BRI facilitates ASEAN produce export to Yunnan

With the joint pursuit of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), an increasing number of agricultural products from the ASEAN countries gained access to the Chinese market via Yunnan Province, which borders Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.

This year, 366,000 tons of Vietnamese fruits that were valued at 1.67 billion yuan have been imported into China via the Hekou land port in south Yunnan, increasing 41.6% and 46.3% respectively, said Kunming Customs on April 27.

"Now, it’s easy to have things cleared at the customs. For example, a truck of dragon fruit from Vietnam can be inspected at the Hekou land port in around 10 minutes," said Li Meilian, a cross-border trader.

A staff member with the Hekou check point said the H986 large scanner has been used to conduct non-intrusive inspection to the imported fruits, speeding up customs clearance.

What’s more, local customs in Yunnan have joined hands with other departments to bring in more high-quality produces from the Belt and Road countries.

At the Mohan check point near the China-Laos border section in south Yunnan, fresh mangosteens and durians from Thailand are entering China in bulk.

“The Thai mangosteens belong to fruits that need fast customs clearance to be exported to China,” said He Zhaoshi, a managerial staff with the Xishuangbanna-based Hongxing Trade Company. 

“Now technologies make it possible for the customs officers to inspect the fresh fruits without opening all the packages, speeding up customs clearance and reducing the cost for the international traders.”

In the first quarter of 2019, the Mohan check point saw 92,900 tons of Thai fruits imported into China, an increase of 416.0% year on year. 

At the Zhangfeng check point near the China-Myanmar border in west Yunnan’s Dehong Prefecture, sugar canes, watermelons and bananas are imported to China in quantity.

There, customs officers have set up fast and special windows to inspect fresh produces, greatly cutting the cost and time for international traders to have the goods cleared.

In the first quarter this year, 38,000 tons of Myanmar watermelons with a trade value of 11.4 million yuan were imported into Yunnan via the Zhangfeng land port.

The Zhangfeng border gate also saw 66,000 tons of bananas and 158,000 tons of sugar canes flow into China. All exported produces brought around 134 million yuan to Myanmar residents near the border.

Reporter Liu Ziyu (Yunnan Daily); trans-editing by Wang Shixue