"Today, I sold out all the camel hair at a high price. I earned over 3,000 yuan. I didn't expect that raising camels could bring me such a significant income," said Mamatjan Tohniyaz happily on July 9, 2023, at the Xinjiang Camel Trading Market in Yuerqi Village, Yuerqi Township, Keping County, northwest China’s Xinjiang.

This year, Mamatjan Tohniyaz saw his neighbor's well-off life earned through camel farming. Inspired by his neighbor, Mamatjan also purchased 20 camels to develop his own farming business. With the income from camel milk alone, he earns around 1,000 yuan per day. In just a few months, Mamatjan was able to move into a new house and bought the car he had been longing for, all thanks to camel farming.

It was the day when the newly established Xinjiang Camel Trading Market in Keping County opened for business. Mamatjan Tohniyaz brought all the camel hair from his home, hoping for a stroke of luck. To his surprise, as soon as the market opened, buyers showed great interest in his camel hair and offered a high price for it. This made Mamatjan overjoyed. He said, "With this trading market, it will be much more convenient for us to do business. I believe we can find even better camel breeds here in the future."

This year, Keping County established the largest Xinjiang Camel Trading Market in the Yuerqi Township through investment promotion. This market not only provides a centralized trading platform for camel breeders across Xinjiang but also drives the camel industry in Keping County to transform into a large-scale and intensive business.

"The completion and operation of the Xinjiang Camel Trading Market have brought new opportunities for the development of the camel industry in our county. In the next step, we will focus on the development goals of 'high-end and distinctive ways' and further improve the trading market. We will promote the sustainable development of the camel industry and drive local villagers to benefit from camel-related wealth," said Yao Lunfu, a member of the Party group of the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau of Keping County and the director of the Livestock Technology Extension Center.

Camels are considered treasures, as every part of their body is valuable. Camel milk has high nutritional value, and camel hair is ideal for making high-end clothing, scarves, shawls, and other products, making it highly favored in the market. Keping County, known as the "Home of Camels", has made the camel industry a key focus in recent years. Keping County, through policy support and guidance, has encouraged villagers to engage in camel farming. The number of camels has grown from 8,000 in 2021 to 40,000, making Keping County the largest camel-farming county in Xinjiang.

With the rapid increase in camel farming populations, Keping County has attracted numerous deep processing enterprises that use camel milk as raw material to settle in the county. Among them, Xinjiang Xintuo Dairy Co., Ltd., which integrates research, production, and sales, has not only sold camel milk and related products to many places in China since its establishment in 2021, but has also boosted the income of over 300 households, totaling more than 1,500 people in the county.

In the past, camel farming was primarily for transportation purposes. However, nowadays, camel farming has become a source of wealth. In response to this, Keping County has experienced a boom in camel farming. They have established centralized breeding bases, attracted deep processing enterprises, promoted the breeding of high-quality camel breeds, and adopted the model of "enterprise + cooperative + base + farmer" to increase the growth of the camel industry.

With 40,000 camels, 2 centralized breeding bases, 2 professional technical teams, 2 leading enterprises, and a deep processing ratio of more than 45% for camel milk, the growth of the camel industry brings hope for rural revitalization. Today, the camel industry has become a distinctive industry for prosperity in Keping County, bringing happiness to the villagers. Keping County plans to increase the number of camels to 50,000 by 2025, which will contribute to an average income increase of over 6,000 yuan for local farmers and herders.

(The Media Convergence Center of Aksu Prefecture, Reporter Liu Hongwen, Correspondent Liu Yongjie)