Where are the main mandarin orange producing areas distributed?

Mandarin oranges are very common in our daily life and are a delicious fruit loved by many people. So what are the producing areas of mandarin oranges? Let's take a look together below.

I. World distribution of mandarin oranges

The world's mandarin oranges are mainly distributed in areas south of 35° north latitude. They prefer warm and humid conditions, and in regions with large water bodies that raise temperatures, they can extend northward to 45° north latitude. There are 135 countries in the world producing mandarin oranges, with an annual output of 102.822 million tons and an area of 10.73 million mu, both ranking first among all fruits. The number one producer is Brazil, with 24.2526 million tons; the second is the United States, with 16.3352 million tons; China is third, with 10.78 million tons; followed by Mexico, Spain, Iran, India, Italy and other countries.

II. Mandarin orange producing areas in China

In China, mandarin oranges are distributed between 16-37° north latitude, at elevations up to 2600 m (Batang, Sichuan), from Sanya City in Hainan Province in the south, to Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan in the north, from Taiwan, China in the east, to the Yarlung Zangbo River valley in Tibet in the west. However, the economic cultivation areas for citrus in China are mainly concentrated between 20-33° north latitude, below 700-1000 m in elevation. Nationwide, mandarin oranges are produced in 19 provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions), including Taiwan, China, among which the main producers are 10 provinces (municipalities, districts) including Zhejiang, Fujian, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hubei, Guangdong, Jiangxi, Chongqing and Taiwan, followed by Shanghai, Guizhou, Yunnan, Jiangsu and other provinces (municipalities), and they are also grown in Shaanxi, Henan, Hainan, Anhui and Gansu provinces. There are 985 counties (cities, districts) growing mandarin oranges nationwide.

III. The value of mandarin oranges

Mandarin oranges are sweet and sour in taste, warm in nature, and enter the lung. They are mainly used to treat stagnation of qi in the chest and diaphragm, vomiting and poor appetite, insufficiency of stomach yin, dryness and thirst in the mouth, cough due to lung heat, and excessive drinking. They have the effects of stimulating appetite, quenching thirst and moistening the lungs. Mandarin oranges are also very rich in nutrition; one mandarin orange almost satisfies the vitamin C needed by the human body in a day. In addition, mandarin oranges contain more than 170 kinds of plant compounds and more than 60 kinds of flavonoid compounds, most of which are natural antioxidants.

The rich nutritional components in mandarin oranges have effects such as lowering blood lipids and resisting atherosclerosis, and are greatly beneficial for preventing the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases. Mandarin orange juice contains a substance called “nomilin”, which has the ability to inhibit and kill cancer cells and has a preventive effect on stomach cancer. The peel of the mandarin orange is orange-red, and the flesh is granular, very similar to that of pomelo. Mandarin oranges have thin peel and much flesh, and the juice is sweet and sour and tasty; when the mandarin orange is peeled open, the juice overflows.

Mandarin oranges have very high taste and nutritional value, and they are grown throughout China, so they can be said to be a very affordable fruit.