Chongqing- 14 tons of artificially farmed Siberian sturgeon in Southwest China's Chongqing's Fengdu County were exported to Vietnam, becoming the first case of Chongqing's fresh aquatic products abroad; Nearly 300 tons of Wushan crisp plums were exported for the first time by sea and highway combined transport... As the weakness of Chongqing's foreign trade, the agricultural product exports have achieved a breakthrough this year.

Statistics showed that Chongqing's agricultural export market has always been limited and unsystematic. With hundreds of export enterprises with dozens of varieties, Chongqing hardly had brands integrated with international influence, and the market scale was far away from other cities. 

Experts believe that branded products and target markets should be emphasized to break this situation. The former can provide a stable and large-scale supply of goods, while the latter can offer export guarantees from the demand side.

Chongqing's largest fresh fruit export

In 2019, the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Demonstration Initiative on Strategic Connectivity Administration Bureau (CCIB) and the Chongqing Customs District piloted oranges in Zhongxian County to explore a new way to export agricultural products. They desired to transport 25 tons of Zhongxian oranges from Chongqing Ruijin Agriculture Development Co., Ltd. to Singapore.

Although there was no problem with customs clearance, the products' defect rate was relatively high after entering the market.

"Many fruits started to go bad within two weeks after they have been on the shelves," said an official of Wanzhou customs. "Foreign countries usually have high requirements for imported agricultural products, especially fresh products."

Thus, they began reorganizing the export process, especially in planting, picking, packaging, transportation, and storage. By 2020, Zhongxian oranges were shipped to Singapore again with the second export attempt. This time, several hundred tons of oranges arrived without any deterioration.

With a successful precedent, the next plan is to achieve scale breakthroughs, which need the support of leading enterprises and a large market.

CCIB and the Chongqing Customs District found the leading orange enterprise, Chongqing Chunken Agriculture Development Co., Ltd., as an export base of 3,000-acre Zhongxian orange orchards.

They have stepped up its efforts to connect with Singapore and most enterprises in ASEAN. This April, 3,000 tons of Zhongxian oranges were exported to ASEAN in batches, which is currently the largest fresh fruit export from Chongqing. 

Agricultural products exported to the right market

"Chongqing agricultural products were far behind foreign brands in terms of packaging and marketing due to reasons such as awareness," said a person in charge of Singapore's cross-border trade. "For example, the domestic market evaluates a fruit based on whether it is delicious or sweet, while foreign consumers highlight the fruit's size, appearance, and even packaging design." 

"Countries such as Europe and the United States have different demands for fresh products from ASEAN, preferring lemons rather than citrus," said Zheng Xian, a CCIB official. "This requires Chongqing's agricultural exports to choose the right market."

Industry experts think exporting fresh agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits is only one part. In the future, Chongqing should consider increasing the added value of these agricultural products by exporting agricultural processed products to the international market.

For instance, in Zhongxian County, several enterprises are already planning to produce concentrated orange juice for exporting worldwide.

(Zhu Qinzhuo, as an intern, also contributed to this report.)