Shanghai’s Huizhan Market Begins Phase 3 Project

In late November, Shanghai’s Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market held a groundbreaking ceremony for its Phase 3 project. The Phase 3 project building, with a construction area of 60,000 square meters and investment funds of 330 million Chinese yuan ($52 million), will be mainly used for the domestic trading of premium fruits and support services.

According to Xia Guohai, chairman and CEO of Huizhan market, the Phase 3 project is the last of three phases, of which Phase 1 was based on Huizhan’s logistics, Phase 2 was based on Huizhan’s produce and Phase 3 is based on Huizhan’s supply chain management.

Huizhan market has gone through three stages, the first stage being the merger of Huizhan Logistics and Huizhan Fruits and Vegetables, with the operating area increasing from 3 to 5.4 hectares. The second stage was to break ground on a large plot of land in Minhang District to develop an area dedicated to trade with Southeast Asia and an area for cherry trading, increasing the operating area to 13 hectares. The third stage is the startup of the Phase 3 project.

The overall goal of the Phase 3 project is to allow Huizhan market to adapt to market demand. To date, Huizhan market’s trade and support services have always focused on imported fruits. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, however, insufficiencies in both cold chain control and international logistics have had a sustained impact on the imported fruit industry. These factors, coupled with the fact that the quality of domestic fruit brands and their products has been developing rapidly, have motivated Huizhan market to begin attempting to better cater to the domestic fruit market.

The Phase 3 project has a total construction area of 60,000 square meters and will be primarily used for ramping up the domestic fruit trade and overall market function. After the project is complete, sellers and businesses will have more space for displaying their merchandise and conducting client negotiations. Its design also includes three underground levels, which will provide ample parking and cold storage space. Phase 3 will also have spaces dedicated to commercial activities and various other support services. The market management team has already begun searching for investors, and clients offering high-quality domestically grown fruits have reportedly started signing up in droves.

Shanghai Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market was China’s first wholesale market specializing in the trade of imported fruits. For years, Huizhan market has been rapidly expanding the scale of its operations with double-digit annual growth. The market has already handled transactions of 35,000 containers this year, with a turnover in excess of 20 billion yuan ($3.1 billion).

Images: Huizhan Fruit and Vegetable Market

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.