River estuary port agricultural products "fresh" through to ASEAN

At the Hekou Port on the China-Vietnam border in Yunnan, the import and export of agricultural products is gradually becoming an important engine driving foreign trade growth. Statistics from the Kunming Customs show that in the first eight months of this year, the export value of agricultural products from Hekou Port was 5.57 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.7%.

At dawn, a series of cold chain trucks loaded with Vietnamese dragon fruits, durian, and lychee, and refrigerated trucks loaded with domestic grapes, fresh oranges, and cherries, passed through the Hekou Port checkpoint on the Honghe Highway Bridge, with the "Green Channel" sign particularly noticeable.

In 2019, the first bilateral agricultural and sideline products fast clearance "Green Channel" between China and Vietnam was opened at Hekou Port, providing strong support for the rapid clearance of fresh agricultural products. By 2025, the cross-border direct mode of the China-Myanmar-Thailand-Laos-Cambodia (GMS) will be regularly operating at Hekou Port, and cross-border logistics transportation will continue to transform and upgrade. This largest land port on the Yunnan section of the China-Vietnam border is gradually becoming the "golden corridor" for Yunnan Plateau specialty agricultural products to reach the ASEAN.

"Declaration form number ending in 61035, item name pomegranate, origin Mengzi, Yunnan." At the export inspection station of the Beishan International Cargo Terminal at Hekou Highway Port, Hekou Customs Port Supervision Division staff member Zhang Enqi quickly swiped through the cargo declaration information on the 5G intelligent single soldier's touchscreen, while accompanying staff members were carefully checking the condition of the goods. In less than 15 minutes, after the inspection and approval of the goods, this batch of goods was quickly transported to Vietnam, and could be sold in Vietnamese agricultural markets within four hours.

"From June to October every year is the peak period for agricultural product exports, and we export nearly 70 vehicles of fresh fruits and vegetables to Vietnam every day." Xu Yunxia, the person in charge of Yunnan Dubian Commercial Trade Co., Ltd., said, "Freshness is competitiveness! Now the port clearance efficiency is getting higher and higher, and these pomegranates picked and packaged from the base in the morning can reach Vietnamese customers in the afternoon."

In response to the "fresh, urgent, and special" characteristics of agricultural products, Hekou Customs has set up a special window for business handling of fresh agricultural products, implementing priority inspection, priority review, and priority abnormal handling. "We have combined the import and export commodity structure of the port to innovatively implement the 'Green Channel Time +' rapid clearance mode, implemented classified clearance management for export goods, and implemented centralized priority clearance for fresh agricultural products. We have also increased the application of non-invasive, intelligent inspection equipment such as the H986 and harmful biological remote identification instruments, and carried out precise risk discrimination based on the intelligent image review system, further reducing the loss rate of fresh agricultural products on the basis of strictly preventing risks." Zhao Ming, head of the Supervision Division of Hekou Customs Port, introduced.

Optimizing the port business environment and promoting the facilitation of cross-border trade, the construction of smart ports in Hekou has made positive progress—smart logistics 2.0 system, 5G intelligent single soldier, panoramic visualization platform, and other intelligent software and hardware facilities and equipment have been deployed in Hekou. The "multi-trade integration, direct arrival" clearance mode has been implemented at Hekou Port for the first time. Under the "system + technology" drive, the intelligent upgrading of the customs supervision system has greatly improved the clearance efficiency, continuously ensuring the safe and efficient clearance of import and export goods. (Wen by Xiong Yueling)