely grown in Ming-era Yunxiao, with their benefits well known. The physician Li Shizhen recorded in "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Loquat is an excellent fruit and medicine for harmonizing the stomach, reducing qi, and clearing heat."

　　During the Qing Dynasty’s Guangxu era, Qiu Jiahe, grandfather of Qiu Jin, served twice (in 1878 and 1889) as Tongzhi of Yunxiao. He often placed locally abundant loquat flowers, leaves, and roots at his residence for locals to boil into water, nourishing yin, reducing fire, clearing lungs, and relieving coughs, colds, excessive internal heat, and dry mouth. He often told people, "This is folk medicine—affordable and healing."

　　During the Republic of China period, Yunxiao was the economic and cultural hub of the five southern counties of Zhangzhou, with especially developed shipping. Yunxiao loquats were transported south to Shantou, Guangzhou, and Hong Kong, and north to Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. Yunxiao became Fujian’s main loquat-producing region, famed for its early ripening and premium quality.

　　On March 5, 1958, Comrade 1, then Secretary of the Communist Youth League Central Committee, visited Yunxiao. After inquiring about mountain fruit cultivation and loquat characteristics, he encouraged everyone: "The whole Party mobilized, the entire populace joined in, reclaiming mountains to grow fruit, turning Yunxiao into a land of fruit." Later, loquat cultivation expanded across the county’s six towns, three townships, and one development zone, covering all hillsides and farmland.

　　 Since the reform and opening-up, Yunxiao’s county Party committee and government have vigorously developed loquat cultivation based on local strengths. In 1994, the early-ripening, premium-quality "Zaozhong No. 6" variety was promoted, elevating the industry. Through collaboration between leading enterprises and research institutions, deep-processing products like "loquat wine," "loquat paste," "loquat juice," and "loquat flower tea" were developed and successfully marketed, extending the industrial chain and boosting profitability—turning loquats into the sought-after "golden fruit." In 2005, the county had 88,000 mu under cultivation, yielding 57,000 tons with a value of 560 million yuan. By 2010, this grew to 125,000 mu, 75,000 tons, and 780 million yuan. Today, Yunxiao loquats enjoy high market recognition, selling well across Fujian and major domestic cities like Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Sichuan, Chongqing, and Hubei, while also exporting to the EU, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other regions, achieving strong economic returns.

　　Some honors of Yunxiao loquat:

　　In 2001, Yunxiao County was named "Hometown of Chinese Loquats" by the National Forestry Administration.

　　In 2003, the collective trademark "Yunxiao" loquat was registered.

　　In 2007, Yunxiao loquat received national quality inspection approval for geographical indication product protection and was recognized as a national "Advanced Unit in the Science Popularization for Rural Prosperity Program" by the China Association for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance.

　　In 2008, Yunxiao County was approved as a "Key County for High-Quality Loquat Production Bases" and a "National Advanced Unit in Fruit Industry Services."

　　In 2009, Yunxiao loquat was named one of Zhangzhou’s "Top Ten Famous Flowers and Fruits."

　　In 2010, the "Yunxiao Loquat" trademark was awarded "Famous Trademark of Fujian Province."

　　 In November 2011, the "Yunxiao Loquat" trademark was recognized as a "China Well-Known Trademark" by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce.

　　The geographical indication protection scope for Yunxiao loquat is based on the range proposed in Yunxiao County’s "Request for Defining the Geographical Indication Protection Scope of Yunxiao Loquat" (Yun Zheng Zong [2007] No. 94), covering the entire administrative region of Yunxiao County, Fujian Province.