The month of January 2025 saw Hong Kong handle the largest number of Chilean cherry containers in a single month since the pandemic.

Around 6,500 containers of cherries arrived from Chile for the Mainland China markets. Most were processed at Modern Terminals, mainly through the 'Cherry Express' service operated by Hapag-Lloyd, MSC, ONE, and HMM.

Meanwhile, Modern Terminals, part of the Hong Kong Seaport Alliance, operates 23 berths and has a reefer plug capacity exceeding 7,800.

Every year, Chilean cherries — which symbolise joy, blessings and good fortune, making it a popular gift in the weeks leading up to the celebration of the Chinese New Year — are shipped to Mainland China in large quantities.

With this year's first day of the Chinese New Year falling on a Wednesday (January 29), Modern Terminals noted that large quantities of Chilean cherry containers arrived in the last 3-4 weeks of January, making it a record month.

Hong Kong handles about 40% of the Chilean cherries shipped into Mainland China and remains the largest gateway port for this seasonal business, which is said to have produced record export volumes from Chile to China in the 2024/2025 season.

Nearly 50% of cherry containers discharged in Hong Kong are dispatched from the terminals within one hour of discharge.  A few hours later the products are available in the large wholesale markets in South China. 

"While we still have a few more ships arriving in Hong Kong over the next few weeks, we expect a growth of 40-50% in the Chilean cherry container volumes handled through Hong Kong in the 2024/2025 season," said Horace Lo, group managing director of Modern Terminals.

"We are sincerely grateful to all stakeholders in the Chilean cherry business, the exporters in Chile, the importers here in South China, the shipping lines and the logistics providers for their support to the Port of Hong Kong, and we are proud of our status as the main gateway port for the Chilean cherry exports to China."

"We will never stop working with stakeholders to explore where we can still improve and remain committed to delivering world-class service to all stakeholders in the Chilean cherry business to retain their trust and confidence in the Port of Hong Kong," Lo added.