With more than 150 years of cultivation history, Yantai is the birthplace of modern apples in China. In 2008, Yantai’s apple was approved to register a certification trademark of geographical indication and was recognized as a well-known trademark in China in 2011. In 2015, Yantai commissioned Zhejiang University to create a tailor-made “Yantai Apple Branding Strategic Plan”, in which a strategic design was carried out for the brand symbol system, management protection system and communication system; the brand itself was upgraded and enhanced in 2020. Meanwhile, the continuous selection of the Top 10 Brands of Yantai Apples has made joint publicity and promotion possible, where a parent-child branding system led by regional public brands and supported by corporate brands has been built.
Yantai apples were planted on 2.55 million mu, with a total output of 5.74 million tons by 2021, and the brand value of “Yantai Apples” was 15.034 billion yuan, which was the No. 1 brand in China’s fruit industry for 13 consecutive years. Yantai apples have been taken into space by Yantai astronaut Wang Yaping, have taken the lead in entering the catalog of China-EU Agreement on Geographical Indications, have been approved in the first batch to prepare for the establishment of National Protection Demonstration Zone for Products with Geographical Indications and selected in the Key Contact Guidance List for the National Geographical Indication Application and Promotion. Furthermore, Yantai has been approved to create a national 100-billion-level advantageous characteristic industrial cluster for its apples. Branding is inseparable from the guarantee of quality. With certified area of 850,000 mu, 116 fruit enterprises in the city have obtained “Three Products and One Standard” certification up to now; nearly 20 fruit enterprises have passed the GAP certification. In the national and provincial fruit quality and safety supervision and sampling test, the monitoring qualification rate of Yantai apples has reached 100%. With the enhancement of standardization and branding, Yantai apples are leading the national apple industry to stride forward.
In 2020, the Yantai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government issued the “Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the High-Quality Development of the Apple Industry (2020-2022)”, which proposed 17 specific measures in 5 major areas, including promoting scientific and technological innovation, building a platform for development, consolidating the industrial foundation, strengthening the promotion of the brand, and establishing a guarantee system. These policy measures are highly leading and clearly oriented, providing scientific guidance and finding a new way out for the high-quality development of Yantai’s apple industry, so as to achieve a strong fruit industry in beautiful villages of rich fruit farmers.