The harvest season for waxberries arrived in Qingtian recently, attracting large numbers of visitors to the county that is administered by Lishui city in East China's Zhejiang province.

The waxberry – also known the Yang Mei or yumberry – is eaten throughout China. It is high in vitamins C and E and contains riboflavin, thiamine and carotene. The fruit is also being plugged as the next big 'super fruit' due to its high content of antioxidants.

In recent years, with the popularity of the fruit soaring and their market share getting higher and higher, the Qingtian waxberry has also entered foreign markets.

However, due to the short shelf life of the waxberry, the preservation of the fruit has been a problem that challenged local farmers for a long time.

The fruit is carefully placed in the new packaging, ready for export. [Photo/WeChat account: qttv0578] 

Zhan Xudong, head of the Qingtian waxberry service center, has been working on solving the problem for years. He said that this year they introduced some new technology, which snap-freezes the fruit at -40C, as well as a new storage method.

The latter uses individual packaging which is filled with mixed gas, added to ice bags positioned outside the packaging.

Zhan said that with such high-tech preparations waxberries are still fresh after arriving at their destination.

According to Zhan, this year a total of 300 tons of waxberries will be exported, mainly to the United States, Singapore, Italy and Spain.