Xuefeng Honey Oranges

Xuefeng Honey Oranges

Xuefeng Honey Oranges are a protected geographical indication product.

　　Shaoyang is known as the "hometown of citrus." The honey oranges from Shaoyang are high in sugar and low in acidity, seedless, deliciously juicy, and highly resistant to environmental stress. They bear fruit early, yield abundantly, and store well. There are many varieties of Shaoyang honey oranges, but those produced in Dongkou County at the southeastern foot of the Xuefeng Mountain Range are the most renowned. They were personally named "Xuefeng Honey Oranges" by Premier Zhou Enlai. Xuefeng Honey Oranges are brightly colored, attractively shaped, seedless, sweet, and juicy. Their juice contains about 11% soluble solids, with a sugar-to-acid ratio of over 10:1, making them a high-quality product that sells well both domestically and internationally.

　　The citrus fruits of Dongkou County are known for their "bright color, thin and smooth peel, crisp and tender flesh, seedless and juicy texture, and balanced sweetness and acidity." During the 1960s and 1970s, they were a leading export product generating foreign exchange for the country and were designated as the "National Export Base County for Satsuma Mandarins." In 1973, Premier Zhou Enlai personally named them "Xuefeng Honey Oranges." From 1998 to 2000, Xuefeng Honey Oranges won the Hunan Provincial Golden Quality Award for Premium Fruits for three consecutive years. In 2001, they were recognized as the only "pollution-free agricultural product" in the citrus category in Hunan Province. In 2006, they were awarded the title of "Famous-Brand Agricultural Product" in Hunan Province, and in 2007, they were officially approved as a "geographical indication product" by the national government. In 2011 and 2013, Dongkou County was respectively honored with the titles "Hometown of China’s Xuefeng Honey Oranges" and "China’s Demonstration County for Green Ecological Honey Oranges." In the 2015 China Agricultural Products Regional Public Brand Value Assessment, the Xuefeng Honey Oranges brand was valued at 494 million RMB. Leveraging the e-commerce platform and modern electronic spot trading model of the Bohai Commodity Exchange, Xuefeng Honey Oranges have become China’s largest spot-traded citrus product. From 2014 to the present, electronic transactions have reached 3.7 billion RMB, with over 10,000 tons of physical trade, greatly promoting the healthy and rapid development of the Xuefeng Honey Oranges industry across the county.

　　The protected geographical indication area for Xuefeng Honey Oranges is based on the scope proposed in the letter "Regarding the Proposal to Define the Original Production Area of Xuefeng Honey Oranges" (Dong Zheng Han [2004] No. 10) issued by Dongkou County, Hunan Province. It includes the current administrative regions of 14 towns and townships in Dongkou County: Laotian Town, Shuidong Township, Shizhu Township, Shanmen Town, Shijiang Town, Huangqiao Town, - Township, Gaosha Town, Zhushi Town, Huagu Township, Yanshan Township, Dongkou Town, Yulan Town, and Huayuan Town.