The first cross-border e-commerce air freight dedicated line in BRICS cities in China has exported over 47 million pieces in three years

On the afternoon of February 9th, the ET3745 flight carrying 89 tons of export cross-border e-commerce packages, mechanical equipment, and postal parcels slowly departed from Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport, marking the successful completion of all flight plans for the first domestic BRICS cross-border e-commerce air freight line (hereinafter referred to as the "BRICS Line") within three years of operation. Over the past three years, this aerial "golden corridor" connecting Xiamen, China with Sao Paulo, Brazil has tightened the economic and trade cooperation ties between China, Brazil, and even South America. Since the launch of the BRICS Special Line on February 10, 2023, as of February 10, 2026, Xiamen Customs has supervised a total of 708 round-trip flights on the BRICS Special Line, imported and exported 46500 tons of goods, and carried over 47 million cross-border e-commerce packages for export.

As China's first cross-border e-commerce air freight line for BRICS cities, this route is operated by Ethiopian Airlines using Boeing 777F all cargo aircraft, with three flights per week. The dedicated export line mainly focuses on cross-border e-commerce products such as clothing, shoes, hats, and daily necessities, while the import return journey carries fresh seasonal products such as South American plums, grapes, cherries, salmon, etc., achieving a "two-way rush" of global goods. Xiamen Minyunjia Customs Declaration Co., Ltd. mainly imports salmon from South American countries through the BRICS special line. Since the opening of the BRICS special line, the company has keenly seized the business opportunities. The main distribution centers for salmon in China are Guangzhou and Shanghai, and Xiamen is close to both places, so there is no need for air freight transfer. It can be transported by truck, with low transportation costs and fast delivery times. Goods can enter the market directly from the plane, and can be transported from the place of origin to the table in basically 4-5 days. Since New Year's Day this year (as of February 10th), we have imported 174 tons of salmon, an increase of 192% year-on-year and 158% month on month. The momentum is very strong. In addition to local sales, the products are mainly sold to Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places, "said Chen Yingwen, General Manager of Xiamen Minyunjia Customs Declaration Co., Ltd.

To ensure the efficient operation of this "fresh food express line", Xiamen Airport Customs has implemented precise measures, actively followed up on the import plans of enterprises, organized business experts to timely deliver policies and regulations to the relevant enterprises of the special line, publicized the relevant regulations on imported fresh goods, and provided guidance to enterprises on laws and regulations, admission requirements, quarantine procedures, preferential rules of origin, etc. At the same time, the customs continues to optimize the customs clearance process, opening up a "green channel" for priority declaration, priority review, priority inspection, and priority release of fresh goods, leveraging the advantages of all-weather customs clearance operations, providing night and holiday clearance guarantees, and adding convenient measures such as "advance declaration", "conditional departure", "warehousing diversion without appointment and unaccompanied inspection" to reduce the time of goods being detained at the station and fully guarantee the fresh goods to be listed on the market.

We are also closely monitoring the invasion of alien species and the dynamics of domestic and international epidemics, deploying plant quarantine experts to strictly implement fruit pest and disease quarantine, and increasing attention to pesticide residues, heavy metal residues, and other projects. Referring to the import clearance guarantee of the special line, Liu Wenjuan, the head of the Customs Inspection Department at Xiamen Airport, introduced that the customs has created a "airport acceleration" for imported fresh food on the special line under the premise of strictly implementing regulatory requirements, ensuring the safety and fast clearance of imported fresh food on the special line. It is reported that in the three years since the opening of the BRICS special line, a total of 14000 tons of fresh products have been imported through the special line.

In addition to South American fresh products coming from afar, domestic cross-border e-commerce packages have also crossed mountains and seas and gained more outlets. Xiamen Limeng Tongyun International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. is one of the earliest enterprises to choose the BRICS special line. The company mainly sells clothing, shoes, and other products to the Brazilian market through e-commerce platforms. For us, the BRICS route is not an 'optional' option, but a 'mandatory' option. Before the opening of the BRICS special line, our goods often needed to be transshipped to Europe or North America, with long logistics cycles, high uncertainties, and high costs, "said Li Tianming from Xiamen Limeng Tongyun International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd." After choosing the BRICS special line, the average logistics time for goods has been shortened by 3-5 days, and transportation costs have also decreased. More importantly, the stable cabin space and predictable delivery time allow us to boldly stock up and expand our scale. Now many packages from Guangdong region also choose to export to Brazil through this special line

To ensure the rapid export of cross-border parcels on the BRICS special line, Xiamen Airport Customs is deeply promoting the construction of a smart customs and creating a "smart airport". By using the "Air Logistics Public Information Platform" and CT machine intelligent map review, the efficiency of supervision is improved, and guidance is provided for the transformation of the warehouse area channel at Yuanxiang Freight Station. The construction of intelligent sorting lines is also improved to achieve automatic sorting of parcels. At the same time, customs supervision will be embedded into the warehouse security check and sorting process, eliminating the need for secondary loading, unloading, and transportation of cross-border e-commerce goods by air. Combined with convenient measures such as "machine side supervision" and "goods area circulation", customs clearance time and operating costs will be effectively compressed, allowing all e-commerce goods on the BRICS special line to enjoy one-stop services of "warehousing+logistics+customs clearance", ensuring that goods are inspected and cleared on time, and settled on a daily basis, achieving "zero delay" in customs clearance.

The third anniversary is a new starting point, but also a new journey. Bai Yu, Deputy Director of Xiamen Airport Customs, stated that Xiamen Airport Customs will focus on promoting high-quality development of foreign trade, further optimizing the supervision and services of the BRICS special line, relying on the location advantage of Fujian's largest cross-border e-commerce supervision center, and using the "BRICS link" as a fulcrum to promote the upgrading of the "single route" to an "economic corridor". Continuously improving logistics efficiency and customs clearance convenience, helping Xiamen deeply integrate into the BRICS cooperation network, building efficient logistics channels for China Pakistan economic and trade cooperation, and injecting strong momentum into the BRICS mechanism.