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China trade
EconomyGlobal Economy

How China’s blueberry boom is reaching Southeast Asia on faster trade links

The fruit is heading to Asean markets on the China-Laos Railway, supported by the world’s largest free trade agreement

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Farmers pick blueberries at an orchard in southwest China’s Yunnan province. Photo: China News Service via Getty Images
Ralph Jennings
Exports of fresh blueberries from China are surging, with an outsize share bound for Southeast Asia – and the vast trade and infrastructure links that helped turn the region into its largest trading partner are keeping the fruit fresh and relatively inexpensive.

China shipped US$24.4 million of fresh blueberries and cranberries in April, according to its General Administration of Customs. Exports reached US$38.8 million in the first quarter of this year, compared with US$50.8 million for all of 2025 and US$23.1 million in 2024.

Bumper harvests in Yunnan province, China’s prime blueberry-growing region, have made the fruit popular at home while still leaving a surplus for export. The southwestern province more than doubled its cultivation area and output between 2020 and 2025, according to the business consultancy Dezan Shira & Associates.
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Berries are exported to Southeast Asia thanks to “trade facilitation” measures under the four-year-old Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and via the China-Laos Railway, said Quinn Lu, a senior manager at Dezan Shira. RCEP is a trade agreement that includes China and 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as well as Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

The railway, which opened nearly five years ago, has sped up overland transport while keeping farm produce fresher than many alternatives. Yunnan sits at the northern end of the network.

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Chinese berries were now able to reach Kuala Lumpur by road or sea within days rather than weeks and sold for about US$7 per kg, Lu said. Refrigeration during transport had helped maintain quality, she added, with the berries “closer to peak ripeness than what arrives after a 25-day ocean voyage from South America”.

“Chinese blueberries offer an unmatched combination of freshness, year-round availability and accessible pricing,” she noted, pointing to advances in agricultural technology and logistics.

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