QUZHOU, CHINA - Turning every part of a citrus fruit into valuable industrial ingredients - this is not just a concept, but the production reality already achieved by Zhejiang Jinming Biological Science & Technology Co., Ltd. The company, deeply rooted in the citrus deep-processing industry for nearly 40 years, is reshaping industry standards through technological innovation.
Seven Years of Dedication: Breakthrough in Peel Debittering Technology
As early as 2010, when the utilization of citrus peel was still rarely explored in the domestic market, Zhejiang Jinming had already launched its citrus peel comprehensive utilization project.
The naturally occurring bitter compounds in citrus peel have always been a core technical challenge restricting its industrial application. "A major difficulty was how to remove the bitterness from the peel while preserving its natural aroma," explained Fang Yu, General Manager of the company.
Through continuous technical efforts, Zhejiang Jinming successfully overcame the debittering bottleneck and became one of the first enterprises in China to develop honey citron tea ingredients. Today, various types of citrus peel can be processed according to customer requirements into multiple forms, including canned, frozen preserved, candied, or dried products, widely used in baking fillings, jelly ingredients, and snack foods.
Industry-Academia Collaboration: Expanding Patent Portfolio
In 2022, with assistance from the Kecheng District Science and Technology Bureau, Zhejiang Jinming established a Quzhou City Doctoral Innovation Station in collaboration with Dr. Li Jianhui from Quzhou University. With support from the Doctoral Innovation Station, the company has obtained multiple patents, significantly improving the utilization rate of whole citrus fruits. The partnership has also led to the development of innovative products such as orange jam and fruit puree.
Customized Equipment: From Labor-Intensive to Smart Production
Because the company focuses on the entire citrus industry chain, no standard ready-made equipment is available on the market. Zhejiang Jinming has independently developed multiple customized production lines.
A Equipment's "Intelligent Manufacturing" Revolution
The pressing equipment developed jointly with the Doctoral Innovation Station can complete the peeling, pressing, and seed removal of citrus fruits in a single process, receiving a national invention patent authorization in 2024.
The results of this technology are significant: processing tasks that previously required large amounts of manual labor can now be completed efficiently with just a few workers, dramatically improving the whole fruit utilization rate.
Breakthrough in Intelligent Production Line
After years of R&D investment, the world's first intelligent production line with a daily output of 120 tons of pomelo sacs has officially reached full production capacity at Zhejiang Jinming. This production line achieves full-process automation of peeling, sac membrane removal, dispersion, seed removal, and debittering.
In the past, pomelo sac processing relied entirely on manual labor - during peak season, a large number of temporary workers had to be hired daily, each holding small scissors, their fingers becoming red and swollen from citric acid corrosion. Today, Jinming's intelligent production line operates 24 hours a day, with significantly improved yield rates compared to traditional methods and substantially reduced energy consumption. The product features distinct, intact sacs, greatly reduced bitterness levels, and quality far exceeding industry standards.
Waste Transformed into High-Value Products
Under the concept of whole fruit utilization, Zhejiang Jinming has also turned its attention to the byproducts generated during citrus processing.
The company's developed technology for producing dietary fiber from citrus waste recycles byproducts such as peel, sac membrane residue, and pith to produce citrus dietary fiber with excellent functional properties, effectively "turning waste into treasure."
Expanding into the Fermentation Sector
In 2025, Zhejiang Jinming achieved another breakthrough in the bio-fermentation field, filing an invention patent application for "A Method for Preparing Fermented Citruc Ferment via Multi-Stage Fermentation and the Ferment Thereof." This technology employs a composite enzyme synergistic pretreatment, three-stage gradient fermentation with mixed bacterial strains, and low-temperature membrane concentration processes, allowing the efficient retention of active components such as vitamin C and flavonoids in the final product.
From dietary fiber to ferment, Zhejiang Jinming is transforming every part of the citrus fruit into high-value products, truly achieving "whole fruit utilization from peel to pulp."
New Factory Blueprint: A New Chapter in Capacity Expansion
The benefits of technological innovation extend beyond product quality improvement to significant capacity expansion. Zhejiang Jinming has acquired land for construction in the Kecheng Ecological Industrial Park and is planning to build a fully digital intelligent factory.
The new factory will be equipped with industry-leading fully automated citrus fruit granule production lines and will introduce world-class citrus NFC juice production lines. Upon reaching full capacity, the company expects to achieve new breakthroughs in annual output value while further increasing the citrus comprehensive utilization rate.
Technology Portfolio of Whole Fruit Utilization
A summary of Zhejiang Jinming's technology portfolio in citrus whole fruit utilization:
| Technology Area | Technical Value |
| Peel Debittering | Solves peel bitterness issue while retaining natural aroma |
| Pressing Equipment | Improves processing efficiency, significantly increases whole fruit utilization rate |
| Intelligent Production Line | Achieves full-process automation, quality far exceeds industry standards |
| Waste Utilization | "Turns waste into treasure," expands into functional food sector |
| Bio-fermentation | Expands into high-value-added products such as ferments |
Overall Achievement of Whole Fruit Utilization
Today, Zhejiang Jinming's product matrix has achieved comprehensive coverage from fresh fruit to high-value ingredients: citrus sacs, grapefruit sacs, orange juice concentrate with pulp, pomelo peel, orange peel, NFC juice, honey citron tea, orange jam, fruit puree, fiber powder... a "value tree" centered around citrus is continuously growing.
"When a citrus fruit arrives at our company, except for the tiny fruit stem, every part is processed into different ingredients" - this statement is transforming from vision into reality.
Closing Thoughts
From launching peel debittering R&D to the world's first 120-ton-daily-output intelligent pomelo sac production line reaching full capacity; from numerous workers manually peeling fruit to efficient processing with smart equipment - Zhejiang Jinming has completed a citrus "industrial revolution" over the course of more than a decade.
This is not only the growth story of one company, Zhejiang Jinming, but also a microcosm of China's agricultural product deep-processing industry transitioning from tradition to modernity, from "following" to "leading."
From "manual peeling" to "intelligent manufacturing," Zhejiang Jinming is showing the world the power of China's "Intelligent Manufacturing."
This article is based on publicly available information from Zhejiang Jinming Biological Science & Technology Co., Ltd., government announcements, and patent disclosures, with all data verifiable.
