Texas customs officers inspect the production of export edible mushrooms on the spot. Photo by reporter Wang Depeng
Dezhou News Network News (reporter Wang Depeng correspondent Guan Yizhen) On the morning of May 19, the reporter saw in Shandong Snow Banyan Flower Edible Mushroom Co., Ltd. that 3 types of 15 tons of edible mushrooms are being shipped intensively, and then sold to Thailand through the Qingdao port, which is the first time that the edible mushrooms in our city have gone abroad. "This is only the first batch, before the end of the month we will export three or four batches, breaking the original market pattern, and paving the way for the future development of the European and American markets." Zhao Haijun, deputy general manager of the company who is busy arranging the shipment of workers, cannot hide his excitement.
Located in Dezhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, Shandong Snow Fig Flower Edible Mushroom Co., Ltd. was established in 2011, can produce enoki mushrooms, crab mushrooms, white jade mushrooms, apricot abalone mushrooms, seafood mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, bisporus mushrooms and other products, the current daily output of more than 300 tons, products covering Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other regions.
Entering the company's production workshop, one after another enoki mushroom production baskets are neatly arranged on the display shelf of the workshop plan, and on the bottled enoki mushroom culture medium in each production basket, a cluster of snow-white enoki mushrooms is closely protected by blue soft plastic hoops, and the production baskets of enoki mushrooms like this are countless in the entire production workshop. Affected by the epidemic, the price of domestic edible mushrooms has dropped by 40%, and it is imminent to open up foreign markets, but the lack of relevant experience of enterprises has made edible mushrooms stuck on the "road abroad".
Obtaining the filing qualification of export food production enterprises is a "pass" that must be possessed for export food to go abroad. At present, there are 18 edible mushroom production enterprises in Texas, with an annual output of 510,000 tons and an output value of 3.6 billion yuan. In the entire Jinan Customs District, there was little precedent for the export of edible mushrooms. "In December last year, we filed an export record with Texas Customs, but there was no experience in the export of edible mushrooms to learn from, we did not understand the requirements for food exports, and the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic on international trade, we have not been able to promote such high-quality agricultural products to overseas markets." In addition, the ASEAN market has some differences between the quality requirements and production standards of our edible mushrooms and the domestic market, especially for the shelf life. Coupled with the fact that enterprises want to export to ASEAN, the customs clearance time required is relatively long, which has a certain impact on the quality of products, and the road to edible mushroom export is not smooth. Zhao Haijun recalled.
In order to help enterprises open up overseas markets and help domestic excellent agricultural products go abroad, Dezhou Customs takes the initiative to send policies to the door, formulate personalized support measures for enterprises, comprehensively explain the export customs declaration process and quality and safety management, help enterprises understand foreign requirements, break down foreign technical barriers, and send professionals to explain foreign food laws and regulations, phytosanitary requirements, etc. for enterprises to help enterprises meet foreign standard requirements as soon as possible.
Customs staff have repeatedly walked into the enterprise edible mushroom production workshop, inspected the cultivation, growth and picking of edible mushrooms throughout the process, strictly controlled the production links of product growth phase, finished product packaging and storage and transportation, tested its pesticide residues, heavy metals, microorganisms and other indicators according to the national standards and health review standards of edible mushrooms, and put forward more than 10 suggestions for improvement to the enterprise from the aspects of factory environment, raw material supplier verification, laboratory operating procedures, etc.
With good product quality, as well as professional guidance and technical support from Texas Customs, in March this year, the company's related products reached the ASEAN agricultural products-related testing standards, and won a number of orders from ASEAN countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. Taking the first step, the company continues to develop international customers, the steps are also getting bigger and bigger, after the overall stabilization of the epidemic in East Asia and Southeast Asia, the company has successfully completed the export of edible mushrooms, and it is expected that the export volume of edible mushrooms in the first half of this year can exceed 200 tons. Today, companies are confident of entering the international market.