Alliance plans to leverage Hainan’s new Free Trade Port status
A new Tropical Fruit Industry Cooperation Alliance was launched in Hainan on 24 March at the 2026 Tropical Fruit Industry Development Conference.
According to a report from China Daily, eight representatives from industry, academia, and research signed the initiative, which aims to link production with sales and expand into markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and the US.
The Alliance aims to harness Hainan’s new Free Trade Port status, which was established in December 2025. Under this new dual-line customs system, the island province operates as an independent customs zone.
The first line is between Hainan and overseas markets, and the second between Hainan and China’s mainland. At the first line, goods from abroad flow in freely. There is zero-tariff treatment for a growing range of items, which currently includes 74 lines. These move through modern, digital customs procedures at eight designated ports and can be stored, processed or traded on the island without paying duties.
If those goods are re-exported, the zero-tariff treatment persists, allowing Hainan to act as a re-export and value-added processing hub. But if they cross the second line into China’s mainland, tariffs and taxes may apply.
Dai Jun, director of the Qionghai Tropical Crop Service Center, said the Hainan FTP offers new opportunities to Qionghai’s tropical fruit industry, particularly through expanded access to seedling customs facilitation measures and tariff exemptions for value-added processing.
Dai said Qionghai has introduced over a hundred exotic fruit varieties through the Window of World Tropical Fruits. He said the city plans to strengthen technological empowerment by deepening cooperation with research institutions and accelerating the construction of a tropical fruit germplasm resource bank.
