A fungal strain was isolated with the capability for efficient production of ethyl hexanoate. The strain was identified as Monascus purpureus by ITS and beta-tubulin sequence analysis after morphological identification， and numbered as YJX-8. The culture conditions of YJX-8 for enzyme production were optimized for enhanced production of ethyl hexanoate， and the substrate specificity was also investigated. The results showed that the optimal culture medium components were sucrose 90 g/L， soybean cake powder 25 g/L， MgSO4 1 g/L， NaH2PO4 1 g/L. The optimal culture conditions were pH 4.5， 30 ℃， 180 r/min， 6 d. Under the optimized conditions， the esterifying enzymes activity was（1.177 ± 0.009）U/mL， which enhanced by 4.56 folds. The esterifying enzyme had an obvious substrate specificity to hexanoic acid.