Xinjiang's specialty products spread thanks to consumer support from inland provinces, cities

Sheep from Yutian county in Hotan Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region will be transported directly to Tianjin Municipality in north China.

"This is expected to boost local sheep prices by 10 to 15 percent," said Yang Jianli, who was sent by Tianjin to serve as deputy Party chief in Yutian county.

An employee sells Tacheng cheese bread through livestreaming at Jiangqu food company in Tacheng, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, April 1, 2023. (Photo/Xinhua)

The cherry tomatoes in Shule county, Kashgar Prefecture, Xinjiang have already received orders from several coastal provinces despite being in the seedling stage.

Liu Zhijun, the head of a modern vegetable industry park in Kashgar, expressed confidence in selling 3,000 tonnes of cherry tomatoes from this batch.

Xinjiang's specialty products displayed at an agricultural products exhibition in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province achieved outstanding sales, surpassing 2 million yuan ($274,000) within three days. The high demand for these products resulted in many items being sold out on-site, while the exhibition also generated over 20 million yuan worth of intended orders.

In recent years, consumer support for Xinjiang has been strengthened, thanks to strong backing from provinces and cities participating in an assistance program for the region. This has resulted in a substantial increase in the sales of Xinjiang's agricultural and specialty products, while also facilitating its integration into the national market and expansion of its customer reach.

Utilizing cold chain transportation, east China's Shandong Province and Xi'an city in northwest China's Shaanxi Province built 12 Kashgar agricultural product and byproduct distribution centers, selling over 400 types of agricultural products and byproducts, with cumulative sales of nearly 4.3 billion yuan.

Wang Bin, an executive from a travel agency in Shandong, said that the company has launched a special tourism train to promote tourism in Xinjiang. This year, they organized trips for over 1,300 tourists to visit the region. Over 40,000 passenger trips have also been made to Xinjiang from Shandong through chartered flights and special trains under a program which aims to boost tourism in Xinjiang and Shandong.

Buhaliqi Sidike, a Uygur woman, decided to return to her hometown and engage in watermelon farming after graduating from college. Now, she cultivates watermelons in a greenhouse at a planting base in Shule. The planting base was built for Shule with assistance from Weifang city in Shandong.

She said Shandong's facility agriculture is highly advanced, and she has gained many techniques while cultivating watermelons at the planting base. The watermelons produced at the base are in high demand and are sold to major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.

Officials sent by Tianjin to Xinjiang under the assistance program have invited the Tianjin Food Group to create an industrial chain for the local sheep industry. This initiative has garnered significant consumer support for Xinjiang, particularly for Hotan sheep, resulting in increased incomes for over 20,000 households, helping 156 village collectives increase their wealth, and enabling more than 1,000 local individuals find jobs near their homes.