The launch of the Chengdu-Europe Express Train has opened up new opportunities for Sichuan's nursery stock and flower enterprises to export to Europe.

On April 26, 2013, the first Chengdu-Europe Express Train departed with a whistle from Chengdu Qingbaijiang International Railway Port, heading towards Łódź, Poland. This steel artery spanning the Eurasian continent not only ended Sichuan's reliance on sea freight for exporting bulk goods but also opened the door to the European market for Sichuan's nursery stock and flower enterprises with its 12-day time efficiency advantage and intelligent constant-temperature transportation technology. Over the past decade, the Chengdu-Europe Express Train has operated a cumulative total of over 34,000 trains, covering 125 overseas cities. It has driven Sichuan's flower export value to soar from 13 million yuan in 2016 to hundreds of millions of yuan in 2025, becoming a model of open economy in the western inland region.

I. Time Efficiency Revolution: Solving the "Race Against Time" in Flower Exports

Under the traditional sea freight model, after a 40-day voyage to Europe, Sichuan's flowers required a secondary cultivation period of 4-6 months before they could be brought to market, significantly increasing labor costs. However, the Chengdu-Europe Express Train compresses the transportation time to 12 days through intelligent constant-temperature containers. Equipped with a GPS-remote-controlled ventilation system, it ensures precise temperature control for the flowers within the range of -25°C to 20°C and real-time monitoring of oxygen concentration. In December 2016, 19,140 Wenjiang banyan trees were exported to the Netherlands by the express train for the first time, marking a "zero breakthrough" in China's railway transportation of flowers. Today, the long-term 300 million-euro agreement signed between Chengdu Sanlian Flowers and Plants Co., Ltd. and Dutch company Coloriginz is precisely based on the express train's core advantage of "98% time efficiency stability."

"Previously, air freight costs accounted for 30% of the selling price. Now, railway transportation reduces costs by 40%, and the customer repurchase rate has increased by 25%," said Gao Yunfei, General Manager of Sichuan Heshengde Import and Export Trading Co., Ltd. He did a calculation: A Wenjiang crape myrtle vase with a cost of 80 yuan can reach a terminal selling price of 800 euros after railway transportation, expanding the profit margin by three times compared to the sea freight model. This "time efficiency + cost" dual advantage has prompted European customers to shift from "trial orders" to "long-term cooperation." By 2025, the variety of flowers exported via the Chengdu-Europe Express Train has expanded to 27, covering high-value-added categories such as ficus microcarpa and moth orchids.

II. Industrial Restructuring: From "Inland Cultivation" to "Global Allocation"

The opening of the Chengdu-Europe Express Train has compelled the Sichuan flower industry to undergo three levels of upgrades:

Supply Chain Integration

Wenjiang District has built the country's first "Flowers and Plants (Agricultural Products) Import and Export Park," integrating 12 functions including inspection and quarantine, customs clearance, and constant-temperature warehousing, achieving a 72-hour closed loop from "inspection - transportation - market launch." The 191,300-square-meter greenhouse built within the park adopts coconut coir soilless cultivation technology, shortening the forming cycle of plant topiary products from 3-5 years to 1-2 years, with an annual export capacity exceeding 20 million plants.

Market Globalization

Through the "China-Europe Railway Express + Southbound Corridor" rail-sea intermodal transportation, Sichuan's flowers have formed a diversified market pattern with "Europe as the main market and ASEAN as a supplementary market." In 2023, Zhongjiang peony fresh-cut flowers were exported to the Netherlands via the Chengdu-Europe Express Train for the first time. Their advantage of being available before the Qingming Festival created a time differential competition with production areas in Heze, Shandong, and Europe, with annual sales reaching 7 million stems.

Brand Premium

After Wenjiang's flowers and plants obtained certification as a national geographical indication protected product and registered trademarks such as "Dianchun," the premium purchase rate by European customers increased by 18%. The 287-acre export base jointly established by Dutch company NCU and Xichang Fuhua Ecological Agriculture specializes in producing moth orchids that meet EU standards, with the selling price per plant being 2.3 times higher than the domestic market.

III. Policy Empowerment: Building a New Ecosystem for Open Economy

The Sichuan Provincial Government has compressed customs inspection time to 2 hours through the "Customs-Railway Connectivity" project. The Chengdu Port and Logistics Office provides a 30% freight subsidy for flower transportation. The inbound plant quarantine facility at Tianfu International Airport, which was put into use in 2025, enables seamless "air-rail intermodal transportation," allowing Kenyan roses from Africa to be transported in the same container as Wenjiang's flowers, further reducing logistics costs by 15%.

"We are piloting a blockchain traceability system. Consumers can scan a QR code to view the entire process data of the flowers from cultivation to transportation," revealed Li Chengyuan, Deputy Manager of the Marketing Department of Chengdu International Railway Port Investment and Development Co., Ltd. In the next three years, 1.2 billion yuan will be invested in building an intelligent cold chain base to reduce the flower transportation damage rate from 8% to below 1.5%.

IV. Future Vision: From "Channel Economy" to "Hub Economy"

With the introduction of new energy locomotives on the Chengdu-Europe Express Train, the capacity of a single train has increased by 30%, and carbon emissions have decreased by 45%. Among the 5,000 trains planned to operate in 2025, 15% will be dedicated "flower trains," forming a "weekly double-frequency" transportation network from Chengdu to Rotterdam and Hamburg. More notably, the Airbus Full Life Cycle Service Project has settled in Chengdu. The annual maintenance business for 200 retired aircraft parts generated by this project will drive derivative demands such as aviation flower landscapes, expected to create a 3 billion-yuan new market for Sichuan's flower industry.

From being an "inland hinterland" to becoming an "open frontier," the Chengdu-Europe Express Train is not just a logistics channel but has also become a "golden lever" reshaping Sichuan's industrial geography. As Wenjiang crape myrtles traverse the Caspian Sea and cross the Alps, blooming in the Aalsmeer Flower Auction in the Netherlands, they witness not only the global journey of Chinese flowers but also the vivid practice of a western inland province achieving high-quality development through openness and innovation.