---
title: "Zhong Shanshan: For an Orange and Two Juices, Nongfu Spring Has Been Through Life-and-Death Struggles!"
description: "On December 8, at a press conference for 17.5° oranges held at its factory in Xinfeng County, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, known as the 'World Orange Township', Nongfu Spring's chairman Zhong Shanshan recounted the painful price the company paid for an orange. He also revealed for the first time why Nongfu Spring launched its first ambient-temperature NFC juice, and announced that Nongfu Spring achieved two firsts: developing the world's first Newhall NFC orange juice and launching the first ambient-temperature NFC juice."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-12-10"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xEMzQrBr_vScC1aVERCOKA"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E9%92%9F%E7%9D%92%E7%9D%92-%E4%B8%BA%E4%BA%86%E4%B8%80%E4%B8%AA%E6%A9%99%E5%AD%90-%E4%B8%A4%E7%93%B6%E6%9E%9C%E6%B1%81-%E5%86%9C%E5%A4%AB%E5%B1%B1%E6%B3%89%E5%8F%AF%E8%B0%93%E4%B9%9D%E6%AD%BB%E4%B8%80%E7%94%9F-afa9d3d1.md"
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# Zhong Shanshan: For an Orange and Two Juices, Nongfu Spring Has Been Through Life-and-Death Struggles!

> On December 8, at a press conference for 17.5° oranges held at its factory in Xinfeng County, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, known as the 'World Orange Township', Nongfu Spring's chairman Zhong Shanshan recounted the painful price the company paid for an orange. He also revealed for the first time why Nongfu Spring launched its first ambient-temperature NFC juice, and announced that Nongfu Spring achieved two firsts: developing the world's first Newhall NFC orange juice and launching the first ambient-temperature NFC juice.

On December 8, at a press conference for 17.5° oranges held at its factory in Xinfeng County, Ganzhou, Jiangxi, known as the 'World Orange Township', Nongfu Spring unveiled its 17.5° orange.
At the press conference, Chairman Zhong Shanshan recounted the painful price Nongfu Spring paid for an orange. He also **revealed for the first time why Nongfu Spring launched its first ambient-temperature NFC juice** and **announced that Nongfu Spring achieved two firsts: developing the world's first Newhall NFC orange juice and launching the first ambient-temperature NFC juice!**
1
**One Orange**
**Eight years to cultivate an orange, the persistence behind a true 17.5° orange**
▼
As is well known, Nongfu Spring began cultivation in 2007 and quietly launched 17.5° oranges in 2014. Although there was no overwhelming advertising, the brand endorsement quickly made this orange stand out.
What is 17.5°? Many think it refers to sugar content, but it actually refers to the sugar-to-acid ratio of the orange. Nongfu Spring uses this to tell consumers that sweeter is not necessarily better; a balance of sweet and sour is the true orange flavor. According to the USDA grading standards, Class A oranges should have a sugar-to-acid ratio between 12.5 and 20.5, with an average of 17.5, which is the golden ratio of sugar and acidity in oranges.
Strict management measures for orchards, with dedicated personnel responsible for every management detail, and true traceability for every fruit, are the quality guarantees of 17.5° oranges. Adhering to no forced ripening, no waxing, and harvesting at full ripeness ensures the golden sugar-to-acid ratio of every orange.
**Yet, for such an orange, Zhong Shanshan said Nongfu Spring paid a painful price...**
2
**Life-and-Death Struggles**
**Ten years to grow oranges, Nongfu experienced a painful 'Waterloo'**
▼
**"It looks like just an orange and two bottles of juice, but Nongfu Spring has taken many detours for this, almost to the point of life-and-death struggles,"** said Zhong Shanshan, chairman of Nongfu Spring, at the press conference.
In 2007, when Nongfu Spring came here and saw the navel oranges covering the mountains, they were full of optimism and ambition for the new factory to be built here. But unexpectedly, they encountered a very painful failure, and the next ten years were almost Nongfu Spring's 'Waterloo'.
After the first factory was built, the navel oranges could not be used for juicing because at that time, the global agricultural processing industry could not solve the bitterness problem of navel orange juice. In addition to entering the industry's recognized 'forbidden zone', we also made a series of major mistakes: factory site selection errors, equipment procurement errors, fruit variety selection errors, and errors in the distribution of relationships between agriculture and commerce.
"It can be said that Nongfu Spring's navel orange industry in southern Jiangxi was once in a desperate situation," said Zhong Shanshan at the press conference. **"Nongfu Spring has been in Ganzhou for ten years, and no other project has taken so many detours, invested so much energy, or made so many mistakes. It truly feels like: without experiencing wind and rain, how can you see a rainbow."**
3
**Difficult Breakthrough**
**Overcoming two major challenges, exploring the path to agricultural modernization**
▼
After suffering many setbacks, **Nongfu Spring once considered giving up, but ultimately decided to start from scratch and explore the correct path to agricultural modernization.**
Nongfu people spent nearly ten years doing basic agricultural research in the fields, continuously collecting data and accumulating knowledge, because without these basic agricultural research accumulations, there would be no modern agriculture. Currently, Nongfu Spring has formed the largest navel orange data repository in China.
In addition, Nongfu Spring used proprietary technology to overcome the world-class problem of navel orange juicing.
In 2014, Nongfu perfectly solved the bitterness problem in navel orange juice. At that time, the global industry was highly skeptical. It was not until December 2015, when the first batch of 17.5° orange juice was launched, that the world beverage industry realized that **this difficulty that had plagued the industry for over 50 years had been overcome by a Chinese company, and that Chinese people are fully capable of achieving world leadership in agriculture!**
4
**Two Bottles of Juice**
**2016 NFC juice new products born, achieving two firsts**
▼
At the beginning of 2016, Nongfu Spring entered the 100% juice market with the launch of 17.5° NFC juice (hereinafter referred to as 17.5°). The product comes in two flavors: orange juice and apple juice, priced at 12.90 yuan per 330ml bottle and 29.90 yuan per 950ml bottle. The launch of 17.5° NFC marks Nongfu Spring's official entry into the high-end NFC juice market, injecting momentum into the currently small NFC juice segment.
After successfully launching the first NFC juice, Nongfu, in order to change the current situation where cold-chain NFC juice is expensive and limited in sales regions, and to benefit more consumers, introduced its 20 years of aseptic production technology into NFC juice production, successfully developing an ambient-temperature NFC juice that does not require cold chain.
In August 2016, Nongfu Spring's 100% NFC juice was freshly launched, with two flavors: orange juice and apple-banana juice, both in 300ml bottles priced at 6.9 yuan. In October, the two NFC products made a high-profile appearance at the G20 summit.
At this point, it can be said that **Nongfu Spring achieved two firsts: developing the world's first Newhall NFC orange juice and launching the first ambient-temperature NFC juice.**
**Three years to bear fruit**
**Eight years to cultivate an orange**
**Ten years to improve a generation**
**Twenty years to truly cultivate a superior variety**
From 1996 to 2016, Nongfu Spring has already walked 20 years, producing and operating five major series of dozens of products including drinking water, fruit and vegetable juices, functional drinks, and tea drinks. **Now, with its focus on the navel orange industry chain, it can be said that Nongfu Spring is at the forefront among Chinese beverage companies!**
**Source: Food Business**
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