Highly-coveted Shine Muscat grape variety grown in China's Xichang reaches tables across country thanks to e-commerce

Growers of Shine Muscat grapes in Xichang city, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Sichuan Province are now selling their premium Shine Muscat grapes to the rest of the country, including four first-tier cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Photo shows Shine Muscat grapes in Xichang city, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

Xichang has the largest planting area for premium Shine Muscat grapes in Sichuan. The grape variety, which was introduced from Japan, has gained a great reputation in the Chinese market. Originally, the price of premium Shine Muscat grapes exceeded 200 yuan (about $29) per kilogram, which encouraged many farmers to grow the grape variety.

As the planting area for Shine Muscat grapes has continuously expanded in China, the price of the grape variety has become more affordable in the past two years. Despite the boost in supply, growers of Shine Muscat grapes are still enjoying considerable earnings.

Liu Xiaosong is a major grower of Shine Muscat grapes in Shanzui village, Youjun township of Xichang city. Once an apple grower, Liu began to grow Shine Muscat grapes three years ago after building greenhouses covering 25 mu (about 1.7 hectares) of land for the grape variety and introducing an automatic irrigation system to improve production efficiency. He increased the planting area for the grape variety by 6 mu this year. After planting Shine Muscat grapes, Liu's income has increased by severalfold.

Photo shows Shine Muscat grape greenhouses in Xichang city, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

This year, more than half of Liu's Shine Muscat grapes have been purchased by Liang Qiuyuan, deputy general manager of a company that sells Shine Muscat grapes and other fruits via Chinese e-commerce platforms including Pinduoduo. Liang's online store has received 10,000 orders of Shine Muscat grapes a day at most.

Shen Fei is a 34-year-old resident in Ningle village, Lizhou township of Xichang city. Her family has planted 3.2 mu of Shine Muscat grapes. It's estimated that the total yield of her family's Shine Muscat grapes in 2022 will reach 12,500 kilograms.

Liang decided to purchase all of Shen's Shine Muscat grapes this year because of their high quality. This year, Shen's revenue from sales of Shine Muscat grapes will reach 300,000 yuan.

Liang Qiuyuan (L), who sells Shine Muscat grapes and other fruits via Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, checks on a bunch of Shine Muscat grapes at a greenhouse in Xichang city, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwest China's Sichuan Province. (Photo/Chinanews.com)

According to Liang, Shine Muscat grapes purchased from Shen can reach consumers across the country within 48 hours via cold-chain logistics.

On Aug. 21, Pinduoduo launched a 24-day shopping festival to promote the sales of agricultural products, including Shine Muscat grapes from Xichang city.

In 2021, the grape planting area in Xichang city exceeded 100,000 mu, and the total output value of the city's grapes surpassed 3 billion yuan.