2025 Canton Fair focuses on smart agriculture: Chinese agricultural drones lead global agricultural innovation

Aolan Technology and other companies showcase cutting-edge technologies such as fully autonomous operation and hydrogen energy, and overseas orders increased by more than 50% year-on-year

In Guangzhou, China, the 137th China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) in 2025 officially opened on April 15. As the core highlight of the "Advanced Manufacturing" exhibition area, Agricultural Drones attracted buyers from more than 100 countries and regions around the world. This exhibition set up a low-altitude economy and smart agriculture zone for the first time, focusing on the latest achievements of China's agricultural drones in technological innovation, scene expansion and international layout. Among them, new products and solutions of leading companies such as Aolan Technology and DJI Agriculture became the focus.

1. Technological breakthrough: fully autonomous operation subverts and changes traditional agriculture
The 2025 AL4-50 agricultural drone launched by Aolan Technology has become a star product in the exhibition area. This 50-kilogram model is equipped with a 4D imaging radar and AI vision system, which can achieve millimeter-level recognition of farmland boundaries and fully autonomous route planning. Users only need to mark the scope of the farmland through the mobile phone APP, and the drone can automatically generate a three-dimensional flight path, accurately avoid obstacles such as poles and ditches, and improve the operating efficiency by more than 30 times compared with traditional agricultural machinery. AOLAN Technology Public Relations Manager revealed that this model has been applied on a large scale in South America, North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and other places. The annual operating area of ​​a single device can reach 5,000 acres, and the use of pesticides is reduced by 20%-30%.
The debut of the hydrogen-powered drone has become another highlight. The flight time exceeds 5 hours and the single load capacity reaches 200 kilograms, which can meet the needs of fruit tree transportation in mountainous areas and agricultural material distribution in remote areas. This technology uses water as the only emission, which reduces carbon emissions by 80% compared with traditional lithium batteries. It has been piloted in Yunnan, Sichuan and other places, and plans to achieve mass production in 2026.

2. Market explosion: Overseas orders surge, "One Belt, One Road" becomes growth engine
Canton Fair data show that the agricultural drone exhibition area receives more than 10,000 professional buyers per day, and buyers from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Europe account for more than 70%. AOLAN Technology signed agency agreements with 12 countries on site, with the amount of intended orders exceeding US$120 million, and the proportion of overseas business increased from 35% to 45%. Our company's Smart Agriculture Development Department has reached cooperation with Brazilian and Argentine customers, plans to deploy 500 agricultural drones in South America, and has reached an agreement with government departments to accurately serve local soybean and corn planting areas.
Price advantage has become the core competitiveness of Chinese products. Our company's AOLAN Technology's new model in 2025 is 60% lower than similar products in Europe and the United States, and supports modular design, which can quickly switch between plant protection, sowing, transportation and other functions. A buyer from Saudi Arabia said: "The cost-effectiveness of Chinese drones is three times that of traditional agricultural machinery. We plan to purchase 200 units for desert agricultural transformation."

3. Policy empowerment: Low-altitude economy and smart agriculture are written into the Central Document No. 1
The Central Document No.1 of 2025 clearly proposed "expanding the application scenarios of low-altitude technology" to inject new momentum into the development of agricultural drones. As a national low-altitude economic pilot, Beijing Yanqing District has built an open airspace area of ​​374 square kilometers to support drones to transport agricultural products directly to the market. The Qinghang Equipment H645 unmanned helicopter displayed on site can lift 200 kilograms of fruits and vegetables, increasing the transportation efficiency in mountainous areas by 5 times and reducing costs by 40%.
Data from the Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs show that by 2025, China's agricultural drone holdings will exceed 200,000, with an annual operating area of more than 400 million mu, reducing the use of pesticides by 30% and fertilizer waste by 25%. With policy support, agricultural drones are penetrating the entire process from plant protection to sowing, fertilization, and disaster monitoring. Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places have built 200 rural drone take-off and landing hubs and opened 30 agricultural transport routes.

4. Future trends: AI and the right to speak in global standard setting
The deep integration of AI has become an industry consensus. XAG's smart farm management system uses AI to analyze soil moisture and crop growth, and can accurately recommend fertilization plans. The yield per mu of the demonstration field in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia has increased by 11.7%. DJI Agriculture's "Three-Eyed Fish Vision System" can recognize obstacles at night at 25 meters, and mountain orchards automatically plan three-dimensional routes.
China's standard output is accelerating. Zhejiang's "Fuxi Farm" model has been listed as an international model of smart agriculture by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the grid management technology of cultivated land has triggered imitations in Europe and the United States.
This Canton Fair witnessed the transformation of China's agricultural drones from "technology follower" to "global leader". With the maturity of technologies such as AI and hydrogen energy, and the development of the "Belt and Road" market, Chinese agricultural drones are reshaping the global agricultural production landscape. As the CEO of Aolan Technology said, "We not only want to export products, but also export Chinese wisdom, so that farmers around the world can use efficient and environmentally friendly 'new agricultural tools'."