Fair promotes Xinjiang specialities

The Xinjiang autonomous region boasts of many specialities, including fruit, local culture and natural scenery. Promoted by the Urumqi Trade Fair, those specialities have gone to many markets both home and abroad.

Red dates produced by Ruojiang county were displayed for the first time at the Urumqi Trade Fair several years ago. They were a hit by both dealers and visitors. The county then decided to expand date planting and processing. Now the county plants 93 hundred hectares of dates and makes various date products.

Xiong Wei, Manager Assistant of Luolan Date Company, said, "Our dates are sold to more than ten areas, both to domestic and overseas market, including Macao Speical Administrative Region and southeastern Asia. We make more than ten kinds of processing date."

County Head of Jiangruo County, said, "Our farmers' income reached 76 hundred yuan per person last year, 75 percent of that coming from dates."

The fair bridges Urumqi with other markets. The event has helped many local speciality products including grapes, walnut and apricots be sold overseas. It also helps improve technology in fruit processing, cold storage and transportation.

Local culture and natural views are another attraction of Xinjiang. In this year's trade fair, Kuche county is given the chance to promote tourism to its area.

Xiaham, Vice County Head of Kuche County, said, "Through the Urumqi trade fair, our county will be known by more people around the world. We hope more people will invest and travel to our county."

Promoted by the Urumqi Trade Fair, Xinjiang's agriculture has witnessed a fast development. Planting of the regions specialities covers about 930-thousand hectares. The tourism industry is also growing based on special features. In 2008, the region welcomed 24 million travellers.