Liaoning Port Group launched its "durian express" shipping service and initiated the construction of the Dalian Northeast Asia Fruit Transit Center on Tuesday, in what is a breakthrough for northern Chinese ports' seaborne durian imports.

The new service reduces transit time to between six and eight days, providing a high-speed, low-cost maritime channel for tropical fruits from Southeast Asia to reach markets in Northeast and North China, said Li Xiaoguang, general manager of Dalian Container Terminal Co.

Upon completion, the transit center is expected to handle around 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of fresh durians from Southeast Asia annually, he said.

To ensure efficient clearance, Dalian Customs has introduced streamlined procedures, slashing the clearance time for fresh durians to between one and two days, significantly reducing spoilage rates in the process.

Liaoning Port Group has already built the largest cold chain logistics park in a Chinese coastal port - the Dayaowan Cold Chain Logistics Park, which has a storage capacity of 400,000 metric tons.

The Dayaowan port handles more than 200,000 TEUs of refrigerated containers annually, with cold chain cargo exceeding 2 million tons.

The group's Dalian Port is the nation's second-largest banana import hub, handling about 50,000 TEUs of bananas each year, accounting for more than 30 percent of the national market share.

Liu Bin, general manager of Liaoning Port Group, said the Dalian initiative will serve as a starting point for the expansion of the "fruit express" shipping network and help accelerate the completion of the transit center.

The group intends to build a full industrial chain ecosystem centered on fruit imports, covering ripening, processing, packaging and distribution, he added.