A high-speed ro-ro cargo ship, carrying 107 containers of agricultural and fishery products from Taipei, arrived in Pingtan, Fujian province on Feb 24 after first visiting the port on Jan 20. The arrival marked the beginning of normal operations of the Kaohsiung-Pingtan direct shipping route.

The goods included fruits, frozen products, and fruit juice, worth 24.95 million yuan ($3.62 million) in total, exceeding the goods' value of the first voyage.

The fruits are newly-picked fresh ones such as pineapples, wax apples, grapefruits and sugar apples. The commercial transaction both solved the marketing issues of Taiwan fruit farmers and satisfied the needs of the mainland market.

This batch of products will be sold to Fuzhou and the Yangtze River Delta region, the Pingtan-based Taiwan Agricultural and Fishery Products Trading Market, and the Pingtan-based Taiwan Small Trade Market.

The ship will shuttle between Kaohsiung and Pingtan every half month and the voyages will increase in number with the growing trade volume.

The shipping route, covering Pingtan, Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung, together with the Pingtan section of the Beijing-Taiwan Highway that will start operation this year and the Fuzhou-Pingtan Railway to start operation next year, will build a grand channel linking Pingtan and Taiwan by sea, land and air, which will be of great significance in strengthening cross-Straits economic and trade cooperation.

Pingtan is working on building the Taiwan Agricultural and Fishery Products Trading Market, and ensuring that Pingtan port will become the main channel for Taiwan products to enter the mainland market.

A high-speed ro-ro cargo ship, carrying 107 containers of agricultural and fishery products from Taipei, arrives in Pingtan, Fujian province on Feb 24. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]