A Boeing 777 cargo plane carrying 100 tonnes of Chilean cherries and blueberries landed in northeast China's Shenyang on Saturday morning.
It is the first of a regular line of charter flights that will bring fresh fruits from Chile to Shenyang, said Ji Bin, general manager of the Dalian Yidu Cold Chain Co., importer of the fruits. It takes 25 days for cargo from Chile to arrive in northeast China by ship.
"Air freight takes about 20 hours, making it possible for people in northeast China to enjoy fresh blueberries like Chileans." The charter flight, run by the logistics arm of China Eastern Airlines, takes off from Chile and transits in Los Angles before arriving in Shenyang.
Delivery of fresh fruits and other food products to Shenyang by air is becoming more common as the city strives to become a transit hub for imported goods in northeast China. Chilean blueberries are sold on Chinese fruit e-commerce platform fruitday.com at about 88 yuan (13.6 U.S. dollars) per 500 grams.
China's demand for imported fruit has grown rapidly as prices drop thanks to the development of e-commerce and logistics. China imported about 5.14 billion U.S. dollars worth of fruit in 2014, up 25.4 percent year on year.
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