1968 10, 50 tons of tangerines were exported to Canada in Shimen county horticultural demonstration field, which opened the prelude to 40 years of continuous export. Considerable foreign exchange, loud reputation and ideal benefits have stimulated the rapid expansion of citrus export scope, and the export quantity has been rising continuously, which has promoted the substantial improvement and expansion of production level and scale. Ping Xiu, Yanbanao, Shi Gang, Beishan, Longfeng and other citrus export bases that meet the international standards for garden construction have been built one after another. 1986/ 1987, with the World Bank special loan of180,000 yuan, the citrus export base in the county reached 56,000 mu. Its large scale, excellent quality and standardized service have attracted businessmen and scientists from Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Argentina, Italy, Russia and other countries. In September, the Japan-China Technical Exchange Conference and Pingxiu Garden jointly established "Hunan Sino-Japanese Friendship Orange Garden" and "Sino-Japanese Friendship Orange Garden", 1999. American FMC, German Bayer, Canadian Dragon Lantern and Spanish Formosa have set up service points in Shimen County, and large domestic fruit foreign trade enterprises such as Yang, Zhongxing, Hongda, Roche, Lvjin, Xike and Gannan have set up raw material bases in Shimen County. The county's citrus foreign trade team is growing, with 37 export processing plants. In August, 2004, Jinxiangyuan Food Co., Ltd. invested heavily in introducing the citrus photoelectric sorting system made in the European Union, which improved the export processing capacity of citrus to the world-class level, and the fruit base passed the NOP organic agricultural product certification in the United States. Sansheng Ecological Technology Co., Ltd. has established a thousand acres of organic citrus orchards, reaching the EU GAP good agricultural standards. Hongyuan Citrus Export Carton Packaging Company introduced advanced equipment and adopted advanced technology to become a designated manufacturer of citrus export cartons in China. The talents in translation, commodity inspection, customs declaration, trade and transportation of citrus exports are constantly enriched, and the means and experience to enter the international market are becoming more and more mature. Shimen County has successively been recognized and named as "National Citrus Export Base County", "Self-operated Import and Export Right" and "National Horticultural Products (Citrus) Export Demonstration Zone".

At present, Shimen citrus is exported to Canada, Russia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and other 19 countries and regions. On the borders of China with Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, "Shimen Citrus" is an important local border trade product. The successful experience of international fruit market in quality, standard, brand, marketing and safety management has strongly promoted Shimen citrus industry to become better and stronger. With the help of citrus export, more than 70 citrus professional villages such as Zhumugang in Sansheng Township, Qinhuyu Village, Lishu Village in Mengquan Town, Guihua Village in Jiashan Town and Zhangfeng Village in Yanchi Township have become well-known "rich villages, civilized villages and happy villages". By the end of 2007, Shimen citrus had reached 43 1.000 mu, with an output of 350,000 tons and an output value of 580 million yuan, with a huge scale of 3 1.000 employees. The total export volume of Shimen citrus accounts for 23% of the whole country, and that of Hunan Province is 9 1%, which is the largest production and export base of high-quality and early-maturing citrus in China.