Published : 09/06/2026
China is the world's largest producer and consumer of fruit, but does everyone know which province in China produces the most fruit?
A hint is that the fruit produced most abundantly in that region is the sugar tangerine.
Ideal conditions for fruit growing
The answer is Guangxi, China's largest fruit-producing province-level region, often dubbed a “paradise for fruit.”
Located in southern China and crossed by the Tropic of Cancer, Guangxi enjoys a warm climate, abundant sunshine and plentiful rainfall. Its many mountains and hills also create wide differences between day and night temperatures, making it an ideal place for growing fruit.
According to official figures, Guangxi has more than 20 million mu of fruit-growing land, equivalent to about 13,300 square kilometres, or roughly 12 times Hong Kong's land area.
In 2023, Guangxi produced about 34 million tonnes of fruit, accounting for roughly one-eighth of China's total output and ranking first nationwide for the sixth consecutive year.
What does 34 million tonnes of fruit actually mean? Based on China's population of 1.4 billion, that works out to more than 40 kilograms per person.
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Isn't the sugar tangerine a speciality of Sihui, Guangdong?
So, what kind of fruit is produced the most in Guangxi? Ranking first is citrus fruit, with a production of over 18 million tonnes; according to data, citrus is the most produced fruit in China, and Guangxi's output accounts for one-third of the national total and about one-tenth of the global total.
Guangxi cultivates many varieties of citrus fruit, the main one being the sugar tangerine, named for its "flavour as sweet as granulated sugar", which is also the sugar tangerine in Cantonese.
Isn't the sugar tangerine a speciality of Sihui, Guangdong, so how did it end up in Guangxi?
That's right, Sihui in Guangdong is the origin of the sugar tangerine, but in the 1980s, Guangxi began to introduce it for large-scale cultivation, and its production volume has now surpassed Guangdong's; the local output of sugar tangerine has also exceeded that of the Shatian pomelo, which many people consider a speciality of Guangxi.
Besides citrus fruits, Guangxi's production of persimmons, dragon fruits, and passion fruits are all ranked first in the country; its production of mangoes, bananas, lychees, and longans ranks second in the country.
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China's major fruits: Guangxi is missing just this one.....
In fact, Guangxi has resources for nearly 300 varieties of fruit trees, accounting for 70% of the nation's fruit tree species; Guangxi produces almost all of the fruits cultivated on a large scale in China, with only one exception: apples.
Guangxi currently has 14 prefecture-level cities, and the one with the largest fruit production is actually Guilin, famed for its "landscapes that are the finest under heaven", where the most produced fruit is precisely citrus.
It was just mentioned that citrus is the most produced fruit in China, so what is in second place?
It turns out to be apples, which Guangxi does not produce; the apple-producing provinces in China are concentrated in the north, mainly Shaanxi and Shandong. Ranked after apples are pears, grapes, and bananas.
To add a final few points, China is currently the world's largest producer and consumer of fruit, but in 1949, China's fruit production was a pitifully low 1.2 million tonnes, and by 1978 it was only 6.57 million tonnes.
The rapid development of China's fruit cultivation began in the 1990s after the Reform and Opening-up, and currently, the national annual fruit production has surpassed the 300 million tonne mark, which is more than 40 times the amount in 1978.
Data from 2026 shows that China's per capita fruit availability exceeded 220 kilograms.