Drones, charter flights bring fresh fruit to consumers from Chongqing

As the harvest season is around the corner for Wushan crispy plums — a specialty fruit in Wushan county of Chongqing — consumers across China can enjoy the freshness of the fruit within 24 hours thanks to a combination of drones and chartered flights.

The new mode of transport involves using drones to carry plums from farms deep in the mountains to the local airport in the southwestern municipality, then flying them to Nanjing in eastern China's Jiangsu province by chartered flights, from where they are distributed to about 1,000 cities.

From July 2 to 20, China Post will allocate 15 Wushan-Nanjing China Postal Airlines chartered flights to carry about 225 metric tons of plums, according to the Chongqing Municipal Transportation Commission.

"Our biggest selling point for Wushan crispy plums is their crispness, which requires high efficiency in transportation. If they arrive a day late, their taste will be significantly compromised," said Huang Quanpeng, director of the comprehensive convenience service station in Ganyuan village, Quchi township, one of the major production bases in Wushan county.

"Due to the mountainous location, efficiently and quickly transporting the crispy plums is not an easy task."

Previously, the crispy plums had to undergo about nine hours of land transportation before departing from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport in the downtown area. Now thanks to the new Wushan Airport, the plums can be transported by air directly from the place of origin.

Located in the center of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, Wushan is rich in natural resources owing to its high mountains, canyons and abundant sunshine.

As one of the major specialty fruit industries in Chongqing, the planting area of Wushan's crispy plums has exceeded 20,000 hectares, with an annual output value of over 7 billion yuan ($963 million), benefiting more than 60,000 local households.

To tackle the transportation bottleneck, the local government and China Post have developed the new mode of transportation that combines logistics, e-commerce and finance.

"The drone transfer, breaking through geographical limitations, takes only eight minutes to reach the Wushan Airport — increasing the time efficiency by 86.7 percent compared to the previous mode," said Fu Jiakang, the county head.

"It not only guarantees fruit quality, but also saves manpower and transportation costs."

In the future, this mode will be promoted to other places in Chongqing to help transport other local special products, such as oranges, traditional Chinese medicine herbs and Sichuan peppers, according to local authorities.