On September 26th, in the processing workshop of Ningbo Qiaoxing Food Co., Ltd., workers were skillfully sorting shrimps on the assembly line. This batch of products processed by FD (vacuum freeze-drying) technology will be packaged and sent overseas.

This is a vivid example of aquatic products processing enterprises of Xiangshan County actively expanding their overseas markets. According to statistics from Xiangshan County Customs, a subsidiary of Ningbo Customs, from January to August this year, the county exported 79,000 tons of aquatic products with a total worth of 1.14 billion yuan, an increase of 13.2% and 17.8% year on year, respectively. The county’s export volume accounts for about 70% of the city’s total.

The confidence of Xiangshan County exporting its aquatic products lies in the quality of products and deep processing. Ningbo Qiaoxing Food Co., Ltd. is located in the Aquatic Products Processing Park in Shipu Town. With the advantage of being close to the port, it has established a full-chain quality control system from source procurement, processing and manufacturing to finished product output. With various certifications, its products have been exported to many countries and regions such as South Korea, the United States, and the European Union. Since the introduction of the FD shrimp export business in April last year, the company’s overseas orders have been on the rise.

The new-quality productivity brings new vitality to the processing of aquatic products. “In the face of the complex international market, we have been iterating our processes and enriching our product structure”, said Wang Zhiwen, the head of the company. FD products use the principle of sublimation to directly convert solid ice in materials into gas and achieve dehydration in low-temperature and low-pressure environments. Compared with traditional drying processes, this can maximize freshness retention. Products processed this way have low moisture content and are less prone to microbial growth, so they have a relatively long storage time, and more convenience for storage and transportation, thus accurately matching the needs of the high-end overseas consumer markets.

It has become a consensus for many aquatic product processing enterprises to break away from the primary processing track and focus on high value-added products. In the production workshop of Ningbo Yongyang Food Co., Ltd., fresh tuna undergoes a dozen of modern processing steps, including cutting, steaming, meat extraction, packaging, and weighing, to produce standardized frozen boiled tuna fillet products for export.

Compared to simple cutting and freezing of primary aquatic products, this processing mode requires higher production control and technological level. The deep processed tuna and fish fillets can be used for canned food production, as well as meet the protein consumption needs of the elderly, children, and fitness groups, so their recognition in overseas markets has been on the increase.

The export chain of aquatic products is long and requires high timeliness, which puts higher demands on customs clearance supervision services. To address the problem, Xiangshan County Customs has implemented the “one enterprise, one policy” assistance measures, guiding enterprises to improve the full process ledger and product traceability system for raw material acceptance, production and processing, and finished product delivery. By closely monitoring the inspection and supervision of such key items as histamine, parasites, heavy metals, and limited additives, it is trying to guard the safety bottom line of aquatic product export.

“We have launched a pre-appointment inspection mode, which can compress the overall customs clearance time by prioritizing acceptance, inspection and certificate issuance. We also simultaneously push foreign product non-conformance warning cases to guide enterprises in conducting self-inspections and avoiding export risks in advance”, said a related person in charge from Xiangshan Customs.

With the upgrading of software services, hardware shortcomings are also being addressed at an accelerated pace. With the official opening of the Xiangshan Port area and Shipu Port area after they passed the national acceptance at the end of last year, Xiangshan County has bid farewell to its history of “having a coastline but no ports”, further unleashing its port channel advantages and providing solid support for aquatic product processing enterprises to “go global”.