Visitors enjoy food and entertainment activities during the Starlight Music Festival in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, on July 13. [Photo/China Daily]
HANG ZHOU: Even as many businesses reel from scorching heat waves that have gripped the northern hemisphere, Chinese manufacturers of air-cooling products and providers of cold chain services have emerged as unlikely winners this summer.
Data from Shenzhen Customs in Guangdong province indicated that the city’s total exports of electric fans soared 27% year-on-year (y-o-y) in the first five months, amounting to a staggering 13.55 billion yuan (RM8.6bil).
Exports to the European Union alone grew by 64% y-o-y, reaching 2.14 billion yuan (RM1.36bil).
Manufacturers in Zhejiang province are also busy dealing with a massive influx of orders for cooling products like fans and air conditioners.
For instance, at the factory of Ningbo Dechang Electric Machinery Co Ltd, six production lines have been running at full capacity.
“Some of the lines are producing electric fans,” said Fang Suping, the company’s deputy manager of sales, who had just received another urgent order for more than 100,000 fans to be delivered to the United States.
“We started mass-producing the fans at the beginning of this year and our products have seen over one million units sent overseas.”
According to Fang, in the past, the fans were produced and delivered before June. But due to rising temperatures, orders from Europe, North America and the Middle East have increased sharply this year.
The production of fans has been mapped out until the end of August, while many customers are rushing to place urgent orders.
Zhejiang Sharbo Electric Appliance Co Ltd, an air conditioner manufacturer in Ningbo, is also ramping up production to meet surging overseas orders.
“Increasing demand for air conditioners has boosted exports,” said Lu Wuxing, the company’s vice-general manager.
“In the first half of this year, our exports were valued at US$75mil (RM341mil), increasing 15% y-o-y.”
It is not just appliances that are selling like hotcakes this summer. It also brings a windfall of fruits such as lychees and peaches.
Freshly picked fruits have become popular because of effective cold chain logistics.
Juicy peaches from Ningbo’s Fenghua district are known for their sweet taste and were named one of China’s geographical indications, a legal label for products that come from a particular region.
The popular peaches are a major source of income for farmers.
With the arrival of summer, Jiang Mi is currently hard at work in Jiang’s Peach Garden in Zhuangyuan’ao village.
The peach garden, which was established by her grandfather Jiang Yongren in 1984, The young successor has given new life to the orchard business.
“Before we started the eCommerce business, our main customers were the nearby fruit wholesalers.
“For the past seven years, our eCommerce sales have grown rapidly, and now account for over 80% of the total sales.
“Our main clients are distributors in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces,” Jiang said.
For peach farmers, rising temperatures are a curate’s egg. Jiang explained.
“High temperatures often come with plenty of sunlight, which brings sweeter peaches.
“But they also make the fruits smaller. Perfect fruits can only be planted when there is a balance between sunlight and rainfall.
“Heat waves can also speed up the maturing and quickly spoil of the fruits after they are picked.
“We are racing against time to keep the fruits fresh.
“Farmers usually pick fruits in the wee hours of the morning. And we package them and send them through cold chain logistics before noon.
“Thanks to the development of cold chain logistics, the efficiency of the peach shipments has been greatly improved.”
Jiang said that it took farmers no more than 24 hours to deliver the peaches to customers in Shanghai and Hangzhou after picking them.
The effective logistic services have also boosted peach sales while her sales territory has expanded. — China Daily/ANN
