There’s a run on lemons in China because people think it cures COVID

Several Chinese ecommerce platforms are entirely out of lemons, and some offline fruit stores are raising prices amid panic buying.

One journalist reported that many stores in Beijing as well as Chengdu have entirely sold out, and there has been a rush on wholesale markets for lemons. Another journalist found that various stores in Shanghai had sold out of the fruit, and also exhausted supplies of lemon tea, lemon candy, and lemon sparkling water. On December 15, a person working at a lemon farm in Sichuan Province told a journalist that he received 60 calls in one day from people who wanted to buy lemons, that his daily shipment of lemons had increased by ten times, and that the wholesale price had increased by 50%. In some cases, lemons are reportedly being sold for 10 yuan ($1.43) a piece.

The lemon frenzy follows just after a peach mania: A rumor appeared on the internet recently that canned yellow peaches could alleviate COVID symptoms, and on December 15, the ecommerce platform Hema 盒马 told a journalist that sales of canned peaches had grown by 887% in a week, and that they sold out every day as soon as product arrived. In addition, over the last week, honey, kiwis, oranges, pears, coconuts, and ginger have all been selling very well.

The lemon buying craze may have stemmed from a press conference held by the Shanghai municipal government that was broadcast on December 8. During the press conference, a doctor affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine said that Chinese food therapy (食疗 shíliáo) is recommended for people who are self-treating COVID at home, and that people who “have no symptoms or nasal congestion can soak water with fresh lemon slices to drink.” Another explanation for the panic buying is that a recipe using lemons, sugar, and salt for electrolyte water — which is currently in short supply — recently appeared online.

The lemon capital and the lemon hometown

However, China is not in any danger of running out of lemons, as production of the fruit has been industrialized on a large scale, especially in Chongqing and Sichuan Province, which account for 80% of production.

On November 8, the Tongnan International Lemon Festival officially opened in Tongnan district, Chongqing, a massive municipality to the east of Sichuan Province. At the opening of the festival, a signing ceremony took place of 39 purchase orders and investments with a total value of 7.2 billion yuan ($1.03 billion).

According to the Tongnan district government, Tongnan is being transformed into an “international lemon capital,” and currently has a lemon planting area of 21,333 hectares with an annual output of 280,000 tons. On average, around 55,000 tons are exported annually, accounting for more than 40% of China’s total lemon exports. In 2017, the district released plans to triple the size of its planting areas to 66,666 hectares by 2025. Tongnan has also established a lemon research institute, and a lemon seedling breeding center has been set up in Chongqing.

Yet if Tongnan is the “international lemon capital,” the adjacent county of Anyue in Sichuan Province is the “lemon hometown.” The two places are separated by the Qiongjiang River, a tributary of the Fujiang River, which flows into the Jialing River, and finally into the Yangtze River.

Anyue is considered the hometown of lemons in China because of Frank Dickinson, a Canadian missionary, who planted eureka lemon seedlings at the West China Union University in Chengdu in the 1920s. Dickinson worked as an agricultural missionary in Sichuan Province, and was renowned for his devotion in this regard. According to one article: “He liked the land, was passionate about his work, he also liked the students, and won their respect.” A few years later, a student from Anyue carried some of the seeds to his hometown, and so Anyue’s lemon story began.

On November 25, the Third World Lemon Industry Development Conference took place in Anyue, and included a large exhibition on the history of lemons in the county, focusing on the last two decades of large-scale industrial production. At the previous edition of the conference in 2020, orders of 380 million yuan ($54.53 million) were signed. Anyue currently has a lemon planting area of 32,000 hectares, with an annual output of 600,000 tons. Anyue even has a lemon tourism route with scenic areas, and the county plans to build eight lemon theme parks, 10 lemon demonstration areas, five more scenic spots, and six agricultural tourism attractions by 2025. Tongnan and Anyue are also currently discussing the joint development of a huge lemon industrial park.

Along with domestic production, China also imports some lemons. In 2020, imported citrus (including lemons) amounted to $489 million, mostly from Hong Kong ($145 million), South Africa ($97.5 million), and Egypt ($75.5 million), while China exported citrus of $1.33 billion, mostly to southeast Asian countries. More recently, however, China has been a net importer of lemons: from September 2021 to September 2022, China’s monthly citrus exports have decreased by 27.2%, from $53.1 million to $38.7 million, while imports remained steady at around $116 million.

The other lemons

Lemon-flavored tea is highly popular in China’s boutique tea shops, and brands like HEYTEA 喜茶 and Naixue 奈雪 always have lemon tea product categories. There are even specialized tea chains that focus only on lemon tea, like Linlee, which has the slogan “handmade lemon tea” (手打柠檬茶). These lemon teas are expensive: a cup of Linlee can easily go for 18 yuan ($2.53). This is because these lemons are not the type grown in Tongnan and Anyue, but a different variety, called citrus limon that is grown in Guangdong Province. The specialized tea chains have engaged in a race to open new stores, and as a result, the price of citrus limon has increased and there is a shortage of the higher grade fruits. Some of the lemon tea chains have even taken to growing their own fruit, with reportedly mixed results.