Cherries sweeten life in south Xinjiang county

URUMQI, June 8 (Xinhua) -- Diverse varieties of cherries embellishing an orchard in Xamalbag have become a source of vitality for this small village in Mixa Township of Shache County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Located on the southwestern edge of China's largest desert, the Taklamakan, Shache County has built a burgeoning cherry industry from root to fruit.

Thanks to the flourishing cherry industry, local farmers have seen increasing annual incomes and improved living standards.

Cui Yujun, a cherry farmer from Shache, is busy introducing his cherries to visitors at a trade fair in Xamalbag that has attracted some 40 cherry product processing and sales enterprises from across the country.

"The cherries from Shache are really sweet," said Yin Zhichao after tasting Cui's cherries. Yin is a fruit wholesaler from Guangdong Province, thousands of kilometers away from Xinjiang.

"We have planted 200 mu (about 13.3 hectares) of cherry trees outdoors and built 128 greenhouses for indoor plantation, producing 16 varieties of cherries," said Cui, who is also manager of an agricultural cooperative in Shache.

Shache, located in the region's southern part, offers a favorable climate for cherry plantation due to its latitude and relatively high level of annual accumulated temperature, said Gong Peng, a researcher with the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

"Since the introduction of the first sweet cherry variety in Shache in 2003, the plantation area of this variety in the county has reached 48,000 mu," Gong said, adding that Mixa has an outstanding cherry harvest in the county, with maximum yield per mu reaching 800 kg.

"We have sold 400 tonnes of cherries so far this year, earning nearly 20,000 yuan (about 3,000 U.S. dollars) per mu," said Turgun Ahmat, head of a cherry farmers' cooperative in Xamalbag, adding that the cooperative's plantation area increased from 7 mu in 2010 to 1200 mu today.

The expansion also brought new opportunities as Xamalbag gained popularity among tourists, thanks to its agritourism sector, especially cherry-plucking.

"In 2021 the village received more than 700,000 visitors, and this year the number is expected to surpass 900,000," said Turgun Ahmat, adding that the villagers also run homestays to boost their incomes.

According to local authorities, the cherry industry has helped increase the income of 22,000 cherry growers and created 30,000 job opportunities in the county.

With Xamalbag as its hub, the cherry industry now covers seven adjacent towns and 33 villages, and an industrial chain for cherry production has been established in Shache.

"By planting cherries, my husband and I earn over 200,000 yuan annually," said Zur Tohti from Togaqi Village in Mixa.