Tangerines to go on sale at 12 city parks

Now’s the time to taste succulent tangerines from Shanghai's suburbs.

Tangerines grown in Chongming District and the Pudong New Area will be sold at 12 downtown parks from Saturday, Shanghai's greenery authorities said on Friday.

They will be available at Lu Xun, Zhongshan, Xinjing, Changfeng, Changshou, Yangpu, Huangxing, Jinqiao, Zhabei and Daning parks, Gongqing Forest Park and Shanghai Botanical Garden, the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau said.

Sales start at 8am and will last for 30 days.

The fruit will be transported to the parks early in the morning on the day after they are picked to ensure freshness. A kilogram will cost 4 yuan (58 US cents).

Tangerines occupy 53,000 mu (3,533 hectares) in Shanghai, 26 percent of the city’s total fruit-growing area, with the majority in the towns of Changxing and Luhua and Hengsha Village on Chongming Island, according to the Shanghai Forestry Station. They are also grown along the Dazhi River in Pudong as well as suburban Jinshan and Fengxian districts.

The forestry station expects this year’s crop to be slightly more than last year’s 120,000 tons.

The extremely long plum rain season this year affected the looks of the fruit, but quality and taste are not affected, the station said.

The recent sunny weather and sharp temperature differences between day and night raised sugar levels, and the fruit will be much sweeter this year, the bureau said.

Sales of Chongming tangerines were once sluggish due to the island district’s distance from downtown and poor transport links. That was before the Changjiang Tunnel-Bridge was put into use in 2009. The difficulty in getting the fruit to market prompted city authorities, several years ago, to set up free stalls for farmers in downtown parks.