Tourists pick oranges at a citrus orchard in Yiling district, Yichang city, Central China's Hubei province on Oct 16, 2015.[Photo/chinadaily.com.cn]

The fifth citrus fruit festival and annual meeting of Chinese Society of Citrus culture opened in Yiling in Yichang on October 16, 2015. More than 1,000 guests attended the event. They included specialists and scholars from the country and e-commerce teams from seven countries ranging from the US to Vietnam and from five regions - Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Manzhouli, Qindao, Taiwan.

The citrus fruit festival has also attracted 24 domestic and foreign companies. Total volume of citrus negotiated at the event reached 395,000 tons, which is 43.8 percent of the total production. Among the deals was a sales agreement signed with foreign businessmen, including from Russia and Thailand, for 65,000 tons of the fruit. The citrus in Yiling sells well in 23 domestic provinces, and is also exported to foreign countries’ markets to many countries and regions such as Russia, Canada, Spain, Japan and Thailand.

It is said that there are 11 towns, 114 villages in Yiling region. About 60,000 farmers plant citrus in the Yiling region. At present, the area of planting citrus is 330,000Mu（220 square kilometers）. And the annual output is more than 700,000 tons.The fodder yield of citrus is the first place in Hubei province .

By Oct 12, 2015, Yiling region had sold 118,000 tons of citrus.