Customs efficiency rises to meet Double 11 surge

Customs officers across Guangzhou, Guangdong province, inspected and released about 25 million cross-border online retail shipments in the "Double 11" shopping festival between Nov 1 and Nov 11, according to a statement released by Guangzhou Customs on Tuesday.

The figure represented a year-on-year increase of 65.2 percent.

Chinese people mainly purchased commodities such as food, cosmetics and dairy products, while domestic products, including clothing, shoes, boots and bags, are popular with overseas consumers, the statement said.

Miao Ruiqin, a customs officer at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, said that together with her colleagues, they once inspected and released more than 80,000 cross-border online shipments in a single day during the peak period, which is four times more than the figure recorded on an ordinary day.

"Five inspection conveyor belts had to run at full capacity all day to meet demand and ensure imported packages directly purchased via cross-border e-commerce are being effectively cleared," Miao said.

During the "Double 11" period, myriad small packages containing cosmetics from Japan and South Korea, healthcare products from Europe and the United States and other foreign commodities, have entered the country through cross-border e-commerce platforms at the Guangzhou airport.

"After customs inspection and release, the commodities were quickly delivered to consumers across the country, enriching the lives of Chinese people," she said.

To ensure the efficient customs clearance of imported e-commerce packages, the airport's customs offices coordinated with other departments to establish a dynamic forecasting mechanism in advance to create a daily report to accurately grasp the estimated business volume and promotion activities of enterprises. This dynamically and scientifically allocated regulatory resources to handle the surge in business volume, the customs statement said.

Meanwhile customs departments have comprehensively improved efficiency in reviewing documents and packages. Inspection and release has been accomplished on the same day as arrival, the statement said.