On October 10, at the Mayang Blue Phoenix Fruit Processing Factory in Yanmen Town, Mayang Miao Autonomous County, an intelligent sorting line was running at high speed. Red kiwi was sorted by weight and size into different baskets for packaging. “This batch of kiwifruit will be exported soon. We can’t wait. We must pack and load it onto trucks right away,” Lei Huaying, head of Mayang Blue Phoenix Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., told the reporter.
Recently, Mayang’s red kiwi has entered its harvest season. Orchards of over 10,000 mu (666.67 hectares) across the county were filled with kiwifruit. Based on her experience in exporting featured agricultural products like yellow peaches and poultry eggs, Lei Huaying quickly set her sights on the sweet and nutritious red kiwi.
“Huaihua International Land Port has facilitated the export of featured agricultural products from mountainous areas. This year, we have successfully exported sugar oranges to Malaysia, which makes us more confident in introducing red kiwi to the international market,” Lei Huaying said confidently. This time, she has prepared over 1,000 cartons of red kiwi worth RMB176,000, which will be shipped to Malaysia soon.
In addition to red kiwi, Mayang, reputed as the “hometown of sugar oranges in China”, is also famous for its sweet and unique sugar oranges, which have gained great popularity in overseas markets in recent years. In the first eight months of this year, Huaihua exported RMB56,176,000 worth of fruit, which were shipped to Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and other regions.
To meet the unique requirements of fruit export, Huaihua Customs under Changsha Customs has vigorously implemented the initiative of “smarter customs for a stronger nation”. The authority established an agricultural export assistance team led by head of Huaihua Customs to visit enterprises, communities and farmers to address obstacles, pain points, and difficulties in agricultural product export. Leveraging the functions of the customs, they innovatively implemented reform measures including registration guidance, free testing, and export promotion. As a result, 41 fruit and vegetable bases were registered, 12 fresh fruit export packaging plants were registered, and four orchards were successfully recommended for registration in Russia and Thailand.
In recent years, the selenium-rich eggs from Mayang County, reputed as a “Longevity County”, have gained popularity among Hong Kong and Macao consumers. However, supplying fresh eggs to consumers is a race against time.
To preserve freshness, Huaihua Customs has launched the “high-speed mode” for featured fresh agricultural products, promoted reforms such as “advance declaration” and “combined shipment of fruits and vegetables + centralized declaration” for direct supply to Hong Kong, and implemented measures such as green channels and “7×24” customs clearance appointment services to facilitate agricultural product export. These efforts have reduced the customs clearance time by nearly 30%, ensuring the perfect quality of eggs and allowing consumers to enjoy the eggs with great health benefits as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Huaihua Customs has collaborated with tax authorities to address export tax rebates on eggs. As a result, Huaihua’s fresh egg exports amounted to RMB52,352,000 in the first eight months of this year, a year-on-year increase of 12 times.
“To accelerate agricultural product export, Huaihua Customs leveraged its foreign trade data to conduct in-depth analysis of agricultural product export to ASEAN, Central Asia, and Hong Kong. The authority helped enterprises to foster connections and participate in international exhibitions and guided over 10 agricultural product processing enterprises to shift from domestic supply to self-supported export,” said Wang Youhua, Director of Huaihua Customs under Changsha Customs.
In addition, the customs utilized its agricultural and food product laboratory to provide free sampling for enterprises to test pesticide residues, heavy metals, preservatives, etc., to ensure that exported agricultural products meet international access requirements. In the past two years, the laboratory has tested exported yellow peaches, citrus, vegetables, condiments and other samples for free, saving enterprises more than RMB1.5 million in testing expenses.
(Translated by Professor Yu Jie)