First Charter Flight of 80 Tons of US Cherries Arrives in Hefei

Sunday, August 6,12:00 AM, China Eastern Airline CK252 Flight landed in Hefei Xinqiao International Airport of Anhui Province, China, loading with 80 tons of US cherries. The flight departed from Seattle, US the day earlier. This is the first time that Anhui Province has had the fruit charter flight for this year, and 80 tons is the largest volume of imported fruit that Hefei, the capital of Anhui, has ever received since its approval as the designated port for imported fruit entry.

The imported US cherries mainly came from Washington state with the beautiful red color. According to local importers, this batch of US cherries was directly aired to Hefei after it was picked from the orchards. The entire journey was under the cold chain with the temperature controlled between -1 ℃ and -1 ℃, guaranteeing the freshness of the cherries throughout the flight. It only took 24 hours for the US cherries to fly from Seattle to be available at Hefei’s retailer shelf.

According to the officials from Xinqiao International Airport, it is estimated that there will be another fruit charter flight coming soon. This year, Anhui local importers are planning to import 15 air shipments of fruits, that is, 1,200 tons, equivalent to 35 million US dollars of export volume in total. They hope the fruit imports would be on a regular base so that Hefei would become the high-end fruit distribution center in central China.

Image Source: Pixabay