Fruit from the Kashgar prefecture is now available at Hema Fresh stores in Shanghai. [Photo/sww.sh.gov.cn]

Shanghai city in East China on Aug 6 launched a fruit festival to promote the sales of fruit produced in the Kashgar prefecture in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

The campaign, under the auspices of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, is the result of a targeted poverty alleviation program between Shanghai and Kashgar and the goal is to accelerate the development of the fruit industry there through new retail channels.

The festival was organized by Hema Fresh – the retail unit of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group – and Kashgar's fruits are now available at Hema Fresh stores in Shanghai and 17 other cities throughout the country.

Kashgar is a core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt and it has been working hard to develop its agriculture in recent years.

It has formed major bases for forest fruit, grain, cotton, melons and vegetables, animal husbandry – and the agricultural sector has been restructured and upgraded.

Kashgar has a total of 388,000 hectares of fruit under cultivation – the largest such area in Xinjiang – with walnuts, jujubes, almonds, apricots, plums and pomegranates being the main products. The annual combined output of the fruit is estimated at more than 2 million tons.

The festival will last until Aug 18 and online purchases are also available via the Hema Fresh app.