(Image: www.vesselfinder.com)
On December 8, as planned, the ship "Seaspan Brightness" arrived at the port of Hong Kong, becoming the first maritime shipment of Chilean cherries for the 2022-23 season.
With approximately 143 containers of cherries, equivalent to 2,580 tons, including Royal Dawn (48%), Santina (38%), Glen Red (4%), and Frisco (2%) varieties, the first maritime shipment of Chilean cherries arrived at the port of Hong Kong. From there, the fruit was transported to the wholesale markets of Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Jiaxing.
On December 11, the same ship sailed to Yantian, then to Shanghai, where it arrived on December 19, and to Ningbo on December 20.
In this context, our correspondents in China spoke with Candy Liu and Richard Cai from the Commercial Department of Yantian Port, who reported in real time on the arrival of the first two containers in mainland China. Candy Liu described the arrival and release of the containers as successful, while Richard Cai said that the transfer of the cargo to the trucks and the departure from the port terminal took less than 20 minutes. He added that, according to the clients themselves, it took about three hours for the cargo to arrive at the Jiangnan fruit wholesale market in Guangzhou.
Additionally, our team spoke with Michelle Long, General Manager of logistics specialist company Intelligent International Logistics Co., who conveyed an optimistic message about what is to come in terms of logistics in the Asian country. She noted that after the Chinese economy experienced a sharp economic slowdown in 2022, and seeing that the effects of the pandemic following the vaccination processes in several countries were not serious, the Chinese government finally decided to announce to the public on December 1, three years after the outbreak, that the era of strict control was over; the days of mandatory nucleic acid tests were over.
He also said that China today, like three years ago, is open to the world and that he hopes that 2023 will be a year of peace and prosperity.
With the arrival of this first ship to China, the official start of the season of arrivals of Chilean cherries by sea to the Asian giant has been marked. The peak of fruit arrivals is expected in mid- and late December, for which the main ports are being prepared in order to expedite everything related to logistics.
