On 11 June, the Yuhu Cold Chain (Jinan) Trading Centre officially broke ground. Once complete, this premium cold chain logistics and trading platform — serving Shandong and the wider North China region — will provide a powerful engine for Jinan’s ambition to become a Northern China Trade and Logistics Hub, driving the upgrade and restructuring of cold chain logistics across Jinan and the broader northern region.

Jinan sits at the heart of where North China meets East China, serving as a national integrated transport hub and a centre for trade and logistics in the north. Its strategic location, strong transport links, and targeted local policy support provide a solid foundation for the efficient operation and region-wide reach of the Yuhu Cold Chain Jinan project.

Yuhu Cold Chain (Jinan) Trading Centre is located on Dougou Street, Shizhong District, with a planned site area of approximately 493 mu (approx. 32.9 hectares / 328,700 m²), a total floor area of 470,000 square metres, and a designed storage capacity of around 300,000 metric tonnes. It is a Key Project of Jinan City and a peacetime-emergency dual-use public infrastructure project. The development will comprise four core functional zones — international cold chain food trading, multi-temperature-zone cold chain warehousing, integrated food processing, and supply chain support services — forming a modern, multi-functional cold chain industrial complex with end-to-end coordination.

From the official signing in February, to the completion of the land-use rights transaction in April, to the full construction launch in June, the project’s swift progress reflects the practical results of close government-enterprise collaboration. Once operational, Yuhu Cold Chain (Jinan) Trading Centre will draw on Yuhu Cold Chain’s nationwide strategic network and its online-trading, offline-fulfilment (OMO) business model, working in close coordination with the ten digital and intelligent trading centres Yuhu Cold Chain has established across China. Playing a leading role as the industry’s anchor enterprise, it will integrate end-to-end services spanning domestic and international ingredient sourcing, cold chain warehousing and distribution, supply chain finance, cross-border settlement, and digital e-commerce.

Going forward, Yuhu Cold Chain (Jinan) Trading Centre will be equipped with an intelligent cold chain supply chain management system and a full-process food traceability system, achieving multi-temperature-zone warehousing coverage and fully visualised monitoring of product flow to safeguard food safety. The Centre will also open up two-way distribution channels — moving agricultural products out and imported ingredients in — while driving the integrated development of trade, logistics, finance and the digital economy. Yuhu Cold Chain aims to build a high-standard, intelligent, end-to-end cold chain food distribution hub that draws deeply on Shandong’s resources and locational strengths, supports the new “dual circulation” development pattern, and drives consumption growth, employment, and tax revenue — continuously energising regional trade and logistics, and injecting fresh momentum into the development of a modern regional industrial system.

(Contributor: Wang Yang)