Recently, reporters learned from Kunming Customs that since the China-Laos Railway opened to traffic and began operations and as of October 7, 2026, international freight trains on the railway have made more than 25,000 trips in total, carrying more than 20.77 million tonnes of import and export cargo valued at more than 100.4 billion yuan. Import and export volume has grown at an average annual rate of over 24%, and the number of import and export commodity categories has exceeded 3,900, covering fruits, fresh produce, smartphones, new energy vehicles and others. The railway covers 19 countries and regions including Laos and Thailand, and serves more than 7,000 enterprises across the country. The "golden corridor" effect has become increasingly evident, adding new momentum to regional cooperation and development.

Customs officers inspect imported Thai mangosteens. Photo by correspondent Yuan Hongli

Data shows that in the first eight months of 2026, tropical fruits from Southeast Asia, such as durian, mangosteen and longan, worth 5.26 billion yuan were imported via the China-Laos Railway, up 12.3% year on year; as of October 7, the cumulative value of such fruits imported via the railway had exceeded 16 billion yuan. The sustained growth is driven by the synergy of railway cold-chain transport and facilitated port clearance.

“With dedicated cold-chain trains running on a regular schedule, we can ensure end-to-end container transport for imported Thai fresh durians and other fruits, keeping produce fresh throughout the journey, and both timeliness and freshness preservation have improved significantly,” said Ren Zhengwei, deputy general manager of China Railway Container Kunming Branch. Fruits depart from Laem Chabang, Thailand, by dedicated cold-chain train, undergo standard-to-meter-gauge transshipment in Vientiane, Laos, enter China via Yunnan’s Mohan Railway Port after customs supervision, inspection and release, and arrive directly at domestic markets such as Kunming and Chongqing. The fastest total transit time is less than three days, overall transport costs are about 15% lower than those of road transport, and the fresh fruit loss rate has dropped by 10%.

“In view of the short shelf life of tropical fruits and the high requirements for clearance timeliness, Kunming Customs has continued to advance the Smart Customs initiative, promote the establishment of operational quarantine supervision procedures for imported fresh agricultural products, build laboratories at ports for preliminary screening and identification of pests and invasive alien species, and equip them with specialized equipment such as stereo microscopes and constant-temperature incubators to effectively shorten testing time. At the same time, in the inspection process, we have promoted the use of 5G smart portable inspection terminals to intelligently verify enterprise qualifications and cargo labels and assist in identifying common pests, effectively improving the efficiency of inspections for fresh goods,” said a relevant Kunming Customs official. “We have guided enterprises to use facilitation measures such as advance declaration and appointment-based inspections, established a fast multi-agency coordination and inspection response mechanism, and improved overall port clearance efficiency by more than 80%.”

At the same time, the share of high-value-added, high-tech exports such as smartphones, industrial robots, and new energy vehicles and parts has continued to rise. In the first eight months, the value of electromechanical products exported via the China-Laos Railway reached 7.42 billion yuan, up 58.4% year on year, accounting for 66% of the railway’s total export value. Among them, the export value of the foreign trade “new three” — new energy vehicles, lithium batteries and solar cells — reached 2.73 billion yuan, up 245.2% year on year. The two-way trade pattern of “Southeast Asian specialties heading north and Chinese smart manufacturing heading south” is rapidly taking shape.

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(Editors: Jennifer, Flynn)