The central Chinese province of Hunan has been helping send fresh flowers from Kenya to customers all over China and even to Uzbekistan as the country keeps rolling out favorable trade policies for African countries and steadily increasing import from the continent.
Hunan, as one of China's most active provinces in Sino-African trade, is capable of importing flowers from Nairobi within just about 17 hours.
The flowers in the store of Huang Zinan, a Chinese Kenyan flower dealer, maintained original fresh appearance even after traveling as far as 7,000 kilometers.
"Since last year we have been selling about 100,000 flowers monthly, mostly to 15 first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen," she said.
China completed its first entrepot trade for African flowers in July after 400 fresh roses from Kenya were sent to Uzbekistan from a comprehensive bonded area in Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.
"We can sell them to a third country or countries along the Belt and Road. By increasing trade, we can help create jobs for local farmers and the production of flowers will definitely grow as well," said Huang.
By late June, China has applied zero-tariff to 98 percent of taxable goods from 27 least developed countries in Africa. It also established "green lanes" for African agricultural exports to China and signed 22 protocols regarding the export of agricultural products to China with 14 African countries.
Currently, high-quality characteristic African products like aquatic products, honey, peanuts, soybeans, coffee, and fruit have been imported into Chinese market in a steady flow.
Hunan facilitates Kenyan flowers trade within China, internationally
