China's cold chain logistics market expands in Q3 amid growing demand

China's cold chain logistics sector continued its expansion in the third quarter of 2025, driven by the government's adoption of supporting policies and robust growth in market demand, according to data released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP) on Monday.

Data from the CFLP's Cold Chain Logistics Committee showed that total demand for food cold chain logistics reached 117.3 million tonnes in the third quarter, a year-on-year increase of 4.72 percent, 0.16 percentage points higher than that in the second quarter.

For the first three quarters of this year, the total demand for the food cold chain logistics amounted to 309.3 million tonnes, up 4.49 percent year on year.

"Increases were seen in the trade volume of meat and other food products, driven by the summer consumption season and preparations for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays [in early October]. The business volume of fresh food e-commerce also saw steady improvement, while cross-border trade in agricultural products, including fruit and vegetable imports and aquatic product exports, grew rapidly, which in turn boosted demand for cold chain logistics," said Qin Yuming, secretary-general of the CFLP's Cold Chain Logistics Committee.

In the third quarter, the sales volume of fresh food e-commerce increased by approximately 15 percent year on year, maintaining the momentum of double-digit growth. In particular, the sales of fruit and vegetable products through e-commerce platforms experienced the fastest increase.

In terms of revenue, the total revenue for food cold chain logistics service providers reached 144.97 billion yuan (about 20.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the third quarter, increasing 3.92 percent from the same period of last year, and up 0.2 percentage points from the growth rate in the second quarter.

The total revenue of food cold chain logistics service enterprises reached 424.91 billion yuan in the January-September period, representing a year-on-year increase of 3.85 percent, slightly faster than the first half of the year.

Voting in Chile's presidential runoff election opened on Sunday, with leftist candidate Jeannette Jara facing Republican contender Jose Antonio Kast.

According to Chile's Electoral Service, voting began at 08:00 local time (1100 GMT) and will end at 18:00 (2100 GMT) the same day, with more than 15 million registered voters eligible to cast ballots.

In this round of voting, the candidate who receives the most votes will win the election. The president-elect will take office on March 11 next year.

No candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round on Nov. 16, meaning Jara and Kast, who won 26.85 percent and 23.92 percent, respectively, advanced to the runoff.

The two candidates have focused on improving social security, tackling illegal immigration and other issues in a bid to win over voters.