China News Service, Shanghai, September 9 (Reporter Xu Jing) The reporter learned from the Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation on the 9th that Shanghai Aoqun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. recently obtained a food production license, and Shanghai's first naked chocolate high value-added packaging project was officially put into production in the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone.
This means that imported naked chocolate does not need to be packaged in small sizes overseas first. After arriving in Yangshan, it can be customized and packaged according to orders, and then distributed to domestic supermarkets and the Asia-Pacific market. Shanghai's bonded food processing industry has thus advanced from "finished product repackaging" to "naked chocolate in-area packaging".
Previously, food processing in the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone was mostly simple meat processing that did not require a production license, and the business format was relatively single. As domestic consumption upgrades, the high-end chocolate market continues to expand. Many international brands hope to rely on the location and policy advantages of the Comprehensive Bonded Zone to explore a new bonded packaging model for naked chocolate, transport large-scale overseas naked chocolate packages to the zone, carry out customized packaging on demand, shorten the cross-border supply chain, and better match the diversified and personalized consumption needs of the Asia-Pacific market.
Naked chocolates are weighed and packaged. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation
Naked chocolate packaging is a new business format that has high requirements on the production environment. Temperature changes, moisture fluctuations, and the mixing of foreign matter will directly affect the quality and safety of chocolate. In response to the new needs of enterprises, there are currently no ready-made practical cases for the original license.
It is understood that in the past, imported chocolate had to be packaged overseas if the packaging specifications and combinations were to be adjusted. Now in the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Shanghai Aoqun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. has transformed the original warehousing center into a 100,000-level GMP clean workshop. After the overseas large-packaged naked chocolate enters the zone, the entire process of unpacking, weighing, insourcing, and outsourcing can be completed. The entire process is carried out in a constant temperature environment, realizing the integration of "bonded warehousing + bonded packaging".
"We have built a full-chain service closed loop from global centralized procurement, bonded warehousing, customs clearance to bonded processing." Yang Zhongchao, general manager of Shanghai Aoqun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., said that the warehouse covers multiple temperature zones of normal temperature, refrigeration, freezing, and constant temperature, which can meet the bonded warehousing and deep processing needs of imported foods such as chocolate. The project has reached cooperation intentions with Italian century-old chocolate brand Venchi, Hema, Xiaoxiang Supermarket, etc., and multi-series custom orders have been scheduled until the end of the year.
Obtaining a certificate for Aoqun is not a "case-by-case special approval". The naked chocolate packaging technology management and control plan formed this time will be solidified into an industry operation guideline that can be replicated and promoted in Shanghai to achieve "solve a problem and standardize a type of business format." Many international chocolate brands have planned to follow this set of standards and develop similar businesses in the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone.
The Shanghai Municipal Administration for Market Regulation stated that the market supervision department will continue to improve the regulatory rule system adapted to bonded scenarios, conduct risk analysis and judgment beforehand, deliver compliance services to your doorstep, and follow up on supervision during and after the event, so that "flexible management, good management, and good services" will become the norm, and help expand and upgrade the "sweet economy".
