Land-sea freight service brings China's blood oranges to Singapore

Aerial photo taken on Jan. 14, 2021 shows a view of the container wharf of Qinzhou Port, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming)

CHONGQING, April 13 (Xinhua) -- A truck carrying 26 tonnes of blood oranges left southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday for Qinzhou port on the country's southern coast, from where they will be shipped to Singapore.

The whole journey via the land-sea transport service will take around six days.

In the past, exported blood oranges often suffered damage during transport. The land-sea freight service can reduce the losses and save loading costs, according to the New Land-Sea Corridor Operation Chongqing Co., Ltd.

The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is a trade and logistics passage jointly built by the provincial-level regions of western China and ASEAN countries. Chongqing Municipality is the center of operations for the corridor.

"Blood oranges have a good market in Southeast Asian countries," said Qin Zhaohong, head of the Chongqing Zhaohong Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., the exporter of the oranges.

Qin said the company had signed a cooperation agreement involving the export of 3,000 tonnes of blood oranges with the New Land-Sea Corridor Operation Chongqing Co., Ltd.

Blood oranges, or raspberry oranges, are signature products of Chongqing's Rongchang District, with a planting area exceeding 20,000 mu (about 1,333 hectares). The fruits have been exported to many countries including Thailand and Indonesia.