As autumn breezes bring the joy of harvest, the 2026 Xinhua Index Autumn Harvest Celebration and Agricultural Strategy Direction Conference was held in Shanghai on September 19, where findings from the Xinhua Qinglong Chestnut Industry Development Index were unveiled. Alongside the launch, the event featured keynote speeches, a special agricultural products promotion and matchmaking session targeting the Yangtze River Delta, and an index premium product research tour that visited fresh e-commerce headquarters and agricultural trading centers to bridge producers with markets effectively.
As the only index focused specifically on the chestnut category, the Xinhua Qinglong Chestnut Industry Development Index builds an evaluation framework across four dimensions: industry foundation, development quality, market vitality, and brand influence, offering authoritative data support for monitoring industry operations and guiding production-sales decisions. During the afternoon promotion session, Li Lifeng, Standing Committee Member of the Propaganda Department of the Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County Committee, served as a narrator for local specialty products, introducing Qinglong chestnuts to buyers from the Yangtze River Delta. In the golden harvest season, the index stepped into the harvest festival, telling the story of abundance from the thousand-year-old chestnut town through data. Photo: Scene from the index release (Source: Provided by the organizer).
With a deep-rooted heritage, thousand-year-old trees yield the golden fruit of the Yan Mountains. Qinglong has long been hailed as the hometown of Jidong chestnuts, with a cultivation history spanning over 2,000 years and an export history exceeding a century. The industry adage that the world looks to China for chestnuts, China to the Yan Mountains, the Yan Mountains to Jidong, and Jidong to Qinglong has cemented Qinglong chestnuts as an industry benchmark.
In recent years, Qinglong Manchu Autonomous County has adhered to a development philosophy of thriving on chestnut cultivation and enriching farmers through industry chain integration, driving the shift from traditional planting to a full-industry-chain model. The chestnut sector has become a pillar industry boosting local incomes and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization. Qinglong chestnuts have now secured national geographical indication certification, been recognized as a national specialty and premium new agricultural product, and shortlisted for the agricultural brand premium cultivation program, establishing an integrated development pattern covering planting, processing, warehousing, e-commerce, and exports. Products now reach overseas markets, spreading the Qinglong flavor far and wide.
The index mirrors development, with rising figures underscoring harvest confidence. Index results show that from 2018 to 2025, the overall Xinhua Qinglong Chestnut Industry Development Index climbed from a baseline of 100 points to 3,773.36 points, with a compound growth rate of 67.98% since the base period. Among its sub-indices, the industry foundation index stood at 402.33 points, development quality at 978.40 points, market vitality at 8,491.54 points, and brand influence at 3,290.17 points. In 2025, the Qinglong chestnut industry achieved a milestone leap, fully entering a new phase centered on brand value and driven by high-quality development through full-chain integration.
Looking at the sub-indices, market vitality posted the strongest growth, while brand influence accelerated its upward trajectory, painting a picture of steady accumulation and rapid rise for the industry overall. The industrial chain continues to expand and refine, brand influence and market reach are growing, and features of scale, branding, and internationalization are becoming more pronounced. The ongoing index serves as both a barometer for observing Qinglong chestnut industry trends and a compass for production and sales decisions.
A small chestnut supports a major industry for enriching communities. The appearance of the Xinhua Qinglong Chestnut Industry Development Index at the farmers' harvest festival is both a concentrated showcase of the Yan Mountains chestnut town's harvest achievements and a vivid practice of digital empowerment for specialty industries. Looking ahead, the index will continue to play a guiding data role, helping the Qinglong chestnut industry advance toward scale, standardization, branding, and modernization, bringing the sweetness of the thousand-year-old chestnut township to broader markets and injecting lasting momentum into comprehensive rural revitalization.