Nearly a thousand tons of Chilean cherries have cleared customs and arrived in Shanghai, set to be introduced into the Yangtze River Delta market.
The first batch of Chilean cherries imported via sea for the 2024/2025 production season arrived at the Shanghai Port. Accompanied by the sound of a whistle, the first cargo vessel of the “Cherry Express Line” successfully docked at the Waigaoqiao Port area of Shanghai.
On December 17 at 10 AM, customs officers from the Waigaoqiao Port area of Shanghai Customs immediately began inspecting the batch of imported cherries. A total of 931 tons of Chilean cherries packed in 49 refrigerated containers were released after customs inspection and will be distributed in the Yangtze River Delta market. This marks the official start of the sea transportation season for Chilean cherry imports at the Shanghai Port this year.
“Considering the characteristics of fresh cherries being perishable, the frequency of chartered ships during peak seasons being high, and the large volume of imports, we proactively learned about the companies’ chartering plans and formulated a dedicated inspection and supervision scheme. Upon the arrival of Chilean cherries at the port, we immediately opened a ‘green channel’ for incoming goods, strictly and swiftly conducting phytosanitary inspections and testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. We utilized achievements from the smart customs project, such as the ‘Intelligent Comparison Assistant’ for registered foreign fruit enterprises and the intelligent evaluation of cold treatment effects, to actively explore innovative customs clearance supervision models, achieving ‘arrival, inspection, and release’ for a safe and efficient clearance,” said Luo Zhen, Deputy Director of the Inspection Section Ten of Waigaoqiao Port Customs.
Chile is one of the largest fruit exporters in South America. According to statistics, since the beginning of this year, Waigaoqiao Port Customs has supervised a total of 1,271 tons of Chilean imported fruits, nearly quadrupling last year’s figure. To further improve the customs clearance efficiency for Chilean fruits transported by sea, the Shanghai Customs and the Chilean Ministry of Agriculture have established a bilateral mutual recognition model for temperature probe insertion and calibration information. Under this model, the Chilean side calibrates temperature probes and takes relevant supporting photos when packing fruits for export to China, correlates the photos with container numbers and bill of lading numbers, and transmits the information directly to the mutual recognition website. Chinese customs officials can then confirm compliance by querying the container number, bill of lading number, and fruit type to check corresponding on-site photos, significantly reducing the rate of container opening and speeding up customs clearance. Since the trial operation began in January this year, 1,333 batches of Chilean imported fruits have applied this model, reducing the clearance time by about half a day compared to previous mutual recognition methods.
