A trade fair was held in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, on Tuesday to help sell the region's agricultural products that have been unmarketable due to the impact of the July 5 riot.

At the fair held by the Ministry of Commerce and the Xinjiang regional government, purchase deals of 373,000 tonnes of agricultural products were signed between 19 wholesale and retail companies from other parts of the country and 73 local farm produce suppliers.

Hu Wei, vice chairman of the regional government, said the volume of unmarketable agricultural products, including vegetable and meat, exceeded 3.6 million tonnes.

Abdugheni Iganberdi, a senior official of Kashgar in southern Xinjiang, said it was a season of good harvest for fruit, but few buyers came to the area.

Last year, the best dried apricot meat was sold between 35 yuan (US$5.1) and 40 yuan (US$5.8) per kg, but this year the product drew few buyers even at a price of 25 yuan to 30 yuan per kg, said Iganberdi.

About 200,000 tonnes of dried apricot meat needed to be sold in Kashgar.

"Our biggest wish is to make fruit in Kashgar sell well," said the official.

Vice Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei said the ministry wouldorganize more companies to Xinjiang to buy local specialities.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2009)