Eurasian Agroexpress rail service to accelerate fresh produce transport

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and China have announced plans to open a Eurasian Agroexpress to accelerate delivery of agricultural products. A meeting took place at the end of July with the participation of the Minister for Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC), Andrei Slepnev, the deputy agriculture ministers of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, heads of railway operators, operators of wholesale distribution centres and major producers of agricultural products.
According to a press release:

“The importance and the significant potential of the Chinese market were underlined during the meeting. The possibility of accelerated container transportation of agricultural products by rail to China within 14 days at a tariff rate competitive to sea shipping was announced.”

The participants of the meeting outlined further steps to develop cooperation with China, build a logistics chain of delivery, and increase exports of agricultural products of the EAEU states by rail transport. Russian Railways Logistics presented the Eurasian Agroexpress project, which will provide accelerated delivery of agricultural products from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia to China (Chengdu, Chongqing) and Uzbekistan.

“The delivery of frozen products is also possible,” the press service said.

According to the EEC, a directorate in the form of an autonomous non-profit organization Eurasian Agrologistics has been set up for the integrated management of the project. Its participants are Russian Railways Logistics (Russia), BreMiNo Group (Belarus), KTZ Express (Kazakhstan) and Slavtrans-Service (Russia).