“The harvesting season of Chilean cherries nearly coincides with the Chinese New Year. I have a grand vision of replacing the new-year gift the Chinese take back home with Chilean cherries,” said Luis Schmidt Montes, former Chilean Ambassador to China. Statistics show that the cherries Chile exports to China now account for 90 percent of its total output, and the export scale has increased more than 10 times in the past decade.

A cargo ship fully loaded with over 4,300 tons of Chilean cherries arrived at Nangang port of Shanghai on Jan. 4 after traveling for more than 10,000 kilometers. The cherries soon appeared on the shelves of stores on the same day.

It was the first time for Eastern Airlines Logistics (EAL), a subsidiary of China Eastern Air Holding Co. Ltd (CEAH), to arrange a customized ship chartering for China's imports of Chilean cherries, and also marked the first reefer chartering for Chilean cherries of China's fruit industry.

The customized logistics solution, which transported cherries directly from Chile to China, greatly slashed the transportation time and the operation time at the port. Without a stop at a third destination port during sea transportation, the cherries were kept fresh at a constant temperature, which ensured the freshness of the fruits on arrival. Upon their arrival at the port, EAL delivered the cherries to stores using the FCL shipment, as many Chinese are busy preparing for the upcoming Chinese New Year these days.

By leveraging its strengths in the whole logistic chain, EAL started to ship cherries directly from Chile to China in 2013, and soon grew into the largest air cargo transport service provider for China's imports of Chilean cherries. It then went on to better cope with the cost and efficiency of the transportation of cherries, and came up with new modes such as sea air combined transport service and ship chartering service.

Thanks to the “cargo Silk Road” established by CEAH, the volume of Eastern Air Origin Express has expanded over 100 times. And over the years, EAL has made its due contributions to serving China's consumption upgrading and facilitating trade and win-win cooperation between China and countries along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative.