Thanks to the mild subtropical and humid climate of southern China, Luodian county in Guizhou has successfully completed its main navel orange harvest. 

The harvest for this very popular variety of oranges in China began in mid-November 2023, with late-maturing navels ready by early spring, 2024. 

According to China Daily,  fair monsoon weather and fertile terrain boosted the harvest in the county’s 2,313 hectares under navel oranges. The terrain espouses the region’s famous eroded limestone landscape, ideal for the good drainage that navels require to grow. 

Luodian area carries out an ideal agricultural structure that involves growing multiple fruit tree varieties and leafy greens. Other produce that grow here include banana, passion fruit and dragon fruit, besides vegetables, banyan trees and maples.

The current harvest will see farmers utilize simple yet stylish floating markets to sell their fresh navel oranges. Fruit sellers distribute their edible ware by rafts afloat the bluish-green waters of rivers near Daxiaojing in Luodian. Aboard these bamboo rafts, the marketers offer an assortment of fruits such as navel oranges and dragon fruits. 

Farmers say that living by the waters helps keep the highly perishable fruits fresh as the “weather is a bit hot.” Despite being winter in northern China, the southern subtropical region is usually vibrant with color and warmth in December. Some of the colorful sites include the Laya Waterfall,  the third tallest waterfall in the globe, which cascades 68 levels.

Market scenes in this scenic landscape of southern China will continue into April 2024, when late-maturing navel oranges ripen. Far-flung counties in the neighboring provinces of Hubei and Jiangxi will also have their navels ready by spring.  For the 2022-23 season, farmers in Zigui county in Hubei, for instance, harvested their late crop by April 15, 2023. 

Another major navel orange area in China is Gannan county in the southern province of Jiangxi. It has become such a major production center that it has even nurtured its own Gannan Navel Orange variety. This golden cultivar, which is known for being sweet and juicy, came here 50 years ago courtesy of horticulturalist, Yuan Shougen.

In production terms, Jianxi Province produced 1.45 million tons of the variety in 2021, the biggest margin globally. Nationwide, China produced 3.37 million tonnes of navel oranges in 2020.

These impressive production figures underline the growing market activity in Luodian, an emerging navel orange zone in China.