A farmer harvests "Red Beauty", a premium variety of mandarin orange, at a plantation in Ningbo's Xiangshan county. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Harvest season recently began for "Red Beauty", a premium variety of mandarin orange, in Ningbo's Xiangshan county. 

Sun Lian, 38, a Peking University graduate, invested nearly 10 million yuan ($1.45 million) in 2017 to lease a 100-mu (6.67 hectares) field in the county for the purpose of growing Red Beauty.

This year is the first time that his plantation has borne fruit. Sun estimated that the output will exceed 60,000 kilograms in total, worth 2 million yuan.

To date, he has received 12,500-kilograms-worth of orders for Red Beauty, with most buyers being from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

Sun's orchard exemplifies the county's bumper harvest in the premium variety of mandarin orange this year.

Official statistics show that the total output of Red Beauty in Xiangshan this year is estimated to be 15,000 metric tons, worth a combined value of 550 million yuan. The average annual income for 4,000 farmers growing the mandarin orange in the area is expected to top 120,000 yuan.

On Nov 16, the fourth Xiangshan Mandarin Orange Cultural Festival began, which saw a local agricultural company reach partnerships with Shenzhen-based fruit chain stores Pagoda and Deppon Express.

Red Beauty, which originated in Japan, is renowned for its pleasant taste and aroma. The time required to grow the fruit is at least three times longer than other mandarin orange species.