Economic Watch: In China's mountain city, drones and robots give lemon industry a lift

CHONGQING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- For generations, Liu Wanyun's family harvested lemons by hand, bending low to pick the fruit and carrying heavy loads down the mountain, but now advanced technology offers him a new helping hand.

In an orchard in Shuikou Village of Tongnan District, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, Liu and other villagers pick ripe lemons while a drone pierces the morning mist overhead, hovering precisely above the grove before lowering a hook to lift a bulging sack of freshly harvested fruit.

With a hum of rotors, the drone carrying 100 kilograms of lemons descends the mountain, drops the load onto a waiting truck and swiftly returns for another round, a scene that captures the growing "human-machine collaboration" reshaping the lemon industry in China's mountainous city of Chongqing.

"It only takes a few drone trips to do what we used to accomplish in a whole day," Liu said.

According to drone operator Yang Qing, the model used in the orchards can spray, sow and transport goods. Powered by advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and computing power, it performs fully autonomous flights and detects obstacles in all directions.

"One operator with one drone can transport 20 tonnes of lemons a day, the same amount of work that once took 10 people two days to complete," Yang said. "It cuts labor costs and boosts efficiency, as the drone can fully recharge in just 10 minutes before taking off again."

Beyond the orchards, automation takes over inside Snow King Agriculture (Chongqing) Co., Ltd., where robotic arms carefully lift crates of lemons onto a conveyor belt, and the fruits are washed, sorted, weighed and packaged before being moved into storage, all within just 15 minutes.

In the sorting area, 12 grading lines operate in smooth coordination, while a digital monitoring system assesses each lemon's size, color and imperfections -- such as rot, dark spots or bumps -- with near-perfect accuracy.

"Our automated production line can process over 50 tonnes of lemons per hour, handling over 1,200 tonnes a day," said Li Jincheng, who is in charge of the company. "Automation improves both speed and quality, which is a win-win for both producers and consumers."

Across China, traditional industries are undergoing a technology-driven transformation to raise productivity and open new paths for growth.

The world's second-largest economy has recently unveiled a pivotal document outlining priorities for its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), which emphasizes "achieving greater self-reliance and strength in science and technology" and "steering the development of new quality productive forces" as key objectives for the coming five years.

Numerous companies across China are accelerating their digital transformation efforts. According to the China Internet Development Report 2024, the country now has nearly 10,000 digitalized workshops and intelligent factories. Of that number, more than 400 have been recognized as national-level benchmark factories in the field of smart manufacturing, utilizing technologies such as AI and digital twins.

Such momentum has been propelling Tongnan lemons into overseas markets. In the first nine months of 2025, Tongnan exported 14,400 tonnes of fresh lemons worth 176 million yuan (about 24.84 million U.S. dollars), marking year-on-year increases of 10.8 percent and 58.6 percent, respectively.

"We can now cover all regions within a 40-day shipping window," said Li. "Technology has enabled our exported lemons to meet the standards of customers in different countries, giving us the confidence to expand globally."

Today, Tongnan boasts 320,000 mu (about 21,333 hectares) of lemon plantations, with annual production expected to reach 350,000 tonnes and an annual output value of 9 billion yuan.

"The next step is to deepen processing technologies and build an integrated value chain from cultivation to advanced processing," said Hu Guangjian, director of the district's agriculture and rural affairs committee. "We aim to make 'Tongnan Lemon' a name recognized far beyond China's borders." ■