For the first time, Russian Railways Logistics, a subsidiary of Russian Railways,has dispatched domestically produced frozen chicken products by rail to China as part of an earlier agreement with the Russian Export Centre (REC) and Slavtrans Service, which operates a “cold” terminal at Selyatino station in the Moscow region.
The refrigerated container with chicken feet produced by the Resource Group, an agricultural producer and a leader among Russian poultry exporters, was dispatched by road from a processing plant in the Tambov region in early May 2020 to the terminal in Selyatino, which has the necessary accreditation by Chinese state agencies for the export of such goods. From there, the cargo will take the southern route via Khorgos to China’s Chongqing, where it will undergo customs and veterinary control.
Russian Railway Logistics (RZD Logistics) has organised the expedition of the cargo along the whole route. The cooperation agreement between RZD Logistics, the Russian Export Center and Slavtrans Service was signed on 4 September 2019 in Vladivostok within the framework of the Eastern Economic Forum. The three parties agreed to work together to develop the export of products made by the Russian agro-industrial complex to China with the help of accelerated container trains –“agri-express trains” – that will significantly reduce the delivery times of Russian food to China.
In November 2019, RZD Logistics also signed an agreement with the Chongqing platform company YuXinOu jointly to develop rail services for the delivery of Russian food to China. The agreement was concluded at the China International Import Expo in Shanghai. It was reported that among the proposed shipments would be cargoes requiring temperature-related transport and veterinary control.