Biz Unusual

Snow peach set to tickle high-end buds

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-28 11:24

The snow peach is grown on Yulong Mountain. Fu Zhiyong / For China Daily

BEIJING - The snow peach, a species of peach that grows on snowy mountains in Yunnan province, has become another "calling card" for Lijiang, a historic city popular with tourists, local government officials have said.

Mu Chonggen, Party secretary of Yulong Naxi autonomous county, said on Sunday that the government is targeting the peach variety to cater to the high-end market in China's major cities.

Yulong is located around the Yulong Mountain, a must-go place in Lijiang. The city of Lijiang is a UNESCO world cultural heritage site. Nearly 8 million people, including almost 530,000 international travelers, toured the city in 2009.

Snow peaches from Lijiang are already in supermarkets including the Ito Yokado in Beijing, the Wal-Mart in Shenzhen and Shanghai First Food Chain Development Co Ltd stores.

The popularity of snow peaches has caught on ever since it started being served at the Chinese government's National Day celebration banquets each year.

In supermarkets, the price of a single snow peach is 100 yuan ($14.90). The biggest one this year, called "The Snow Peach King", was auctioned for 38,000 yuan at a promotional banquet on Sunday.

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Mu Chongfeng, the man who spent 18 years to cultivate the first such kind of peach, said, "the snow peach is totally free from pollutants as it is planted at altitudes ranging from 2,400 to 2,800 meters (above sea level)."

The snow peach contains 15 kinds of aminophenol out of the 17 that human beings need, according to tests done by the Ministry of Agriculture. Among the 39 nutritional indicators tested, the snow peach comfortably surpassed all other kinds of peaches.

Now, the snow peach has got an organic food tag and can be sold abroad.

According to the local government, peach planting has grown rapidly in Yulong Naxi autonomous county. This kind of peach is now cultivated on nearly 13 square kilometers of land.

The local government has charted a development plan to increase its acreage as it is expected to fetch an income of 200 million yuan this year.