At 18:10 on Jan 15, 9.1 metric tons of sunflower seeds from Wuyuan county in Bayannuur, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, arrived at Tianjin Binhai International Airport after a 2-hour journey.

The following day, they were transferred to a cargo ship bound for Taiwan.

This marked the official opening of the Bayannuur-Tianjin all-cargo air route.

The all-cargo air route is jointly operated by Inner Mongolia Civil Aviation Airport Group and Tianjin Binhai International Airport Co.

It is serviced by the Tianjin Air Cargo B737-700 aircraft and will operate once a week before the Chinese Spring Festival, with a single load capacity of 14 tons.

According to Xu Ying, deputy general manager of the marketing department of Inner Mongolia Civil Aviation Airport Group, "The all-cargo air route not only increases the previously insufficient belly cargo capacity and the number of routes for passenger planes, but also significantly reduces cargo discrepancies and losses, improving the reliability of air cargo logistics.”

Meanwhile, it effectively shortens the distance from the production area to the dining table for fresh products, giving Bayannuur's agricultural and livestock products stronger market competitiveness and higher added value. 

In recent years, Bayannuur has developed six major advantageous export industries — seeds, tomatoes, dehydrated vegetables, Chinese wolfberry, cashmere, and lamb, with 88 agricultural product enterprises in the city each exporting over 10-million-yuan worth of products.

The high-quality agricultural and livestock products in the city are exported to 102 countries and regions worldwide and have been the region's single largest export for 15 consecutive years.

Seed-related products are exported to 40 countries and regions participating in the Belt and Road Initiative, leading the country in standardized planting, processing capacity, annual transaction scale, and export volume.