12 tons of oranges were destroyed and less than 10 percent of the trees were damaged by fruit flies in Guangyuan,Sichuan province,the provincial agriculture department said on Tuesday.
"Orange-growing is a key source of income for farmers in Sichuan.The report of fruit flies can do serious damage," Mou Jinyi,chief agronomist of the agriculture department,said at a press conference in Chengdu.
The agriculture department said only 68,000 trees,accounting for 8.9 per cent of the county's total,had been infected and the situation was now under control.