Guangxi’s Tangerines Shipped to Thailand Through the New Corridor

Written by Li Min & Zhang Shirui / Translated by Chen Yijia

Wuming, a district of Nanning, Guangxi, has become nationally famous for its local brand — Wuming’s Tangerine over recent years. Merchants were vying with each other for selling the fruit, people were also willing to pay for it. Meanwhile, the brand is contriving to build a unique brand image for a plunge into the overseas market. In March 2023, the land-sea intermodal delivery ceremony of the export of Wuming’s Tangerine (Beibu Gulf-Thailand) for rural revitalization project on the promotion of produce was held at the Qinzhou Port of Beibu Gulf. It was the first time that Guangxi’s tangerines were exported to Thailand through the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, which represented a milestone for the brand to expand its footprint in the key overseas market. 

Guangxi’s tangerines have been cultivated in line with the local conditions of Wuming and then sell well both at home and abroad. The brand, delivered to the overseas market through other provinces’ ports before but now through its nearby shipping lanes, has sailed for the outside world from the doorway of Guangxi. Let’s dig up the secret of its success! 

High-quality fruits: digital agriculture yields remarkable results 

Nearly 18 tons of tangerines were shipped to Thailand this time. After classifying by machines in the digital post-picking sorting center of Mingming Orchard, fresh fruits were transported to the Qinzhou Port in refrigerated vehicles and finished their on-land journey. From picking, cleaning, drying, sorting, packaging, and storing, there’s a series of strict processes before tangerines leave the factory. During the best time for sales, all the equipment in the plant is in full-speed operation to help the luscious tangerines go global. 

Ten years ago, no one would have imagined the standardized production procedure and the large-scale production line right now. Since 2012, the local government has given priority to tangerines farming, regarding it as a leading industry and a project for farmers’ well-being. Combining the development of the featured agricultural industry with rural revitalization, the authorities have rolled out a series of favorable policies and incentives for the farming and sales of Wuming’s Tangerine, which has boosted the development of the industry. Currently, the farming area of tangerines in Wuming has expanded to 460,000 mu from 800 mu ten years ago, which tops all counties (districts) in China. With its annual contribution to national tangerines output hitting nearly 20 percent, Wuming enjoys a reputation that “east or west, Wuming’s tangerine is the best.” 

The expanding farming areas and the increasing output result from agricultural digitalization. Several leading enterprises have gradually emerged as pillars of the industry over the past decade. With the guidance and the investment of the government, these enterprises focus on the indigenous innovation themed“Internet Plus Modern Agriculture” to promote the integration and utilization of information technologies like IoT and big data in agricultural production, steering this local brand to a standard, ecology-friendly, and high-quality development.

China’s first traceability map for tangerine trees formulated by the digital map management system for planting made its debut in 2020. The system was developed by Mingming Orchard, one of the leading enterprises. The staff can supervise every tree in the orchard and obtain information, like growing conditions and soil data from the integrated system by virtue of GIS and Aerial RS technology, so as to achieve targeted management and set the planting standard and model that are worth promoting. The digital application has veered the industrial chain from relying on extensive manual management and unstable marketing to realizing the control of the whole production process, including seeding, growing, harvesting, and delivering, as well as generating a database for different export standards. In August 2021, the “digital orchard certificate” was promulgated by the local government throughout the whole district, which is a convincing sign of the government’s support for improving the production and quality of tangerines through optimizing the management and technology.

Furthermore, supporting infrastructure also contributed to the promotion and development of Wuming’s digital agriculture. To be more specific, over 100 post-picking sorting plants were built successively with a total annual sorting capacity of 1 million tons, improving the efficiency of producing, and cold stores of nearly 80,000 cubic meters were established with a total storage volume of 30,000 tons, lengthening the preservation and supply period of tangerines. In this context, it is more possible for Wuming’s tangerines to gain market access. Next, the government is going to realize the overall digital transformation of the industry before 2025 and keep optimizing the allocation of resources and facilitating production-sales matchmaking for greater competitive advantages of Wuming’s Tangerine. 

Through the traceability map and the digital sorting system, only when the tangerines reach the required standards in terms of color, sugar-acid ratio, and taste, can they eventually leave the factory. During the season of sales, all the selected tangerines are luscious and juicy with lasting preservation, exuding their wax-free and natural shine and setting foot on the way to export. 

Reliable customs clearance: targeted guidance reduces difficulties in cross-border trade China is the world’s fourth largest fruit exporter, as seen in its growing export value of fruit over the past decade, which marks the improved quality of China’s produce and witnessed China to meet the needs of the international market, living up to its reputation as “a global fruit basket”. As an emerging “fruit diplomat”, Wuming’s Tangerine still needs to comply with corresponding provisions on registration and management in the countries of its importer according to laws and regulations and regions to go abroad with its high-quality fruit. The local Customs are the “first threshold” for the brand’s outbound trip. 

There are three essential procedures for the export of fruit, including the registration, the supervision and management of the orchard and the packaging plant, and the inspection and quarantine of the fruit for export. To gain overseas marketing approval entails coordination with the Customs for each procedure and the 3-in-1 certification of origin, factory, and fruit. Under the overall planning for Guangxi’s enterprises to “go global,” Nanning Customs and Yongning Customs have applied a series of targeted measures to assist companies in handling export affairs. For example, the two Customs have introduced the requirements of registration and matters needing attention for export through on-site communication with the companies, contributing to the establishment of the quality and safety supervision system of tangerines. On top of that, dedicated Customs officials are designated to timely release warning messages of the latest import policy overseas, helping the enterprises avoid the risk of technology transactions as far as possible and shielding them to expand overseas market. 

Currently, 13 companies in Nanning have gained the approval of the Customs to export Wuming’s Tangerine as an indigenous brand. According to the latest data from China’s General Administration of Customs, a total of 13,667 mu tangerines have been filed on record by Nanning’s enterprises by the end of 2021. During the seasons of sales from 2021 to 2022, the cumulative export volume of Wuming’s Tangerine hit 75,000 tons. This batch of tangerines has been exported to countries in America, Europe, and Southeast Asia, including Canada, Russia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Brunei, bringing a sweet and delicious taste to the overseas market. 

From a domestic brand to a global one, growing market recognition has boosted the enterprises’ confidence in expanding the international market. 

Convenient shipping lanes: new “fruit fast-track” creates new opportunities 

With the approval of overseas market entry, fast customs clearance and freshness are other significant factors in gaining a foothold in the overseas market for Wuming’s Tangerine. Logistics and transportation systems are the “channels” for the brand’s outbound trips. 

In the seasons of sales from 2021 to 2022, the cumulative export sales of Wuming’s Tangerine reached 7.5 billion yuan with the highest sales in Southeast Asia, the key overseas market of great potential. Based on the advantages brought by the “China-ASEAN Free Trade Area Certificate of Origin”, the brand enjoys a zero-tariff treatment for its export to ASEAN countries, which enlarges the spillover effects and strengthens the brand power of Wuming’s Tangerine in Southeast Asia. 

After arriving at the Qinzhou Port in March this year, the batch of tangerines was shipped to Thailand through the “fruit fast-track” of Beibu Gulf, a new corridor for the brand to go global. In the past few years, Wuming’s Tangerine went abroad by means of multimodal transportation, including by rail, road, air, and sea. Those tangerines had been exported to Canada through the Yant ian Por t in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province and the Qingdao Port in Qingdao of Shandong Province, exported to Hanoi, Vietnam by land, or flown to ASEAN countries by air in Nanning Wuxu International Airport for the first time in 2022. However, cross-provincial land transportation requires long-distance driving, while cross-border land transportation has a restriction on cargo volume. For land-air intermodal transportation, the commodities require t ransfer and storage midway. All the above transportation cost a lot in terms of machinery, manpower, and time, which were only makeshifts for expanding the Southeast Asian market. 

Statistics reveal that shipping through the Qinzhou Port will save 20%-25% compared with traditional transportation. Moreover, it will cost only 8 days to arrive at Thailand’s fruit trading market and distribute to major cities like Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Krabi, and Phuket with the one-step cold chain logistics transportation scheme designed by Beibu Gulf Logistics Co., Ltd, which will keep the cargo in the cold chain container during the whole shipping. The new mode and scheme of transportation have greatly benefited the enterprises for market segmentation oriented toward Southeast Asia. 

The land-sea intermodal transportation through the new corridor is “an optimal combination” of logistics scheme, which has improved the clearance efficiency and safeguarded the outbound trip to Thailand for Wuming’s Tangerine. According to incomplete statistics, during the ongoing season of sales from 2022 to 2023, the export sales of Wuming’s Tangerine have already reached 680 million yuan, giving impetus to the development of sorting, packaging, logistics, and e-commerce with a total income hitting 170 million yuan. From the mass production of high-quality fruits with excellent tastes to the extensive international marketing map, then to the optimization of transportation routes and the establishment of distribution channels in the key overseas market, Guangxi’s tangerines industry has made great strides to a steady, deepen and coordinated development abroad under the joint efforts of the government and the enterprises. 

Looking ahead, with the delightful outcomes of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor and the all-around and high-quality promotion of agriculture through science and technology, the aroma of Guangxi’s premium fruit will be able to waft across the ocean to the rest of the world by leveraging Guangxi’s natural advantages as an excellent origin of a wide variety of subtropical fruits and by virtue of the geographic advantages of Beibu Gulf Economic Zone seeking the prosperity of a seaward economy.