NW China imports corn from Central Asia by freight train

An employee works at the workshop of a wood processing company in Lanzhou New Area, northwest China's Gansu Province, March 3, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhang Rui)

LANZHOU, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- A freight train loaded with 1,300 tonnes of corn from Kazakhstan arrived at Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province, on Wednesday, marking a busy start of trade with Central Asia and beyond this year.

It took about a week for the train to travel from Kazakhstan and arrive at its destination, a logistics park in Lanzhou New Area, the city's national-level development zone. The corn is the second batch of goods from Kazakhstan, as grain and oilseed crops from the Central Asian country were sent by train a few days ago.

Since the park received its first batch of goods on Jan. 3, 15 international freight trains have sent more than 22,400 tonnes of goods worth about 270 million yuan (about 42.5 million U.S. dollars) to and from the park in less than 10 days.

The logistics park has delivered 442 international freight trains linking China with about 40 countries since 2015. Lanzhou's international freight train service is China's first to see more inbound than outbound trains. The goods traded via the service cover corn, flaxseed, barley, sunflower seeds and wood.