Cassava starch currently has entered high production and sales season in the ASEAN regions. International freight trains loaded with cassava starch imported from Laos and Thailand have passed through speedy customs clearance in the Hunan Huaihua International Land Port. They will be unloaded and delivered by dozens of transport trucks, distributing to various parts of China. Cassava starch is a major port-related industry developed by Huaihua City. The city plans to import more than 50,000 tons of cassava starch this year, marking the initial establishment of a cassava starch trading center in central regions of China.

The photo above, taken on February 4, shows a freight train in the Hunan Huaihua International Land Port. (Photo/Lei Mingxiong)

The Huaihua International Land Port has opened four international logistics channels reaching out to the rail-sea intermodal transport in the Beibu Gulf, and the China-Laos, China-Vietnam, and China-Myanmar freight train service in less than three years of construction. It has attracted 70% of goods along the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor to be delivered southward to the ASEAN countries. The port handled 455 freight trains in 2023, an increase of 201.3%. Its number of China-Laos freight trains topped the central regions of China.

According to a three-province cooperation agreement, Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces have strengthened regional collaboration since 2023. They have taken advantage of the Huaihua International Land Port to dock with ASEAN, promoting smooth connection, cooperation, and sharing of various modes of transportation such as road, rail, water, and air. The Hunan-Hubei-Jiangxi collaboration and the Hunan-Yunnan Lancang-Mekong Express have achieved steady progress, contributing to the establishment of a central China-ASEAN "golden channel".

The Huaihua International Land Port witnessed a busy scene of cargo collection and delivery even in the 2024 Spring Festival holiday. (Photo/Zhang Zhuo)

Huaihua is the only important node city in Hunan included in the national development strategy of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, and functions as an international freight assembly center connecting to ASEAN countries. Based on the land port, Huaihua City has strived to build a foreign trade-oriented industrial system complementary to ASEAN industries. It has taken bags and cassava industries as a breakthrough to drive the development of cold-chain fruits, rubber, crushed rice, spices, and other port-related industries, forming industrial chain clusters.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: Chinanews