Inner Mongolia's Mandula Port kick-starts meat import trade

A refrigerated truck loaded with boneless horse meat imported from Ulaanbaatar – capital city of Mongolia, the nation bordering China – recently smoothly cleared customs.

It arrived at the designated supervision site for imported meat in Mandula Port, in Baotou city, the border checkpoint in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

The value of the shipment of boneless horse meat was about 800,000 yuan ($111,806).

After undergoing processing at the officially designated meat processing plant in Ulaanbaatar – and passing sampling and testing by Chinese customs with a qualified quarantine report – the meat has entered the Chinese market and will now be sold in regions such as Hebei, Henan and Shandong.

Mandula's designated supervision site for imported meat is located southwest of the port, making it the nearest land port to Hohhot and Baotou in Inner Mongolia – as well as to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

In April 2019, the supervision site passed an on-site inspection by the General Administration of Customs and became the third port in Inner Mongolia to have a designated supervision site for imported meat.

This marked the first import of meat conducted by Mandula's designated supervision site for imported meat since its official approval. As a result, the customs clearance process for the truck was significantly shortened. It not only addressed a development gap in the port, but also further enhanced its import and export trade capabilities.

Moving forwards, the port plans to import beef, mutton, horse meat and other products to boost local meat processing and sales.