Tianjin Port upgrades enable more imported delicacies

China's first shipment of certified Beef-on-Track from Brazil arrived at Tianjin Port last month, with visitors to the 4th Tianjin International Shipping Industry Expo lining up to try the BOT steaks — and the reviews were glowing.

The Tianjin Meat Industry Association signed a cooperation agreement with Brazilian counterparts at the expo. The first bulk shipment of the beef is expected to arrive at Tianjin Port in August, eventually making its way to dining tables across the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

"China is our main export destination, accounting for roughly half of Brazil's total beef exports," said Marina Guyot, executive director of the Institute of Agricultural and Forest Management and Certification, at the signing ceremony.

Xing Yanling, president of the Tianjin Meat Industry Association, said that Tianjin Port, as the largest cold-chain gateway in northern China, has a well-established cold-chain storage, customs clearance and distribution system, handling nearly 60 percent of the country's Brazilian beef imports annually.

To source the beef, a team from the association traveled to Para state in Brazil in April, visiting the Fazenda Carioca ranch and the Mafrinorte slaughterhouse to inspect ecological farming practices, standardized slaughter processes and full-chain quality controls. They also held discussions with local prosecutors and the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce on regulatory and environmental compliance.

BOT is a sustainable beef certification initiative launched in 2019 by Brazil's Federal Prosecutor's Office and the Institute of Agricultural and Forest Management and Certification.

Under this framework, ranchers are required to commit to environmental stewardship — specifically, zero deforestation — to protect what many call the "lungs of the Earth". Pasture management is tightly controlled, with no more than eight cattle per 6.67 hectares of grassland. As a result, the beef carries a slightly higher production cost than conventional beef.

"We hope to bring premium protein from around the world to Tianjin Port, and from there to the wider Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region," Xing said.

Once a cold-chain container completes its weeks-long ocean voyage and arrives at Tianjin Port, it enters a streamlined clearance process. Paperless customs procedures ensure that compliant frozen goods pass through quickly. At the container terminal, smart loading and unloading equipment moves containers off the docks and into cold-chain warehouses with minimal delay.

For containers that need temporary port storage, thousands of shore power sockets provide uninterrupted electricity, keeping frozen goods at a constant minus 25 C. Port workers conduct regular inspections to check power supply and compressor status, ensuring cargo quality is maintained throughout.

From the docks, containers are transported to cold-chain warehouses clustered around the port area. Tianjin currently has 155 registered cold-chain storage facilities with a total capacity of approximately 3 million metric tons. As one of China's primary frozen goods import hubs, the port handled about 2.3 million metric tons of frozen imports last year, valued at 61.39 billion yuan ($9.06 billion) — ranking second nationally.

Tianjin's 15th Five-Year Plan identifies cold-chain logistics as a key component of modern transport and shipping services, with plans to strengthen the sector as a strategic pillar.

Behind this infrastructure lies a simple reality: imported goods are finding their way into more and more Tianjin households. Recently, at a Sam's Club a few kilometers from the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Tianjin), a Tianjin resident named Zheng Xiaowen drove in circles around the car park of nearly 2,000 spaces and it still took her half an hour to find an available space.

The Sam's Club in Xiqing district is reportedly the highest-grossing in the country. Despite the complaints, Zheng — like tens of thousands of Tianjin families — makes the trip every weekend. "We come mainly for the high-quality imported meat and produce," she said.

From Chilean cherries and Peruvian blueberries to Thai durian, Norwegian salmon, Australian beef, US apples and New Zealand milk, imported food has become a staple in the shopping trolleys of Tianjin families.

Data from Tianjin Customs back this up. Last year, Tianjin imported 225,000 tons of aquatic products for consumption, valued at 6.3 billion yuan, up 27 percent year-on-year. Imports of fresh and dried fruits and nuts reached 141,000 tons, valued at 14.3 billion yuan, up 7.3 percent.

This enthusiasm for imported food has deep historical roots. Tianjin has long been an international consumer city. The Quanyechang Department Store, which opened in 1928, predates what is widely recognized as the United States' first modern shopping mall by nearly 30 years.

That tradition carried on in later decades in a different, more down-to-earth form. For today's young people, shopping globally is as simple as a few taps on a phone. But for Zheng's grandparents' generation, seeing the latest international trends meant making a trip to one place that everyone in Tianjin — and across northern China — knew well: the Tianjin Foreign Commodities Market.

A hallmark of Tianjin's "foreign goods economy" from the 1990s through the early 2000s, the market drew shoppers from across the country by the busload.

Where older Tianjin residents once had to make a dedicated journey to "hunt" for imported goods, Zheng today simply reaches for them off the supermarket shelf. The goods haven't changed — what's changed is the port infrastructure behind them, as Tianjin Port has developed its port-industry-city integration model and upgraded customs clearance efficiency under the city's free trade zone framework.

Chilean cherries once had to transit through southern ports on their way to Tianjin, adding days to an already long journey. Since 2023, when Tianjin launched its direct "Cherry Express" service from Chile, the port has steadily expanded its fresh produce import corridor. By the end of January this year, four vessels carrying roughly 30,000 tons of cherries had arrived as part of the 2025–26 cherry season.

Nearly 200 containers of fresh cherries made the journey from Chile's San Antonio Port directly to Tianjin, with a single sailing time of around 22 days — nearly a week shorter than traditional transit routes. Customs declarations are completed before arrival, so once a vessel docks, containers can be unloaded directly onto refrigerated trucks. From ship to supermarket shelf, the entire process now takes just a few hours — cherries that arrive in the morning are on sale by midday and on dinner tables by evening.

"We'll use international shipping combined with full cold-chain logistics to reach the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and from there the whole of China — so that more consumers can enjoy fresh imported food," said Xing.

Cai Muzi contributed to this story.