Shiqi Roast squab is popular overseas. In 2025, the export of cooked Roast squab under the supervision of Zhongshan Customs will exceed 12 tons

The picture shows Zhongshan Customs officers carrying out daily supervision on cooked Roast squab. (Photo by Huang Miaoshuang)

"How difficult it is for hundreds of Roast squab to be exported to Australia!" This was the trouble of Manager Qin at the beginning of last year.

In just one year, significant changes have occurred. "Five thousand Roast squab orders will be delivered to you as soon as the contract is received!" Manager Qin at the beginning of this year was beaming. On January 21, Qin Jingjing, the general manager of Zhongshan Shengjin Food Investment Co., Ltd., pointed to the cooked braised Roast squab to be shipped from the warehouse, and her voice was full of pride. "Who would have thought that Shiqi Roast squab could now cross continents and seas, becoming a delicacy sought after by Australian diners, and some people even flew to Zhongshan to taste it!"

Shiqi Roast squab is the name card of Guangdong Zhongshan's food culture. With the unique flavor of crisp skin and smooth meat, it has become a classic dish famous in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. In 2022, Shiqi Roast squab cooking skill was listed as a representative project of the municipal intangible cultural heritage of Zhongshan City.

Our target market is Australia, but Australia is far away and has high requirements for food storage and preservation. We are not very familiar with export requirements and processes, "Manager Qin said about the difficulties we face when expanding our market.

In order to make Shiqi Roast squab "go to sea" smoothly, Zhongshan Customs under Gongbei Customs carried out field research on the demand of the new export market of enterprises, and formulated a personalized supervision plan based on the product characteristics and the standards of the importing country. At the raw material end, guide enterprises to implement the filing requirements, strictly control the source of Roast squab, and ensure that it meets the Australian food import raw material standards; Assist enterprises in sorting out key control points in the production process and promote the effective operation of the HACCP system. After learning about the company's export plan, we provided professional guidance throughout the entire process from standardizing production lines, managing personnel hygiene, to optimizing warehousing methods, helping the company improve its self inspection and self-control capabilities, ensuring stable product quality standards, and smoothly expanding overseas markets, "said Sheng Jie, the head of the Inspection and Quarantine Department of the Zhongshan Customs Office in Shiqi.

"From hundreds of trial orders each time at the beginning of last year, to the steady growth of two to three thousand, and now the number of single orders has exceeded 5000." Manager Qin said happily, "The next step is to expand overseas markets such as Canada and Singapore, and bring the taste of Zhongshan to more places with Chinese." According to statistics, Zhongshan Customs will supervise the export of 12.1 tons of cooked Roast squab in 2025, with a value of about 1.24 million yuan. (Yin Yue, Chen Qianqian/Text)