"In a mere 17 hours, flowers from Kenya can arrive in Changsha. Our business is growing," Huang Zinan, who is in the flower business, told Xinhua during the third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo held here from Thursday to Sunday.
Huang, in charge of the Kenyan pavilion in the expo's permanent exhibition hall, emphasized the wide variety of flowers from Kenya, a leading flower exporter in Africa as the country is famous for its long blooming period.
Kenyan flowers can reach Chinese consumers faster thanks to the April introduction of additional flights between Changsha and Nairobi and streamlined customs clearance procedures.
Jing Jianhua, founder of "Own Master (Xiao Ka Zhu)," a coffee chain brand featuring African coffee beans in Changsha, told Xinhua that the company's direct communication with African coffee estate owners through an online trading platform was made possible by the expo and an African coffee trade center that opened at Changsha's Gaoqiao Grand Market in 2020. This innovative approach has simplified transactions and reduced costs.
Jiang Shoufang, a manager of the Gaoqiao market, said that by establishing a seamless process from direct sourcing in Africa to processing and sales in China, the overall cost of the African coffee sold at Gaoqiao is approximately 30 percent lower than its equivalents. Last year, African coffee beans accounted for about 40 percent of the total coffee bean sales at the market.
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