Chinese growers are planning to expand the export of fresh waxberries harvested in east China's Zhejiang Province to more countries in addition to current marketplaces in Europe and Southeast Asia this year.
The waxberries grew in greenhouses in Zhejiang's Qingtian County were picked in the early morning of Sunday before loaded to refrigerated vehicles and transported to a local intensive processing and storage park for sorting and packaging, then sent to Pudong Airport in neighboring Shanghai for flight to European marketplaces including Madrid.
"This shipment consists of a total of 450 boxes of waxberries for export to for Spain. They were picked in the morning, packaged in the factory in the afternoon, and shipped to Shanghai in the evening, and should be able to arrive in Madrid in 24 hours," said Xia Xiaoqing, an employee of a local trade company.
The waxberry is popular throughout China for its taste and nutritive value. This versatile fruit is also plugged as the next big "super fruit" due to its high content of antioxidants.
But the fruit has a short shelf life and is difficult to store. Therefore, producers in Qingtian County have adopted a new anti-atomization cold chain packaging to keep the freshness during long-distance shipment.
According to local culture and tourism authorities, the Qingtian waxberries are now able to reach 146 cities across China via high-speed trains and cargo flights, and can even arrive in 19 Chinese cities on the day of picking.
The Qingtian waxberries have also reached consumers in Europe and Southeast Asia. In 2023, Qingtian County exported more than 20 tons of waxberries, with a sales volume of 370,000 euros.
The waxberry growers are planning to further expand the export and let their high-quality fruits enter more overseas markets.
"We will export them to more countries this year, like Britain, France, plus Singapore and Indonesia. So, the sales volume of this year is likely to double that of last year," Xia said.
Chinese growers aim to expand export of freshly picked waxberries
China is continuing to accelerate its green energy transition while meeting the considerable power demand, with renewable energy representing over 80 percent of the country's new installed power generation capacity.
The latest data showed that China's newly installed capacity for new energy power generation reached 258 million kilowatts from January to November, accounting for 81.5 percent of the total newly installed power generation capacity.
Experts say the renewable energy expansion can be partly attributed to China's efforts to accelerate the construction of new energy bases in its western areas to promote the distribution of new energy production in the more populous central and eastern parts of the country.
"For the next step, China's new energy power generation will be both centralized and distributed. It will also be land-based and sea-based. The generated power will be transmitted to other regions and consumed locally. We will continue promoting the construction of the wind and solar power generation bases in the sandy areas, rocky areas and deserts in the shelterbelt program in the northeast, north, and northwest regions of China. We will push forward the development of the water, wind, and solar power generation bases in southwestern China and the offshore wind power generation bases in eastern China. We will work to strengthen coordination in an effort to comprehensively diversify the supply of new energy," said Rao Jianye, director of the Clean Energy Research Institute under the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute.
China is also improving its new power system, keeping enhancing the system's capability for receiving and distributing new energy so as to support the country's energy transition.
As China races to construct more new energy storage projects like photothermal energy storage projects and compressed-air energy storage projects, so far, the country's new energy storage has a capacity of over 60 million kilowatts, marking a significant achievement in maintaining the stable operation of the country's power system.
By the end of July, China's total installed capacity of wind and solar power had exceeded 1.2 billion kilowatts, more than doubling the 2020 level and achieving the 2030 target six years ahead of schedule.
New energy represents over 80 pct of China's new installed power generation capacity
