Snow-covered apples provide extra-sweet harvest

Apples are picked after a snowfall in Qixia, a major apple production base in Yantai, Shandong province. [Photo by Luan Qincheng/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

With snow on the way in Yantai, Shandong province — which is known for its apples — farmers have begun the harvest.

Local people call the fruit snow apples because they hang on the branches about a month longer than other varieties. With the snapping cold temperatures of late autumn and early winter, the sugar in the flesh of the fruit diffuses and condenses, making snow apples especially sweet.

"The price of snow apples is twice that of ordinary apples," said Sun Maogang, a farmer in Huili town in Fushan district. "With a yield of 2,000 kilograms per mu (around 0.067 hectares), snow apples bring an extra 16,000 yuan ($2,242) per mu."

In Qixia, a county-level city, the snow apples have also become a way for local farmers to increase their incomes, according to the local government.