The first China-Laos freight train arrived in Kunming, capital of Yunnan Province. (Photo provided to China News Service by Yunnan State Farms Group Co.,Ltd.)

A train carrying 21 refrigerated containers left Yuxi, southwest China's Yunnan province, for Laos' capital Vientiane on Monday, marking the opening of a new cold-chain logistic channel for vegetables and fruits between the two cities.

The cargo on this train consists of 20 containers of vegetables and one container of flowers, weighing over 300 tons.

After the operation of China-Laos Railway international freight trains, the travel time of vegetables and fruits of cold-chain logistics from Yuxi to Vientiane, and then to Thailand's capital Bangkok via road transportation will be shortened to 68 hours, at least 76 hours shorter than traditional single road transportation. In addition, the average freight per container has dropped by 30 percent.

Currently, the travel time between Yuxi and Vientiane is about 18 hours excluding the border clearance time.

The China-Laos Railway will provide supports for Yunan's fresh agricultural products exports to Southeast Asian countries.

Yuxi is located in central Yunnan Province and has superior location and transportation advantages. In 2020, Yuxi exported $3.15 billion of agricultural products, accounting for 60.4 percent of the total export volume of Yunnan's agricultural products, and 90 percent of them were exported to Southeast Asian countries, including Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar.