BEIJING, Dec.30 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland official said Wednesday that mainland purchasing groups to Taiwan had notched up deals worth about 14 billion U.S. dollars in the first 11 months this year.

Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, said at a press conference that the amount accounted for about 7.6 percent of Taiwan's total exports, which stood at 183.64billion U.S. dollars in the same period.

The mainland had played a positive role in alleviating Taiwan's declining exports and offset the impact of the global economic downturn, she said.

The deals involved products ranging from electronic information equipment, mechanical and petrochemical products, textiles, agricultural products, and processed food.

The mainland announced in May it would encourage companies to buy more Taiwan products to enhance cooperation between companies across the Taiwan Strait amid the economic downturn.

As of Dec. 18, almost 640,000 mainland tourists in about 24,560groups had visited Taiwan since July last year, spending an estimated 1.13 billion U.S. dollars, said Fan.

Under an agreement signed by the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation on June 13 last year, mainland tourists were permitted to visit Taiwan starting in July last year.