Zhongshan Customs on December 13 inspected and verified a batch of flowers and seedlings at the Dongsheng Shuoquan Nursery Stock Farm. After passing through the random inspection, these flowers and seedlings will be transported to Macao via the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. [Photo by Yang Weijian]

"We have been exploring the Macao market for several years, and our export volume has increased by about 30% this year. Especially as the 20th Anniversary of Macao's Return approaches, Macao customers are in greater demand for flowers and trees," said Mr Li, export manager of Shuoquan Nursery Stock Farm.

Mr Li said that Zhongshan's flower seedlings supplied to Macao have two advantages. On the one hand, Zhongshan has a long planting history of flower seedlings that are of good quality, which can meet customers' requirements. On the other hand, Zhongshan is adjacent to Macao, so that flowers and trees can be delivered to customers in just two or three hours, which can ensure customers' demand for timely replacement of fresh flowers and trees.

In recent years, flowers and seedlings supplied from Zhongshan to Macao are continuously growing. From January to November this year, some 812 batches of flowers and seedlings exported to Macao were quarantined by Zhongshan Customs, with a value of 39.41 million yuan, up 26.3% and 18.5% year on year respectively.

According to Zhongshan Customs, Zhongshan is one of the main planting bases for flowers and seedlings in Guangdong, and its products are sold in all parts of the country including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.  As of now, there are 8 registered flower and seedling planting bases for export to Macao in Zhongshan, with a planting area of more than 1,000 mu (about 666666.7 square meters).

On December 10, Gongbei Customs and the Municipal Affairs Bureau of Macao reached a cooperation agreement and signed a memorandum of cooperation. Both parties plan to establish a nursery accreditation system for export to Macao and a new mode of "Quarantine in Advance and Cooperative Supervision" flowers and seedlings.