"By mid-October, the duty-free port of Chongqing will warmly welcome the first batch of Southeast Asia's longan fruit, with a total weight of 22 tons," says Zhou Yu, the manager of Chongqing Runqiu Supply Chain Management. Chongqing is one of China's five largest cities with a population of 30 million.
Previously, most fruit imported into Chongqing was coming from Europe, and North and South America. Having the possibility to directly import duty-free from Southeast Asian markets will increase supply on the local market.
Fresh fruit from Southeast Asia is shipped from Thailand's Laem Chabang port to the port of Shekou near Hong Kong. From there the fruit is directly forwarded to a special quarantine clearance area in Chongqing with trucks. The import procedure is considerably shortened by the newly established duty-free zone.
