Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Chen Qiangwei) news: On October 30, 2024, 20 tons of live king crabs from the Arctic Ocean entered China through the Jeminay Port, Altay Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This marks the first time that China has imported live aquatic animals from the Arctic Ocean by land transportation, and simultaneously, a direct land import route from the Arctic Ocean to China has been opened.

Photo taken on October 30, 2024 shows twenty tons of live king crabs from the Arctic Ocean enter China through the Jeminay Port, Altay Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo by Huang Cheng)

After seeing the live king crabs, Zhang Junchuan, the person in charge of the company that imported this batch, finally breathed a sigh of relief. "It only took six days from the origin in the Arctic Ocean to the Jeminay Port," said Zhang. He added that the quality of these live king crabs was excellent, with minimal loss during transportation, and the survival rate was higher than that of air transportation.

After comparing the import clearance efficiency, loss, and cost, Zhang Junchuan believes that this direct land import route from the Arctic Ocean to China has great potential. "In two or three days, this batch of live king crabs will be transported to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other places by road. We plan to import another 15 trucks of live king crabs in November," Zhang said.

The rapid import of live king crabs was made possible by the opening of the designated supervision site for imported edible aquatic animals in Jeminay County, Altay Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang. On October 10, 2024, the site received approval from the General Administration of Customs for use. In just 20 days, live king crabs from the Arctic Ocean were successfully imported.

In recent years, China's Xinjiang has been accelerating the construction of the core area of the Belt and Road Initiative, continuously enriching the variety of import and export commodities, expanding international cooperation, so that Xinjiang could develop itself into the gateway of the country's westward opening up. The successful import of live king crabs from the Arctic Ocean by China's Xinjiang is one of the practices of the region's active exploration of new international cooperation.

To shorten the customs clearance time for this batch of goods, the Urumqi Customs set up a special working group and formulated facilitation measures for customs clearance, ensuring the rapid clearance of fresh products while safeguarding biological security at the border.

Yu Yongjie, the deputy director of the Jeminay Customs, said that to ensure the safe and efficient customs clearance of this batch of live king crabs, the customs comprehensively reviewed the customs clearance process and tailored a customs clearance plan to ensure that the king crabs could be inspected immediately upon arrival, given priority for inspection, and released promptly.

Liu Xue, the director of the Economic Development Bureau of the Jeminay Border Economic Cooperation Zone (Jeminay Agricultural Opening-up and Cooperation Pilot Zone), said that in the future, they will continue to leverage the policy of the designated supervision site for imported edible aquatic animals, increase the import of aquatic products, extend the industrial chain, and add new momentum to the development of the port economy.

Since the beginning of this year, frozen aquatic products such as pike perch, bream, and pike from Kazakhstan and other countries have entered the Chinese market through the Jeminay Port. In the first three quarters, the Jeminay Port imported 710 tons of frozen aquatic products.

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