Liaoning Port Group has launched its "durian express" shipping service and started construction of the Dalian Northeast Asia Fruit Transit Center. The development marks a step for northern Chinese ports in handling seaborne durian imports.
The new service reduces transit times to six to eight days, creating a direct maritime channel for tropical fruits from Southeast Asia to reach markets in Northeast and North China. "The service provides a high-speed, low-cost maritime channel for tropical fruits from Southeast Asia to reach markets in Northeast and North China," said Li Xiaoguang, general manager of Dalian Container Terminal Co.
Once completed, the transit center is expected to process about 10,000 TEUs of fresh durians from Southeast Asia annually. To support operations, Dalian Customs has adopted streamlined clearance procedures, reducing inspection times for fresh durians to one to two days. This is expected to lower spoilage rates during import handling.
Liaoning Port Group already operates the Dayaowan Cold Chain Logistics Park, the largest of its kind at a Chinese coastal port, with a storage capacity of 400,000 metric tons. The Dayaowan port processes more than 200,000 TEUs of refrigerated containers annually, moving over 2 million tons of cold chain cargo.
Dalian Port, under Liaoning Port Group, is also China's second-largest banana import hub, handling around 50,000 TEUs of bananas each year, representing more than 30% of the national market share.
According to Liu Bin, general manager of Liaoning Port Group, the Dalian initiative is expected to become the starting point for expanding a "fruit express" shipping network. The group also plans to develop a full industrial chain around fruit imports, covering ripening, processing, packaging, and distribution.
Source: ChinaDaily