How Turpan is reinventing its raisin industry

Stacks of red cartons line the entrance of a dried-fruit processing company in Turpan, Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Inside are raisins imported from Uzbekistan.

The imports may seem surprising in a city renowned for its grapes, one of its most important agricultural products. But there is a good reason Turpan's fruit processors are sourcing raisins from abroad rather than relying entirely on local supplies.

Tabarek Aikebaier, Party chief of Ximen village, where the company is based, says naturally sun-dried raisins need to be cleaned and processed before they are ready for consumption. To illustrate the point, he picks a bird feather out of a batch of raisins, showing why the fruit needs to be carefully sorted and cleaned.

In Turpan, raisin cleaning has increasingly shifted from manual labor to automated production lines, making fruit processing an important part of the city's agricultural economy. Besides raisins, local companies also import prunes from Kazakhstan, process them and ship the finished products to markets across East Asia and Southeast Asia.

Inside the factory, raisins go through more than 20 stages of soaking, cleaning and drying, transforming them from agricultural produce into packaged food ready for consumers.

Kelibinuer Yasheng, deputy director of the People's Congress Standing Committee of Gaochang district in Turpan, says more than a dozen companies in the city are engaged in similar processing operations.

In the past, manually washed raisins could lose their original color during cleaning, she says. A patented processing technology now enables the fruit to retain its natural appearance throughout the cleaning and drying process.

Human workers are now mainly involved in the final stage, carefully selecting the finished raisins.

Turpan is home to more than 560 grape varieties, and processors tailor their products to the needs of different customers, Kelibinuer Yasheng says. The same fruit can be packed in bulk for commercial buyers or in smaller gift packages for individual consumers.

The city is also developing a digital platform known as the "Grape Brain", designed to make grape production and processing smarter and more efficient. The initiative forms part of a broader effort to introduce smart technologies across the agricultural supply chain.