KUNMING: Serving as a "golden passage" for tropical fruits from South-East Asian nations to enter China, the China-Laos Railway is leveraging its logistics efficiency to help durians from the region reach the Chinese market.
Durians across South-East Asia, including varieties from Thailand, Laos and Malaysia, are now entering their peak harvest season.
This month, the Lancang-Mekong Express freight train on the China-Laos Railway, loaded with Thai durians, has been arriving each morning in Kunming, capital of south-west China's Yunnan Province, completing the cross-border journey in just 26 hours.
Aside from a portion destined for the local market in Yunnan, most of these durians reach more than 30 Chinese cities, including Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Shenyang, within 48 hours via seamless rail-road intermodal transport.
This ensures that consumers across the country can enjoy fresh Thai durians with minimal lead time.
Recently, Thailand has been exporting 1,500 refrigerated containers of durians to China daily. Tropical fruits from South-East Asia, including durians and mangosteens, are being transported via the China-Laos Railway, which offers fast customs clearance, short transit times and low spoilage rates.
These transport volumes are expected to peak in mid-to-late April, according to China Railway Kunming Group.
To meet the surging demand during the peak season, railway authorities in China and Laos have increased the frequency of Lancang-Mekong Express freight trains from two to six per day.
"We have opened a 'green channel' for durian transport, prioritising unloading, transshipment, dispatch and clearance. After the trains arrive, we strictly adhere to the operational standard of completing vehicle unloading and container transfer within 90 minutes," said He Ruiqi, a staff member at a railway station of China Railway Kunming Group.
He added that China Railway Kunming Group has deployed more than 4,000 specialised refrigerated containers for durian transport to ensure sufficient cold-chain capacity during the peak season.
He also noted that the railway authorities of China and Laos provide whole process cold-chain services for durian transport.
Starting from the moment of picking in Thai orchards, durians are quickly loaded into refrigerated containers and then rapidly shipped via the China-Laos Railway, arriving in Kunming in less than three days.
With the onset of the peak season for durians, mangosteens and other South-East Asian tropical fruits, the total volume of tropical fruit transported via the China-Laos Railway in 2026 is expected to exceed 200,000 tonnes, according to estimates by local railway authorities. - Xinhua
