China's convenient logistics network makes fast delivery of fresh products possible

China has developed a convenient transportation and logistics network, ensuring the fast delivery of fresh products while maintaining their quality and freshness.

A customer surnamed Bai in east China's Shanghai placed an order of cherries of Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province online in the evening, and received them the following afternoon. "The delivery is so speedy. And the cherries are so fresh," he said with satisfaction.

An employee carries goods at the intelligent warehouse and logistics center of Heihe cross-border e-commerce industrial park in the Heihe Area of China (Heilongjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Feb. 11, 2023. (Xinhua/Xie Jianfei)

After Bai placed the order, over 20 workers at a cherry orchard with diverse varieties of cherries in Tuchengzi village, Lyushunkou district of Dalian started to pick cherries at 4:30 a.m. the next morning, and finished in less than an hour.

"As clients hope to receive the cherries the next day, they must be picked early in the morning," grower Zhang Shan said.

Cherries are highly perishable. Because of their delicate skin, they must be treated with appropriate care during cargo handling.

"Our company has developed a refrigerated and well-perforated fruit crate this year, which can keep the cherries fresh for 60 hours, and will be put into use on a large scale in the future," said Cao Jin, an executive of a branch of Chinese leading courier enterprise SF Express in Liaoning.

At 6:55 a.m, the package was collected by a courier. "Our company has established village-level e-commerce pick-up stations in rural areas, cutting the delivery time for each parcel by at least two hours," said Guo Ximing, manager of the Baiyu branch of SF Express in Dalian.

About two and half hours later, trucks carrying 14 tonnes of cherries, including those ordered by Bai, arrived at Zhoushuizi International Airport in Dalian. Then the cherries were placed on an automated delivery sorting line, and distributed to planes heading for different destinations.

"This is the latest sorting equipment, which was put into use this February," said Yu Yongquan, an executive of an SF Express branch at the airport. Yu added that the new machine could sort 1,500 kg of cherries every hour, improving the efficiency by 30 percent.

Yu added that the company opened a green channel for bulk orders of fresh products, and arranged cargo planes for them. Since the beginning of June, the cargo planes have transported nearly 200 tonnes of cherries every day. Yu estimated that 7 million parcels will be shipped during the cherry season this year, up by 40 percent year on year.

At 12:44 p.m., the plane landed in Shanghai. In less than two and half hours, the cherries, still fresh, were delivered to Bai.

During the January-May period this year, social logistics rose 4.5 percent year on year to 129.9 trillion yuan ($17.95 trillion), according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP). Statistics of key logistic companies show that large automated sorting facilities and smart logistics parks are capable of handling up to 10 million parcels a day.

"As China steps up the construction of a three-tiered rural logistics network at the county, township and village levels, more villages will have e-commerce pick-up stations. In the future, an increasing number of farm produce will be shipped to customers all over the country, catering to people's needs for a better life," observed Wang Yuehan, an official of the development research center of the State Post Office.