Before the Spring Festival, cherries enter the peak sales season. Let’s see how to get fresh cherries on the market.

Before the Spring Festival, cherries enter the peak sales season. The reporter visited Guangzhou Nansha Port, the largest import volume of cherries in mainland China, to see how to get fresh cherries on the market——

"Foreign New Year Goods" Che Lizi's Customs Clearance Journey

　　Our reporter Hu Jian congratulated Linping

　　In the early morning of January 27, the third phase terminal of Nansha Port in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province was brightly lit and a busy scene——

　　As the 100,000-ton international cargo ship "Sally Maersk" slowly berthed, a silent "relay race" began. In the cab of the bridge crane, which is equivalent to a height of 16 stories and only a few square meters, the driver born after 2000, Ye Zijie, is attentively operating the equipment. I saw him lowering his head and bending down, aiming at the four sides of the container, controlling the huge bridge crane weighing a thousand tons, slowly lowering the spreader with four conical locks, and then steadily sending it into the keyholes at the four corners of the container.

　　Loading, locking, lifting, dropping, unlocking... The huge spreader is like a dexterous arm. In less than 1 minute, a cold chain container weighing about 40 tons was moved from the cargo ship to the trailer on the ground platform. A total of 808 such containers were loaded on the freighter, and 19,000 tons of fresh Chilean cherries were then unloaded ashore.

　　The season for Chilean cherries is from November to February every year, which coincides with China’s peak consumption seasons of New Year’s Day and Spring Festival. Sweet and juicy cherries are increasingly popular among Chinese consumers. In the 2022-2023 production season, Guangzhou Nansha Port will become the port with the largest import volume of cherries in mainland China.

　　How to bring the imported cherries, which have delicate meat and are not resistant to storage, to the market freshly and get them from the port to the dining table as quickly as possible? A "Cherry Express" extending from the other side of the ocean thousands of miles away, "seamlessly" connecting the whole chain of "one-stop" services for border customs clearance, has become a "happy Express" that guarantees the "freedom of cherries" for Chinese people. Wire".

Sea-shipped cherries are arriving in Hong Kong one after another, enriching consumers’ New Year “fruit baskets”

　　When it comes to the “star players” in the fruit industry, cherries must have a place. It looks like a ruby, is sweet and delicious, and has moderate hardness and softness. Before the Spring Festival every year, the consumption of cherries continues to rise, and topics such as the price of cherries frequently appear on hot searches. "There are not many domestic fruits in winter, but fortunately imported cherries are on the market in large quantities." Ms. Liao, a citizen of a chain fruit store in Tianhe, Guangzhou, said with a smile while paying for the cherries she just picked, "Although the price is not low, after all, The Chinese New Year is almost here, so I should treat myself and my family well."

　　The main countries from which China imports cherries include Chile, New Zealand and Australia. Among them, Chilean cherries account for the bulk, with its export share accounting for 90% of the world's exports, far exceeding that of other countries. Starting from November every year until February and March of the following year, the hottest time of summer in Chile is the growing season of local cherries. China is experiencing the three peak consumption seasons of New Year's Day, Spring Festival and Lantern Festival, and cherries have become a New Year's gift for many families.

　　Chilean cherries can continue to enrich Chinese consumers’ New Year’s “fruit baskets”, largely due to the development of trade relations between the two countries. It is reported that in 2008, China and Chile signed the "Quarantine Protocol on Chilean Cherries and Plums Exported to China", marking that Chilean cherries were officially allowed to enter the Chinese market; since 2015, 97% of the products from China and Chile have achieved zero Tariffs, cherries are one of them.

　　Usually, Chilean cherries begin to be launched in China starting from mid-October. However, in the early days, they were mainly transported by air, so the quantity was small and the price was high. As a large number of seaborne cherries have arrived in Hong Kong, the price of imported cherries has continued to drop, and they have begun to enter thousands of households.

　　In the Chinese mainland market, one out of every two Chilean cherries is imported from Guangzhou Nansha Port. Next to the port, five bridge cranes were working at the same time, with more than 800 containers. Ye Zijie and his colleagues needed to unload all of them within 5 hours. One person had to unload more than 160 containers. Although he has lifted 20,000 containers in his career, Ye Zijie still dare not take it lightly: "We only have one task, which is to unload these cherries as quickly as possible."

　　This is the seventh Chilean "Cherry Express" to be connected to Nansha Port since the new cherry production season of 2023-2024. The so-called express line refers to a direct flight from the Chilean port to Nansha without calling at other ports on the way. The whole journey only takes 21 days, which is more than half the length of the ordinary route.

　　Like Ye Zijie, working late at night is Ye Jianming, manager of the Port Business Development Department of Nansha Port Phase III. He was sitting in the port monitoring and command center less than 3 kilometers away from the port, staring nervously at various aspects of the operation on the screen. "The arrival of the Cherry Express to the port once a week is a big test for the port."

　　In order to cope with this big test, Ye Jianming will make an operation plan in advance based on cargo information, while ensuring that the entire port runs every instruction accurately like a machine. "The direct-lift containers that do not require customs inspection are placed on the top level of the deck, and the bridge crane will unload them as soon as possible and tow them away. Those that require customs inspection will be unloaded and sent to the cold storage for cooling." In his opinion, efficiency is The core competitiveness of the port.

　　One month before the Spring Festival is the busiest time for the port. Overseas imported timber, fruits and other goods, as well as locally produced ceramics, home appliances and other export goods in the Pearl River Delta, have to be cleared before the holiday. The overall business volume of the port is higher than usual. Increase by 20%. "I have been coming to Nansha Port since 2017, and have experienced the completion and commissioning of the third and fourth phases of the port. I have watched Nansha Port grow into one of the top five international ports in the world in terms of cargo throughput. Although it is getting busier every year, I feel happy in my heart. But it’s full of a sense of accomplishment.” Ye Jianming said.

More than 100 inspection and quarantine indicators, a keen eye to strictly observe the "safety on the tip of consumers' tongues"

　　At 7 a.m., all the cherries containers on the freighter were unloaded, and about 30% of them needed to undergo customs inspection at the Nansha International Logistics Center, 2 kilometers away from the port. There is the largest single cold storage in the country, which can import and export 10,000 TEUs of cold chain goods every month.

　　At 9:15, Fan Shuyong, deputy section chief of the Cold Chain Supervision Section of Nansha Port Phase III of Nansha Customs affiliated to Guangzhou Customs, and his colleagues appeared on time at the inspection platform of the cold storage. They had to inspect a total of 177 containers of cherries that day. There were 8 customs officers responsible for the inspection, divided into 4 groups. On average, one group of people had to inspect 44 containers. "If everything goes well, the inspection can be completed before 8 o'clock that night, but no matter what, we will not let Che Lizi spend the night on the inspection platform." Fan Shuyong said.

　　At Nansha Port, fresh fruits are imported all year round, including durians from Thailand, longans from Cambodia, cherries from Chile... In 2023, the port area imported more than 925,000 tons of cold chain goods, of which more than 430,000 tons of imported fruits were imported. Exotic and exotic fruits from all over the world enrich the “fruit plate” of domestic consumers. It is expected that before the Spring Festival of the Year of the Dragon, the Nansha Port will also receive and unload two Chilean cherry express ships. A total of about 100,000 tons of cherries will be imported through the entire 2023-2024 production season.

　　Such large quantities of fresh fruits come from across the ocean, and each piece is related to the "safety on the tip of the tongue" of domestic consumers. Fan Shuyong came to Nansha to work in cold chain cargo supervision after graduating from university in 2014. He is a business expert with plant quarantine expert qualifications. "The fruit I saw most when I was a kid was Shandong's 'Red Fuji'. I never thought that when I grow up, I would see fruits from all over the world at the harbor."

　　The inspection platform is 100 meters long and 15 meters wide, which is equivalent to two standard basketball courts and can park 54 container trucks at the same time. Nansha Customs has three other inspection platforms like this. Fan Shuyong and his colleagues need to shuttle back and forth between the inspection platforms for three or four hours. At the end of the day, the number of steps taken easily reaches "20,000+". "The inspection platform is still cold and constant temperature, and the cold air penetrates into the collar and trousers. As time goes by, my ankles and neck will feel faint pain." Fan Shuyong said.

　　The main purpose of inspecting imported fruits is to prevent plant epidemic risks and food safety hazards. More than 10 quarantine indicators such as harmful organisms and more than 100 inspection indicators related to pesticide residues need to be inspected. During the inspection, Fan Shuyong will carefully check whether the cherries have wormholes, spots, etc., and then take samples according to the instructions. The samples will be sent to the laboratory for pesticide and pollutant testing. At the same time, Fan Shuyong will randomly select some cherries, crush them, pour in the prepared brown sugar water, let them sit for 10 minutes, and then observe them carefully under the spotlight. If there are "uninvited guests" hidden in the fruit, they will have nowhere to hide under their "golden eyes".

"One-stop" customs clearance, connecting the "Cheerilee Express" to the "last mile" of consumers

　　At 12:30 noon, on the 8th floor of Nansha International Logistics Center, Yang Hua, manager of Shenzhen Jianchengye International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jianchengye Company"), was holding a box lunch in his hand and staring at the computer screen all the time.

　　A customs clearance message popped up. He immediately put down his lunch box, picked up the mobile phone on the table, and called the convoy: "Container No. 67 on the inspection platform has been cleared and will be sent to Jiangnan Fruit Wholesale Market immediately."

　　Jianchengye Company is a cross-border fruit logistics service provider with imported fruit business all over the country. In 2023, the company will import more than 300,000 tons of fruits as an agent, including about 50,000 tons of cherries. In addition to being sold locally in Guangzhou, some cherries are radiated outward through highways, reaching many cities across the country within 24 hours.

　　Although he has been working hard in the industry for 10 years, Yang Hua cheers up every time he goes to import cherries: “Cheerios have very high requirements for logistics efficiency. The price will be different if they are launched earlier or later. The difference is that every customer wants to receive the goods faster than others.”

　　The reason why such a large amount of imports can pass through customs quickly and safely is because Nansha Port has maintained customs clearance 365 days a year, which is an excellent environment created by the hard work of the "guardians" of the country. "We will make every effort to ensure that fresh cherries reach the tables of domestic consumers quickly while maintaining biosecurity and food safety. Customs is very strict, but also very warm," said Fan Shuyong.

　　In order to ensure the safety and smoothness of port customs clearance and the "freshness and quality" of imported fruits, in recent years, Nansha Customs has strictly controlled the inspection and quarantine of imported fruits while providing "one-stop" services in customs clearance such as document review, laboratory testing, and certificate issuance. , implement the facilitation measures of “advance declaration, shipside diversion”, and fully support the safe and efficient customs clearance of imported fruits and other perishable agricultural and food products.

　　"We use 5G technology to use high-definition camera equipment to scan and obtain container information in real time during the unloading process. The container information can be automatically associated with the terminal operating system data and collide with the diversion instructions generated by the customs based on the cargo declaration to achieve direct lifting, loading and unloading. The automatic diversion of inspection instructions will further improve the efficiency of terminal operations and cargo customs clearance," said Fan Shuyong.

　　One of the "heroes" is the Nansha International Logistics Center cold chain project that will be launched in October 2023. This "Asia's largest refrigerator" located in the third phase of Nansha Port has implemented convenient customs clearance measures such as "certificate pre-examination" and "ship-side direct shipment", and connected the "Cheerilee Express" to the "last mile" of consumers. Radiating outward along the highway, it can cover the Greater Bay Area urban agglomeration in one hour. Taking the Guangzhou area as an example, after the "ship-side pick-up" truck arrives at the port area, it only takes 11 minutes from entering the gate to loading and exiting the gate to quickly transport cherries to Guangzhou Jiangnan Fruit Market and other places.

　　After two hours of driving, truck driver Feng Mingquan arrived at the Jiangnan Fruit Wholesale Market in Guangzhou at 4:50 pm with a load of cherries. Wang Sheng, a domestic dealer, had been waiting at the entrance of the market early in the morning. He guided the trucks to park and prepared for the opening and selling of goods in the afternoon session.

　　Jiangnan Fruit Wholesale Market, located in the west of Guangzhou, is the largest fruit and vegetable wholesale market in the country, and imported fruits account for more than half of the country's total imported fruit transactions. Every year, tens of thousands of containers filled with imported fruits gather here through Nansha Port and are then distributed and transported across the country.

　　During this period, the wholesale market is open 24 hours a day. At 6 a.m., the first batch of cherries goes on sale and lasts until 9 p.m. “During the peak period, buyers would crowd around the containers filled with cherries, and hundreds of containers would be opened. The scene would be as spectacular as a star-chasing scene. When you encounter cherries in good quality, they will be fully booked as soon as you open the container. , you can’t even grab it,” Wang Sheng said.

　　The three weeks before the Spring Festival are the golden period for the sales of imported cherries. As the quality of Chilean production areas becomes increasingly stable, the arrival volume of cherries has gradually increased, and the prices have become more affordable. Compared with 2023, Wang Sheng feels that the overall price of cherries in 2024 will be slightly lower, buyers will be more willing to buy goods, and sales will be steadily increasing every day. "We have launched cherry gift boxes to better meet the needs of Spring Festival consumers."

　　At 10 o'clock in the evening, as the last container of cherries was sold out, Wang Sheng finally ended his busy day. After returning to the stall in the fruit market, he took the time to eat and sleep. The next day, there was a new batch of cherries waiting for him to sell. (Mai Donghao participated in the interview and writing for People’s Daily Overseas Edition)