Fresh and sweet, cherries from afar had travelled cross oceans onto your table. 

When you and your family enjoyed delicacy from around the world at home, had it ever come to your mind how much efforts putting jointly to achieve this mouthful fresh?

Seasons keep changing and all things keep growing. Every fourth quarter to the next Spring Festival is terminal's peak season of imported cold-chain products. To better prepare for the challenge of peak season, and create a better operation and customs clearance environment to guarantee the rapid pick-up operation of imported cold chain products, YANTIAN, the largest cold chain import and export terminal of South China, held a Cold Chain Import Customers Communication Session on September 27. Mr. Wen Siquan, Director General of Dapeng Customs, Lawrence Shum, Managing Director of Hutchison Ports YANTIAN, and representatives of industry associations, import customers and shipping companies joined the meeting together, to discuss industry development and cooperation opportunities.

Lawrence Shum, Managing Director of Hutchison Ports YANTIAN, said in his welcome speech, "The cold chain import business makes it easier for high-quality overseas products to enter the country, which helps a lot to enrich our 'food basket' and satisfy our demands of food diversity. As relevant encouraging policies are actively studied and introduced by national departments to promote the development of cold chain logistics, as the international shipping hub port in the Guangdong- Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, YANTIAN will continue to increase our investment in cold chain import business and provide strong and all-round guarantee for supply chain."

Mr. Wen Siquan, Director General of Dapeng Customs, said firstly at the meeting:

There is no doubt that, with the terminal's operation capability and business environment, YANTIAN is the preferred port for our customers!

Looking into the past, although the current international market is complex and changeable, the customs clearance data of cold chain import had  doubled in 2020 compared with 2019, and then increased year by year. The data clearly shows that YANTIAN and Dapeng Customs have the ability and determination to overcome difficulties, improve the efficiency of customs clearance and excel in customs clearance services.

As for the options of supply chain solutions, it ultimately determined by the terminal operation capability. Yantian Port has outstanding advantages as a natural deep water port. It is the only ice-free deep water port in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area that has the natural channel of nearly 18 meters deep and 475 meters wide, allowing two-way navigation for vessels of 200,000 ton class in all weather. YANTIAN's 20 container deep-water berths can realize the immediate berthing and rapid operation of vessels, and handle the import, export and transit cargo operation for multiple international liners at the same time safely and efficiently. 100% of the VLCS coming to South China call at YANTIAN, and it becomes the new normal for 6,400-meter VLCS berthing at YANTIAN simultaneously.

At the beginning of this year, as explosive growth of the imported fruit volume led to a long backlog of inspection. But at once the customs promptly communicated with YANTIAN and proposed targeted solutions to improve inspection efficiency and alleviate the backlog of cold chain inspection. "We should believe in YANTIAN and Dapeng Customs. As long as the plan is made in advance, there will be no cost increased due to the efficiency of operation and customs clearance." Said Mr. Wen.

Representatives of industry associations and import customers spoke enthusiastically and expressed their deep gratitude during the meeting while communicating with the Customs, and their opinions and suggestions were also positively responded by the Customs.

Mr. Han Jiwen, the Executive President of Shenzhen Frozen Product Operators Association, said: "Over the years, no matter what difficulties we encounter, we would always see hope here in YANTIAN. Thanks to the strong support of Customs, YANTIAN's continuous warm measures had helped all enterprises to tide over difficulties and strive ahead." Ms. Joyce Liu, General Manager of the Optima Integration Group, said: "Our cost at the port has fallen to the lowest point in history. Today's meeting has made me feel reassured. In South China, YANTIAN is always our port of choice."

Both Mr. Chen Bingqiang, President of Shenzhen Fruit Industry Association, and Mr. Qiu Qunsheng, Chairman of Shenzhen Fanya Fresh Supply Chain (Group) Co., Ltd., said, "We are very grateful to Dapeng Customs and YANTIAN for their responsibility! We expect more facility updates and higher clearance efficiency. We will continue to support YANTIAN and believe in YANTIAN!"

In addition to natural advantages, YANTIAN also abundant in international routes and cold chain supporting resources.

Smooth operation with more than 100 international routes and multimodal transportation

YANTIAN gives full play to the role as an international shipping hub port of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Presently, YANTIAN has more than 100 international routes and has become the container transport hub port for popular imported food products from South America, North America, Australia and New Zealand, Southeast Asia and other countries and areas. To further expand the direct express line, YANTIAN has launched "multimodal transportation" and "Hong Kong-Yantian" maritime express service to Hong Kong, which has realized rapid customs clearance and won unanimous recognition from customers.

Cold chain service upgrade comprehensively and "freshly"

As the largest import and export terminal in South China for refrigerated container, YANTIAN's Yard has nearly 4,000 refrigerated container sockets, which can meet needs of refrigerated container to store up. There are two special cold chain inspection fields with constant temperature inside and next to the terminal, which can provide safe and efficient guarantee for the rapid inspection of all kinds of imported frozen products.

The customs clearance services for imported cold chain food in YANTIAN continue to upgrade. In addition to the largest and the most well-equipped designated supervision site for imported meat in South China, it was officially approved by the General Administration of Customs to set up the designated supervision site for imported fruits here in August this year, to further expand the fruit import channels in Shenzhen Port. This will not only enhance the Shenzhen Port's service and operation capability, but also effectively shorten the distance for international bulk cold chain products to enter the market, and truly deliver benefits to everyone. In recent years, the trade volume of imported cold chain goods in YANTIAN has increased continuously and massively. It has become the third largest port of frozen meat import business in China and the preferred port of cold chain import in South China, accounting for more than 90% of the total frozen meat import volume in Shenzhen. Fruit imports rose more than 500% in the year to July as well.

As Lawrence Shum, Managing Director of Hutchison Ports YANTIAN, said at the meeting that, the current international trade situation is still complex and volatile, and the cold chain import industry is also facing challenges and opportunities. YANTIAN will play a good role as a bridge, combining with various measures of Dapeng Customs to improve service quality and efficiency. Just like our active promotions to develop the cross-border e-commerce, we would explore and innovate under the mode of "new business form, new model and new ecology", integrate resources to develop more import shipping routes, to accelerate the upgrade of inspection sites, to promote the building up of near-port cold stores, to cooperate with customs to improve clearance efficiency, so as to continue taking on the responsibility as a great port, and build Yantian Port to be a service complex of cold chain logistics with effective customs clearance, safe operation and diversified services in South China, dedicating into China's vigorous import development.