Fruit products provide rich pickings in Xinjiang

Fruit product exports from Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to the Middle Asia and West Asia are on the rise, including Chinese flowering crabapple juice and sea buckthorn.

Ying Sheng, an inspector of the forestry administration of the region, claimed that the industry can play a major role in the Belt and Road Initiative. "If the preservation technology and deep processing capacity can be improved, fruit and forestry products should become one of the major export categories for Xinjiang," Ying said.

The issues will be discussed at this year's session of the Xinjiang Special Forestry and Fruit Products Exhibition which will be held in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, from Nov 10 to 12.

About 200 companies and organizations from the region will showcase more than 300 types of forestry and fruit products at the fair, including apples, pears, red jujubes, walnuts and almonds. A pavilion called Internet Plus Xinjiang Forestry and Fruit Products will be setup to allow visitors to experience online shopping for those products.

The forestry and fruit products sector is designated by the region's government as one of the four pillar industries in its rural economy, alongside with grains, cottons and husbandry, said Wang Pingsheng, deputy secretary-general of the region's government.

"The region's government has been working to enhance the strength in farming bases, processing, technological support and marketing in those pillar industries," Wang said.

The region has a main forestry and fruit production area in its south and three belts of those products, with six clusters of red jujubes, walnuts, pears, apricots, apples and grapes.

A total of 1.47 million hectares are used to grow forestry and fruit products, producing 10 million tons a year, leading other regions in the country.

The region stands as one of the six major fruit growing regions globally, alongside with California in the United States, the Mediterranean coasts, the Oceania, South Africa and Middle Asia, Wang said.

Earnings from the forestry and fruit products account for about a quarter of annual capita income of the rural population in Xinjiang.

The sector is becoming important in the region government's efforts to optimize rural industrial structure and to sustain income growth in its rural population.