General

Recently, the workers of Ivory Coast rubber factory in West Africa are rushing to produce for Chinese orders. This batch of orders comes from Jihua Yueyang New Material Technology Co., Ltd. in Yueyang City, Hunan Province, and the goods will be delivered to Yueyang in batches.

Deng Xiaoxia, the general manager of Jihua Yueyang New Material Technology Co., Ltd., which is mainly engaged in the import and export trade of natural rubber and polyolefin polymer materials, said that after the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo was permanently settled in Hunan, the enterprises were optimistic about the future economic and trade development of Hunan and Africa, and began to layout the African market in 2020. This year, more than 11000 tons of African natural rubber have been imported.

In recent years, Hunan has taken the opportunity of the long-term hosting of the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo and the construction of the China-Africa in-depth economic and trade cooperation demonstration pilot area as an opportunity to increasingly close trade exchanges with Africa.

According to Changsha Customs data, Hunan's import and export volume to Africa from January to November this year was 50.94 billion yuan, up more than 40% year on year. It has expanded to maintain trade relations with 58 countries (regions) in Africa. There are 2498 foreign trade enterprises in Africa in the province, including 3 enterprises with a scale of more than 1 billion yuan and 65 enterprises with a scale of more than 100 million yuan.

"In just a few years, Hunan has become one of the most active provinces in China-Africa economic and trade cooperation among local provinces, regions and cities in China." Zhu Guangyao, director of Changsha Customs, said that Hunan's import and export value to Africa increased from 15.08 billion yuan in 2012 to 40.39 billion yuan in 2021, ranking the eighth in the country and the first in the central region.

Promoting economic and trade cooperation with Africa is inseparable from the smooth logistics channels. On December 13, a Boeing 777 cargo plane carrying 92 tons of clothing, daily necessities and e-commerce goods flew from Changsha to Addis Ababa. This is the first international cargo route from Hunan Province to Africa. Since its opening on July 26 this year, 56 sorties have been flown so far, with a total of 4028.7 tons of cargo shipped.

"This route meets the urgent demand of Hunan enterprises for non-trade." Zhou Jun, deputy general manager of Hunan Airport Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., said that now three shifts a week are basically fully loaded, and the main export goods are clothing, mobile phone parts, mechanical parts, etc.

In view of the characteristics of Hunan's inland location, Changsha Customs has made every effort to promote the establishment of a three-dimensional logistics system for Africa and expand new logistics channels for Africa. In addition to facilitating the opening of international freight routes to Africa, Changsha Customs also ensures the normal operation of the Xiang-Guangdong African rail-sea intermodal train, which is transported to Nansha Port in Guangzhou by rail and then to Mombasa Port in Kenya by sea. Compared with the traditional river-sea routes, this new channel can shorten the whole transportation time by 9 to 10 days.

According to customs data, in the first 11 months of this year, a total of 218 trains were shipped by the non-rail and sea intermodal transport between Hunan and Guangdong, significantly exceeding the target of 100 trains expected at the beginning of the year.

We will build a logistics channel system for Hunan-Africa aviation, Hunan-Guangdong-Africa rail-sea intermodal transport, Hunan-Shanghai-Africa river-sea intermodal transport to Africa, and promote the layout of overseas warehouse systems in key regions, important ports and node cities in Africa. More high-quality products from Hunan also go to Africa through convenient channels.

Changsha Baohui Import and Export Co., Ltd. mainly exports bags, shoes, wigs, ceramics and other products. Xie Shengxiang, the general manager of the company, said that the company's initial market was mainly oriented to Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. In 2020, Hunan Gaoqiao Market will become a demonstration park for China-Africa economic and trade cooperation to promote innovation. The company sees the prospect of China-Africa economic and trade cooperation and decides to layout the African market.

"We export a wide range of goods. There may be more than five customers in a batch of goods who issue orders in the form of consolidation. If they export according to the general trade declaration, the procedures are very complex. However, through market procurement trade, they can enjoy the convenience measures of customs to simplify the declaration of export goods, which not only greatly shorten the customs clearance time, but also greatly reduce the cost of enterprises." Xie Shengxiang said that Hunan's products have been praised by African customers, At present, African market business has accounted for 30%. "The African market is huge. Next, we plan to visit and connect with each other on the spot to expand our business."

AEO certification is a "golden signboard" that boosts the development of foreign trade and ensures stability and quality. On August 10 this year, China and Burundi Customs successfully renewed the China Burundi AEO Mutual Recognition Action Plan. This is the first AEO mutual recognition arrangement action plan signed by Chinese customs and African customs since the publication of the Vision for China-Africa Cooperation in 2035. It marks another solid step taken by the Chinese Customs in deepening China Africa economic and trade cooperation and promoting AEO mutual recognition and cooperation in the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" countries.

Zhu Guangyao said that in order to help more advantageous enterprises "go out", Changsha Customs set up a special working team to assist the General Administration of Customs in promoting the mutual recognition and cooperation between China and Africa Customs AEO. "AEO is the abbreviation of Authorized Economic Operator, that is, 'certified operator'. It is a system for enterprises with high credit status, law-abiding degree and level to be certified by the customs and give preferential customs clearance facilities to enterprises that have passed the certification. Being an enterprise certified by AEO means that it can enjoy the dividends released by customs credit management, such as improving customs clearance treatment, shortening customs clearance time, and reducing customs clearance costs One step to improve the international trade competitiveness of enterprises. "

At present, Sino-African import and export of food and agricultural products trade has strong intention. In August this year, at the 2022 event of African embassies in China entering the pilot zone of China-Africa in-depth economic and trade cooperation, hosted by the People's Government of Hunan Province, several African embassies in China said that they looked forward to further strengthening economic and trade cooperation with China in agriculture, medical care and other fields.

Mbelwa Kairuki, Tanzanian Ambassador to China, said in an interview with reporters that Tanzania hopes to seize the opportunity in the Chinese market with agricultural products as its primary product, and the pilot zone of China-Africa in-depth economic and trade cooperation provides this convenience. "The pilot zone of China-Africa in-depth economic and trade cooperation perfectly combines the advantages of African high-quality agricultural products with the strength of Chinese partners in processing and distribution, and can help our products to enhance the value according to the needs of the Chinese market."

With the construction of an African non-resource product distribution and trading center as the core, Hunan is accelerating the construction of a full industrial chain of high-quality African products facing the domestic market.

Changsha Customs actively coordinated and promoted the expansion of imports of high-quality agricultural and food products from Africa, and assisted the General Administration of Customs in carrying out the access assessment of aquatic products from Kenya, Tanzania and other countries. On April 27 this year, Kenya's dry swim bladder has been imported from Hunan port through the Changsha - Nairobi flight. In Tanzania, seven types of agricultural food products, including soybeans, cloves, dried cashews, coffee beans, cocoa beans and sesame seeds, have been admitted to China.

On September 9, Hunan's first batch of coffee beans imported from Africa by direct air transport arrived at Changsha Airport. This batch of coffee beans, 2.04 tons in total, was produced in Kenya and imported by Hunan Yanzhi International Trade Co., Ltd., an enterprise settled in Hunan China-Africa Trade Expo Park. Changsha Customs opened the "green channel for territorial inspection of import and export of fresh and perishable agricultural food products" to ensure the quality and safety of customs clearance at the same time.

The person in charge of the enterprise said that at present this batch of coffee beans are all sold to domestic coffee roasting plants and coffee shops, and will be imported in bulk through water transportation.

Now in Hunan, relying on the direct mining industry chain of African coffee producing areas, the import cycle of African coffee beans has been shortened from 45 days to 15 days, saving 30% of the cost. The multi-investment Ivorian agricultural products processing plant project will be launched in C ô te d'Ivoire and Yueyang City, Hunan Province, to create a large-scale processing and sales industrial chain of rubber, palm oil and seed cotton

In the economic and trade cooperation with non-agricultural products, Hunan has actively explored new ways and mechanisms, set up a platform to release potential and promote bilateral cooperation to achieve more practical results. According to customs data, in the first 11 months of this year, Hunan imported 70.225 million yuan of agricultural products from Africa, an increase of 116.5% year on year. More high-quality African agricultural products are entering the Chinese market through Hunan.

Not only traditional agricultural products, but also new opportunities for Hunan's foreign trade with Africa. On September 27, Changsha Haokuo International Trade Co., Ltd. declared a batch of sofa, fan and other goods exported to Changsha Customs through the integration of market procurement, which were successfully cleared and shipped to Kenya.

"In the export product cluster area, the company can easily group goods to meet the diversified needs of African customers." Zhu Huaping, general manager of Changsha Haokuo International Trade Co., Ltd., said that customs data showed that in the first eight months, the company exported more than 36 million yuan of goods to Kenya, Nigeria and other African countries through market procurement, which doubled year on year.

According to customs data, from January to November this year, Hunan's procurement and export to Africa amounted to 1.93 billion yuan, up 380%. It is understood that the third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo is planned to be held in Changsha next June. Zhu Guangyao said that Changsha Customs won the support of the General Administration of Customs, approved the release of the China-Africa trade index during the third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo, and hosted the China-Africa Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Cooperation Forum to promote the better and faster development of China-Africa trade.