On the morning of December 18, COSCO Shipping's "New Shanghai" docked steadily at Shanghai Yangshan Port. This berthing is of great significance, marking the smooth arrival of the first Peruvian fruit shipment on the new direct route from Peru's Chancay Port to Shanghai Port. This shipment carried a wide variety of fruits, with a total volume of over 20,000 tons, including avocados, blueberries, mangoes, table grapes and other fresh fruits.
From Qiankai to ShanghaiOnly 23 days
The Port of Chancay was officially opened on the evening of November 14, 2024. It is an important project of the "Belt and Road" jointly built by China and Peru. It is located in the Chancay Bay, 78 kilometers north of Lima, the capital of Peru. It is a natural deep-water port, controlled and invested by Chinese companies, and is also the first smart port in South America. The completion of the Port of Chancay is of great significance, significantly shortening the shipping time from South America to Asia and reducing shipping costs. Take the fruit transportation this time as an example. It has reduced the shipping time between China and Peru from 33-43 days on other routes to only 23 days, and reduced logistics costs by more than 20%. This is undoubtedly a major benefit for the transportation of fresh agricultural products and other perishable goods. Tang Wenqiang, Operations Director of Shanghai Ouheng Supply Chain Group Co., Ltd., said: "Fresh goods are perishable. Through the direct shipping port of Chancay, it only takes 23 days to arrive at the port, shortening the transportation cycle and extending the saleable period, so that consumers can eat fresher fruits. After customs clearance, this batch of goods will appear in the fruit market in Shanghai and surrounding areas in a very short time."
A port opens up a new pattern in South America
With the berthing of the "New Shanghai" cargo ship, the first batch of fruits transported by the "Qiankai-Shanghai" direct route from Shanghai Port arrived smoothly at the Shanghai Yangshan Port Terminal. The officers of Yangshan Customs under Shanghai Customs acted quickly and immediately inspected the first batch of 134 tons of imported avocados and blueberries. Relying on the intelligent evaluation model of the cold treatment effect of imported fruits, Yangshan Customs realized the verification of thousands of cold treatment data of Peruvian blueberries in seconds, facilitating the rapid removal of imported blueberries after arrival at the port. At the same time, the inspection officers carefully reviewed the plant quarantine certificates of imported fruits, the registration information of the imported orchard packaging plants, etc., to ensure that the Peruvian blueberries met the requirements of the bilateral agreement, and also carried out on-site brown sugar water tests and other processes to prevent the introduction of pests.
New opportunities for the market
In fact, the New Shanghai, which departed from Peru in late November, carried not only fruits but also mineral cargoes to China. By early December, Chancay Port had successfully sent more than 1,700 containers. Starting this month, COSCO Shipping Group has launched a weekly direct route between Chancay Port and Shanghai. Chancay Port staff also held meetings with trade associations and potential customers from Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil, with the goal of having transshipment cargo from these countries account for 65% of the port's throughput. In addition, Chile has also been integrated into Chancay Port's operations through the services of two shipping companies. Ocean Network Express announced that it will launch a coastal shipping line from Chile to Peru as the first phase from December, as well as feeder services from Chilean ports. COSCO Shipping Group also revealed plans to introduce more coastal routes to handle cargo from Chile. Chancay Port has been in operation for just over a month in the first phase and is currently in the testing and adjustment phase, moving towards full capacity. According to Spanish media El Economista, this phase aims to optimize efficiency, improve performance and fine-tune technical operations, and is expected to last until May next year.
The official operation of Chancay Port not only greatly promoted the trade between China and Peru, but also built a new bridge for economic and trade exchanges between the entire Latin American region and Asia. I believe that in the future, as the relevant routes of Chancay Port continue to mature and expand, more high-quality Latin American products, especially fresh fruits, will be able to reach the tables of Chinese consumers faster and better, enriching everyone's lives, and further deepening economic ties and cooperation between different regions.