Booming China-ASEAN fruit trade fueled by smart tech, improved logistics

The fruit trade between China and ASEAN countries, the country's largest source of imported fruits, has been flourishing in recent years, driven by intelligent technologies and improved logistics.

In Nanning City of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Wuming District has been cultivating orah mandarins, an orange-mandarin hybrid fruit, since 2012. Now the district has become one of China's largest fruit producers, contributing one fifth of the national output of the fruit.

Many farmers like Lu Ailian lease their land to orchard companies and earn wages by working in the fields during harvest season.

"I can easily harvest dozens of bags each day. The fruits are in great shape, thanks to good fertilization, soil, and skills," said Lu.

With 1.5 million tons of orah mandarins to hit the market annually, a significant portion is destined for overseas markets. After six years of cultivating demand, 60 percent of these mandarins now go to Southeast Asia. The region's orah mandarin industry generates over 1.4 billion U.S. dollars annually.

To speed up post-harvest sorting, local orchard owners have deployed robotic systems. As oranges pass through a visual recognition system, each fruit is photographed and analyzed for size, sugar content, and defects, ensuring they are matched to the right markets at corresponding prices.

"Initially, Chinese fruits struggled to enter mainstream supermarkets in Europe, America, and even Southeast Asia. We mostly dealt with wholesale markets, because many clients' impression of China was still stuck in the 1990s. But in fact, we've adopted advanced business and industrial concepts, and modernized the entire agricultural supply chain," said Ji Sufeng, chairman of the board at Mingming Orchard Group.

Upgrades in border infrastructure have further boosted trade. At Guangxi's western land border with Vietnam, a new port will provide 24-hour, unmanned, intelligent customs clearance.

Meanwhile, on Guangxi's southern coast, new ocean freight routes are accelerating the flow of Southeast Asian produce into China.

"We have launched seven fruit express lines to Southeast Asian countries, including Thailand and Vietnam. In 2024, fruit trade grew over 26 percent year on year. With RCEP and the new land-sea corridor for trade, domestic demand for tropical fruits continues to rise. We will continue to enhance services, add routes, and help develop cold chain facilities," said Qin Zhenqiang, deputy general manager of the Production Business Department at Beibu Gulf Port.

New container routes have made previously distant and costly fruits, including Musang durians from Malaysia, more accessible to Chinese consumers.

"Durians from Raub used to take a detour via Kuala Lumpur and the Strait of Malacca. The new route cuts shipping time by two days. Frozen durians are shipped using liquid nitrogen. They stay fresh for longer, and reach more consumers," said Wei Xia, deputy general manager of Guangxi Beibu Gulf Port Logistics.

Booming China-ASEAN fruit trade fueled by smart tech, improved logistics

China's first-ever multi-generational space rice research has taken a new step toward humans' ability to fully grow food in orbit, with the Shenzhou-23 crew completing another round of sample collection, sowing, and storage aboard the Tiangong space station.

The research project aims to study the molecular mechanisms behind rice's multi-generational genetic stability and environmental adaptability in microgravity. Over the past week, the three astronauts collected a new batch of samples, which will be returned to Earth for scientists to analyze at the phenotypic and molecular levels, helping reveal how long-term microgravity affects rice genetic stability.

China's space rice research began in 2022, when the Shenzhou-14 crew conducted the world's first full life-cycle rice cultivation experiment in space. During that mission, six rice seeds were grown aboard Tiangong for 120 days, producing 59 first-generation space-grown seeds that the crew returned to Earth.

On May 24 this year, the Shenzhou-23 spacecraft carried a new batch of rice seeds into orbit. The seeds fall into two groups: ordinary seeds that have never left Earth, and third-generation descendants bred on the ground from the 59 space-grown seeds harvested in 2022. Both are Chinese japonica varieties known for their adaptability and three- to four-month growing cycle.

After more than four months in orbit, the Shenzhou-23 crew has reached the first harvest and begun second-generation cultivation using two propagation methods. The aim is to compare how space-flown and Earth-grown rice adapt to space, and to explore how different propagation methods affect second-generation space rice.

The second-generation space rice is expected to mature during the Shenzhou-24 mission, scheduled for later this year.

While the 2022 experiment covered a full life cycle "from ground seed to space seed," this year's research advances to "from ground seed to space seed to space seed" -- a repeating cycle that researchers hope could provide important theoretical support for in-situ crop production beyond Earth -- the ability to grow food in space without relying on resupply from Earth. Such a capability is considered essential for humanity's future exploration of deep space.

China's multi-generational space rice research advances toward growing food in orbit