It is peak harvest season in this village in northern China, and apples are piled high on both sides of the road, clogging the traffic of tractors, trucks and carts bringing in the crop from all around. China is the world's top apple grower, accounting for nearly half of the global harvest.

It has also emerged as the world's biggest producer of apple juice, crushing more and more of its crop for export to the United States, Europe, Japan and even Australia, and accounting for about two thirds of world supply.

Despite the apparent abundance of apples in Guanli, this year's crop has fallen short of the demand from juice manufacturers, which have expanded capacity faster than orchards can plant trees. The shortage was exacerbated by cold, wet weather that reduced the crop.

Chinese apple juice makers have more than doubled their capacity since 2004, as demand for apple juice as a substitute for orange juice has grown. International orange juice prices are soaring as Brazil converts orange groves to biofuel crops and the United States still suffers the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Industry officials say China now has a combined capacity to churn out 5000 tonnes of apple juice concentrate per hour, or about 1.7 million tonnes per year, close to the world's annual consumption of about 1.8-2 million tonnes.

"Juice manufacturers are sending trucks and agents to every corner of China, competing against each other. They go even to Sichuan, Yunnan or Xinjiang: faraway and remote areas nobody cared about in the past," said Chuk Ng, managing director of Naturz Organics (Dalian) Co.

The country's annual crop is somewhere between 20 and 25 million tonnes. With China now dominating the global apple juice supply, buyers have little choice, especially as severe frost has cut the Polish output as well. Some officials, including Liu Li from Haisheng, say the apple shortage might remain for another few years as it takes three to five years for new apple trees to mature.

"More trees have been planted since 2005," Liu told a conference in September. "The supply and demand in apples will ultimately reach a new balance in around three years."