Local children showing the picked lemon fruits at an orchard in Tongnan, Chongqing. (Photo/ifeng Chongqing)

Chongqing - At the recently held Hong Kong Food Expo 2025, Chongqing’s Tongnan District drew praise from visitors with its showcase of lemon products, ranging from cooking sauces to ready-to-eat slices and honey teas. 

In recent years, Tongnan has cultivated 320,000 mu (about 21,300 hectares) of lemons through standardized, large-scale, and eco-friendly farming. What began as a modest crop has grown into a major industry worth 9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion), delivering greener landscapes and higher incomes.

Lemon cultivation in Tongnan began in the 1970s. Alongside California in the United States and Sicily in Italy, Tongnan is now regarded as one of the world’s leading lemon-producing regions. Its main variety, the Eureka, is prized for its fragrance and juice. 

But growers have long battled a destructive adversary: yellow vein clearing disease. Once infected, trees suffer sharp declines in yield and quality. Worse, the disease spreads easily, carried by insects, pruning, or grafting.

Chongqing’s first virus-free lemon seedling center was set up in 2018 in Baizi, Tongnan. By 2020, it produced its first seedlings, eliminating the disease at its source. Now, it supplies 1 million seedlings a year to Chongqing, Sichuan and other regions.

At a lemon base in Baizi, Tongnan, a cloud-based irrigation and fertilization system adjusts nutrients with precision. 

“Based on Tongnan’s standardized lemon cultivation, we have established technical guidelines covering planting density, pesticide and fertilizer use, and green pest control,” said Fu Qiang, head of Tongnan's lemon industry development station. “We successfully reduced pesticide and fertilizer use by more than 30%.”

The district now counts 13 demonstration orchards of over 1,000 mu each, more than 100 standardized orchards, and 30,000 mu of high-standard export-certified bases. In total, 598 lemon enterprises and 363 large-scale growers operate in Tongnan.

Fresh lemon prices can swing from 10 yuan (about $1.40) per half-kilogram to just a few cents when demand drops. To offset this, Tongnan has turned to processing, developing over 300 lemon-based products to boost value, a district official said.

At Huida Lemon’s Exhibition Hall, visitors can sample products ranging from cosmetics and food to health goods and biopharmaceuticals. Tongnan is now home to 37 processing firms producing over 350 lemon products, sold nationwide and exported to more than 30 countries, including Russia, Singapore, Kazakhstan and the Philippines.

“A lemon is a treasure, one lemon can be made into many products,” said Dai Xiaoping, chairman of Chongqing Huida Lemon Technology Group Co., Ltd. Lemon oil, for example, goes into cosmetics such as masks and cleansers. Fresh juice is made into NFC (not-from-concentrate) beverages, while the leftover pulp becomes jam and fruit cakes.

Chongqing Mengtai Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has taken the process further. “We developed China’s first fully self-designed integrated dry-wet lemon production line using six-stage separation and extraction technology,” said company representative Yang Jianjun. 

Yang explained that oil sacs in lemon peels are used for essential oils, the outer skin for flavonoids, and the white inner layer for pectin, fibers, fertilizers, and feed. Juice, pulp, and seeds are also processed separately. The production line handles over 300,000 tons of substandard fruit each year, achieving full utilization.

The industry has reshaped Baizi as well, where streetlights, billboards, and signs now feature lemon motifs under its “Lemon Town” branding.

“To build the Lemon Town, we upgraded roads, squares, and walkways, and gave the town a golden color scheme to highlight its lemon identity,” Fu Qiang said. Lemon Square, crowned with a giant lemon sculpture, has become a key local landmark, attracting more than 300,000 tourists each year.