First ‘banana train’ leaves Laos for China

VIENTIANE: A particular freight practice carrying 25 cold-chain containers loaded with 500 tonnes of contemporary Lao bananas departed from the Vientiane station within the Lao capital on Wednesday.

The practice travelled all the best way north throughout mountains and rivers alongside the China-Laos Railway to Changsha, capital of southern China’s Hunan province.

That is the primary “banana practice” that travels on to a selected Chinese language metropolis for the reason that China-Laos Railway was put into operation a yr in the past. The “banana practice” can also be the debuting practice underneath the “One Means, Two Parks” mission between the Hunan provincial authorities and Laos.

Earlier this yr, Hunan and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos collectively signed the memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the 2 sides on the joint building of the above-mentioned “One Means, Two Parks” mission.

Beneath the mission, the 2 sides will use the China-Laos Railway as a channel to comprehensively strengthen the worldwide agricultural cooperation and financial and commerce exchanges between Hunan and Laos by the joint building of a linkage between the fashionable agricultural industrial park in Lao capital Vientiane and associated industrial parks in Hunan.

Each side will be a part of fingers to understand the annual common agricultural produce commerce quantity of over 1 million tonnes between Laos and Hunan throughout the settlement interval. That is anticipated to make constructive contributions to the commerce of high-quality agricultural merchandise, the modernisation of the agricultural trade between the 2 sides and the development of a neighborhood of shared future between China and Laos.

For the reason that signing of the memorandum, the Hunan provincial authorities has promoted Hunan Xuanye Ecological Agriculture Improvement Co Ltd, Hunan Agricultural Improvement Funding Group Co Ltd, Hongxing Business Group Co Ltd and different main agricultural enterprises within the province and overseas to collectively promote the import of Lao agricultural merchandise and home distribution underneath the cooperation framework.

Amongst these, Xuanye (Laos) Co Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hunan Xuanye Ecological Agriculture Improvement Co Ltd, is especially chargeable for the manufacturing, buy of associated Lao agricultural merchandise and export to China.

“The China-Laos Railway is seeing extra high-quality bananas and different agricultural merchandise of Laos to be exported to Hunan through the railway, with greater than two trains per week,” mentioned one of many mission operators Xu Guowu, chairman of Xuanye (Laos) Co Ltd, including that bunches of bananas not solely replicate the nice worth of China-Laos Railway connection and the historic alternative introduced by the Regional Complete Financial Partnership (RCEP) settlement, but additionally promote the idea of joint improvement, mutual profit and win-win cooperation.

Banana is among the many high agricultural merchandise exported from Laos. In the course of the first half of 2022, banana exports had been value US$141 million, solely after cassava exports which made round $250 million.