Demand rising

The county's Turpan raisin industry has also received a boost from the China-EU agreement.

Xiong Xiaodong, director of a raisin trading market under Xinjiang Guoye Group, said that the move would bolster the reputation of Turpan raisins in European markets.

The trading market mainly sends raisins to domestic buyers in Cangzhou, Hebei province and Linyi, Shandong province, as well as some European cities.

The market sold 10,973 tons of raisins in the first five months of this year, recording year-on-year growth of 143 percent, Xiong said. Standardized, large-scale production of high-quality Turpan raisins is essential to build on the advantages that the China-EU agreement offers, he added.

Sheng Zhenming, director of Bayingol Mongolian Autonomous Prefecture Korla Pear Association, said that the China-EU agreement will enhance the reputation of the fruit among foreign consumers and reinforce the economic and trade collaboration.

After the agreement took effect in March, many customers called to order more pears, Sheng said.

More than 450 companies have registered as members of the association. Pears produced by association members are sold in Beijing and Shanghai; Guangzhou, Guangdong province; Jiaxing, Zhejiang province; and Changsha, Hunan province, and 290 other Chinese cities as well as 34 foreign countries and regions including the US, Canada and Australia.

Last year, members of the association sold 956,000 tons of pears in total, of which 1,528 tons were for export.