A worker arranges boxes of imported frozen meat at a cold storage at Dalian port in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province, April 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Yao Jianfeng)
BEIJING, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- China's cold-chain logistics market will witness fast expansion as demands for the fresh food e-commerce have surged amid the epidemic this year, reported Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily on Wednesday.
Due to the epidemic, fresh food e-commerce has gained traction this year. Data show that the transactions of fresh food e-commerce stood at 182.12 billion yuan (about 27.83 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year, up 137.6 percent year on year.
As fresh food e-commerce thrives, so does the cold chain logistics sector. In the first half, the number of the registered enterprises related to cold chain logistics saw a year-on-year increase of 52 percent. It's estimated that the market size will reach 383.2 billion yuan with an annual growth rate of 10.3 percent, according to the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.
Despite the promising outlook, the cold chain logistics sector is also facing challenges as it requires shorter delivery time to ensure the quality of perishable goods.
Compared with some developed countries that have mature cold chain logistics, the industry in China is still in its infancy. The share of cold-chain logistics in all means of logistics is over 85 percent in developed countries. However, the figure in China is only about 19 percent, said Zhou Yuan, academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Under such circumstances, China is ramping up efforts to fuel the development of the sector by rolling out favorable policies and clear regulations.
China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top economic planner, have jointly issued a guideline to strengthen the infrastructure for cold chain logistics.
In addition, the ministry also said that by the end of this year, it is expected to support building or transforming 14,000 cold chain logistics facilities in rural areas, with a capacity to handle 6 million tonnes of fresh food.
"Thanks to the policy support, more improvements will be seen in the sector," said Cui Zhongfu, secretary general of China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing at a recent industrial conference, predicting that China's cold chain storage capacity will exceed 70.8 million tonnes, up 17.1 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, relevant departments also unveiled clear regulations for the sector. A national platform has set up to trace imported food delivered by cold chain logistics. The first national standard on food safety in the sector was also introduced in September and will be effective from March 2021, said Cui.
Cui also believed the sector will embark on a path of high-quality development with all the policies and regulations.
(Edited by Li Shimeng with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org)
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