ZHENGZHOU, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A freight train loaded with 35 containers of mushroom products left the city of Nanyang, central China's Henan Province Wednesday, heading for Russia.
The train carrying a total of 910 tonnes of mushrooms worth 30 million yuan (around 4.3 million U.S. dollars) will arrive at the port city of Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province in 48 hours, where the goods are expected to start their sea trip on Jan. 9 before arriving in St. Petersburg, Russia by the end of the month. Then, the mushrooms will be transported by train to Moscow.
The freight train service is a tailored transportation scheme rolled out by the local comprehensive bonded zone and Xixia County, a major mushroom producing area of China.
"The canned mushrooms should be transported to Russia avoiding the land route in winter due to the minus 40 degrees Celcius in Russia. The freight train will use land route rail services from March, which will only take 15 days to reach Moscow," said Sun Duo, who is responsible for the freight service.
At present, the annual output of mushrooms in Xixia County has stabilized at about 300,000 tonnes, with more than 100 export enterprises. The products are exported to more than 20 countries along the Belt and Road. In the first 11 months of 2019, exports reached 1.35 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for about 30 percent of the country's mushroom exports, creating jobs for nearly 200,000 people.
