October markets still have fresh watermelon; at midnight sorting lines, fruit is on its way to stores; kiwis not yet picked already have buyers. These seemingly different scenes connect to the same question: how does logistics network development drive changes in production and daily life? A reporter visited Pengzhou, Sichuan, to find answers at an agricultural product market that trades over 15,000 tons of fruits and vegetables daily.

Freshness Delivered Year-Round: Why Is October Watermelon Still Just-Picked?

In the early morning, this largest agricultural product distribution hub in Southwest China is already bustling. Henan, Shandong, Hubei... truck license plates come from different places, and behind each plate is a route delivering fresh produce. "This vegetable was still in the field yesterday, now it's delivered to Mengyang, and I can reach Lhasa in three days," said merchant Huang Guoyong. The vegetable "long run" hasn't ended, and the watermelon "relay race" has begun. This batch of watermelons came from Jiamusi, Heilongjiang, traveling three days and three nights. Fresh watermelon in October? Merchant Yin Guangxu told reporters that the market has melons every month. "Now it's Northeast melons, after Northeast melons end it's Guangxi melons, after Guangxi melons it's Myanmar melons, after selling Myanmar melons for over a month it's Laos, continuing until May or June next year, when local melons around us hit the market."

The "year-round freshness" in the market is first thanks to the continuous improvement of road network construction, connecting 340 cities nationwide. Nearby trucks come from the suburbs, distant ones from Kashgar, Xinjiang, traveling over 3,400 kilometers. Highways connect production areas and markets, railways, water transport, and aviation provide more transportation routes, and cold chains preserve freshness along the way. Improved transportation conditions have also led merchants to try new businesses. "Now we have durians going to Tibet every day, and to Xinjiang in just two days, which was unimaginable before," said merchant Zheng Jinjun. Besides selling durians, he is also doing fresh-cut processing and working with a team from Southwest University of Science and Technology on sorting and pulp preservation technology. As goods turnover accelerates, merchants' sales channels and operating methods are also changing.

Reducing Waiting: How Are Over 30,000 Orders Assigned to Trucks in Three Minutes?

Just past midnight, the intelligent sorting line across the street from the market starts running at full speed. When fruit leaves the branch, freshness enters a countdown. Losses can occur during transportation, or during waiting, sorting, and loading. "Previously we each found our own trucks and sold our own goods. Now with this unified online ordering, it largely saves our logistics procurement costs," said merchant Feng Zhuoliang. At the other end of the conveyor belt are over 7,000 fruit and vegetable stores ordering that day. This one wants apples, that one wants bananas, with different quantities, delivery times, and freshness requirements. How to fit these demands onto trucks? Zhao Yongke, fleet captain of the delivery division at an agricultural product digital supply chain platform, said: "The system not only calculates the optimal route but also matches over 30,000 daily orders, goods, and vehicles. Which orders can share a truck, which store gets delivered first, which later—it can calculate the optimal vehicle assignment and delivery plan in three minutes."

Fuller truckloads reduce the transportation cost per unit of goods; tighter connections between sorting, loading, and delivery mean fruit waits less. Deng Jiewen, logistics operations head of the delivery division at an agricultural product digital supply chain platform, introduced: "The current loading rate is above 95%, and the average daily loss has dropped from 5% to 0.5%."

When orders are aggregated, the production side gains market reference. In an orchard, 200,000 jin of kiwis have buyers before being picked; in a food processing workshop, tens of thousands of differentiated orders daily become the basis for arranging production and delivery. Who needs it, how much, and when to deliver—information travels back along the logistics network. Harvesting and production can be arranged closer to orders, reducing blind stocking and waste in circulation.

Bringing Services Closer: How Does the Railway Port Extend Its Reach to the Market?

Around the market, the middle section of Logistics Avenue was widened from 14 meters to 36 meters late last year, easing congestion. Along this road, a new land port is being planned and built. Zhou Qi, planning director of Pengzhou Tianfu Shuxiang Agricultural Industrial Park, introduced: "We are planning and building the Chengdu International Railway Port Mengyang Auxiliary Port. We hope to extend the reach of the China-Europe Railway Express and the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor deep into our agricultural product trading market."

A dozen kilometers away, Qingbaijiang District in Chengdu already has an international railway transport corridor. What Mengyang Auxiliary Port aims to do is make it more convenient for surrounding goods sources to connect to these corridors. According to the plan, cold chain storage, container yards, customs supervision warehouses, and other facilities will be laid out here, connected to the Qingbaijiang main port via dedicated railway lines. Merchants can consolidate goods nearby, handle relevant procedures, and then connect to railway transport, making the journey of goods to distant places smoother to arrange "at their doorstep." Zhou Qi said: "We aim to create a more efficient and convenient collection and distribution channel for our enterprises and our agricultural products."

From bringing in freshness from various places, to reducing transit waiting, to bringing international logistics services closer to the industry, the driving role of logistics network construction is unfolding in these specific links: merchants have more transportation choices, enterprises can arrange production more conveniently, and consumers' tables have more freshness.