A worker process dried dates in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/zgyww.cn]

Yiwu-grown dates, a popular snack favored by the Emperor Qianlong (1711-99) of the Qing Dynasty, are now ripe for processing and sales, local media reported on Sept 5.

"Over a thousand visitors came to our village to attend a dates festival," said Zhang Guosheng, a spokesperson for Jinhe Village on Houzhai Road, Yiwu.

"Some purchasers from Hong Kong asked if they could order our dates at a price of 320 yuan ($44.87) per kilogram," he added.

The village has over 400 mu (26.67 hectares) of date trees and a processing plant with a daily yield of over 500 kilograms. 

The factory boasts a traditional processing approach that dates back to the 1800s and made Zhejiang province's list of intangible cultural heritages in 2012.

In 2018, the city government rolled out a three-year plan to spur the date industry and established an industry alliance to unite date farmers and processors.