The opening ceremony of the 2013 China Shimen Citrus Festival was held on September 13, 2013 on the Orange Isle in Changsha. It is the first time that Shimen County (in Changde, Hunan) celebrates the citrus festival outside the county availing the opportunity of Hunan Tourism Commodities Exposition to let more people learn about Shimen County and its citrus.
New promotion channels such as e-commerce platforms on websites like New Countryside (nc.mofcom.gov.cn), Supply and Marketing Cooperatives of Shimen County (shimen.coop168.com) and Shimen Citrus (www.shimenganju.com) were opened on the same day to further upgrade the citrus marketing platform and allow online purchase.
Shimen County is the major production base of citrus in Hunan. The county’s citrus planting covers an area of 440,000 mu (about 29,333 hectares). Its annual production stands at 400,000 tons and the fruit has been exported to 16 provinces and municipalities nationwide and to nearly 30 overseas countries and regions like Russia, Canada and South Korea. The annual citrus festival has been held for 12 successive years since 2011. It functions as an effective platform for promoting Shimen County and marketing its citrus.
