An international wine expo commenced on Thursday in Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, attracting over 500 experts and representatives of wineries, enterprises, and academics.

The two-day event, namely the ninth Ningxia International Wine Expo at Helan Mountains' Eastern Foot, also saw wine organizations, enterprises, and fans of wine movies and TV series from 96 countries and regions, including France, Argentina, and Australia participating online and offline.

Co-hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the regional government of Ningxia, this year's expo will feature two forums, a meeting on industry investment and products ordering, a wine brand ceremony, as well as the selection of the "top 10 most potential wine tourism regions in the world."

The eastern foothills of the Helan Mountains in Ningxia, located between the 37th and the 40th parallels of the Northern Hemisphere, are deemed the "golden zone" for growing wine grapes.

The wine industry has become an important pillar in Ningxia, which has 32,800 hectares of grape plantations, with wineries generating an annual output of 130 million bottles of wine. The comprehensive industrial output value for 2019 came in at about 26.1 billion yuan (about 3.9 billion U.S. dollars).

Ningxia expects to expand its vineyard area to 66,667 hectares by 2025 and increase its annual wine production to 300 million bottles with a comprehensive industrial output value of 100 billion yuan. Enditem