Satellite imagery for this origin is being prepared.
GI Atlas
Yuncheng Apple
Fresh fruit — apple (Malus domestica)
At a glance
The story
A basin that grows apples
Yuncheng sits in the far southwest of Shanxi, in a basin held between the Yellow River and the Zhongtiao mountains. Loess, long hours of sun, a wide swing between day and night, and enough winter cold to set the fruit — the conditions that apples want, in a place that has been farmed for a very long time.
A gazetteer, and a writer passing through
A county gazetteer from 1923 records apples already growing here. The following June, according to his companion's travel diary, Lu Xun went ashore from a boat near Yongle and bought the local fruit to eat. The apples were here before anyone thought to protect the name.
Mother hen, and chicks
Yuncheng apple is a parent brand. Beneath it sit the county names — Linyi, Wanrong, Ruicheng, Pinglu — each registered in its own right, each keeping its own name. The prefecture describes the arrangement as a mother hen leading her chicks: the parent carries recognition the children could not buy alone, and the children keep the specificity the parent cannot claim.
What a name has to earn
The name is registered three ways: as a certification trademark, as an agricultural geographical indication, and as a recognised geographical-indication product. Three registers, one place, one fruit.
Season
- Ripening
- Not published – Not publishedOPEN
- Market window
- Not published – Not publishedOPEN
Register facts
- Regime
- Geographical indication certification trademark (地理标志证明商标), CNIPA — two marksPUB✓Agricultural product geographical indication (农产品地理标志), Ministry of Agriculture, 2017-12-22PUB1Geographical indication product recognition (地理标志产品), CNIPA announcement No. 640, 2025PUB1
- Authority
- China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA); the agricultural geographical indication was registered with the then Ministry of AgriculturePUB✓
- Registered
- Not publishedOPEN
- Announced
- Not publishedOPEN
- Registration number
- 第27681185號 · 第25203355號PUB✓
- Nice class
- Not publishedOPEN
- Registrant
- Not publishedOPEN
- Managing authority
- Yuncheng Municipal Fruit Industry Development Centre (运城市果业发展中心), which issues authorisation for the regional public brandPUB✓
- Supporting authorities
- Shanxi Intellectual Property Protection Centre (山西省知识产权保护中心)PUB1
- Other GIs in this county
- Linyi apple (临猗苹果) · Wanrong apple (万荣苹果) · Ruicheng apple (芮城苹果) · Pinglu apple (平陆苹果) · Linyi winter jujube (临猗冬枣)PUB✓
- Authorised use model
- Parent-child: Yuncheng apple is the parent regional public brand, operating a documented 母子品牌 model — a mother hen leading her chicks, in the phrase used at its launch. County brands sit beneath it and keep their own names.PUB✓
- Cross-border status
- No Madrid registration and no China–EU mutual recognition found. Published in the first batch of thirty Shanxi geographical indications on the Belt and Road intellectual property cooperation website. Apples from the prefecture have export market access in dozens of countries.PUB1
Protected scope
- Basis
- AdministrativePUB✓
- Administrative scope
- Yuncheng municipality (运城市)PUB✓
- Stated production footprint
- 13 counties and districts, 94 townshipsPUB✓
- Township and village enumeration
- Not publishedOPEN
Producers
Producers within the protected scope can be listed on this origin. None are listed yet.
Trade
This origin is open for market representation. IGSO receives and reviews all partner enquiries.
Apply to represent this origin