Launch of Sweet Project in Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone

On the afternoon of August 28, Shanghai Aoqun Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. held the launch ceremony for its "Sweet Project" and the opening of its bonded food processing workshop in the Lingang New Area, announcing that its bonded warehouse has officially obtained the Food Production License (SC certification). This marks the official commissioning of the first public, full-temperature-range bonded food processing warehouse within the Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone, representing a key breakthrough in regulatory innovation and supply chain services for bonded food in the zone.

As China’s sole special comprehensive bonded zone, Yangshan undertakes pressure‑testing missions for institutional‑opening at a higher level. For a long time, enterprises within the bonded zone have faced multiple barriers to food production and processing, including stringent regulatory standards, rigorous qualification approval procedures and complex temperature‑control logistics chains. By securing SC qualification and building a full‑temperature‑zone warehouse covering ambient, refrigerated, frozen and constant‑temperature storage, Aoqun Supply Chain enables integrated operations of “bonded warehousing plus processing” for imported goods under bonded status, delivering a replicable and promotable model for industry‑wide regulatory innovation.

Yangshan Customs and representatives from the Comprehensive Bonded Zone Division of the Lingang New Area Administrative Committee attended and witnessed the event. Wu Yanfen, President of Oujian Group, stated in her speech that the project delivery benefited from the strong policy guidance and regulatory innovation support in Lingang, serving as a vivid example of government-enterprise collaboration in advancing institutional opening-up. Sun Jiangchun, Chairman of Aoqun Supply Chain, Yang Zhongchao, General Manager of Aoqun, together with Stefano Giani, Chief Operating Officer of Italian brand Venchi, and other partners, performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

According to Yang Zhongchao, the “Sweet Project” forms a closed-loop full-chain service covering global sourcing, bonded warehousing, customs clearance and bonded processing. Equipped with a Class-100,000 GMP-standard processing workshop, the warehouse can currently handle bonded storage and deep-processing for various unpacked candies and chocolates. Its positioning aligns with the industrial-agglomeration orientation of Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone for high-end food sectors, and precisely addresses core demands of imported confectionery brands for temperature-controlled bonded warehousing, flexible processing and full-coverage supply across the Asia-Pacific market.

Stefano Giani, Chief Operating Officer of Italy’s century‑old chocolate brand Venchi, travelled to China specially for the occasion. He remarked that Venchi imposes stringent requirements on temperature‑control quality and compliance throughout its supply chain. Its partnership with Aoqun stems from high recognition of China’s innovative bonded‑food supply‑chain model, which is regarded as a “vote of confidence” cast by premium international confectionery brands for the institutional innovations within China’s special comprehensive bonded zone.

Industry insiders point out that under conventional models, imported food can only undergo domestic processing after customs clearance, resulting in long capital-occupation cycles and high logistics costs. Aoqun's "bonded-plus-processing" innovation allows imported food to be stored and deep-processed under customs supervision. Goods can then be released from the zone in batches in response to market demand for distribution across the Asia-Pacific region, substantially cutting operating costs and boosting supply-chain responsiveness.

Notably, leveraging the institutional strengths of Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone — China’s only special comprehensive bonded zone — plus China’s distinct cost advantages in labour and packaging materials compared with other Asian economies, Aoqun Supply Chain is ramping up its development into an Asia‑Pacific distribution hub for premium confectionery. Supported by its newly‑granted SC qualification for bonded food processing, Aoqun delivers one‑stop services of “consolidation‑processing‑distribution” for food importers, enabling customised distribution and flexible supply of imported confectionery across the Asia‑Pacific at competitive overall costs. This model reshapes the cost curve for cross‑border circulation of high‑end food, and provides new infrastructure support for Shanghai to strengthen its global resource‑allocation capacity and build an international consumption‑centre city.

With the launch of the "Sweet Project", the industrial-agglomeration effect of Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone in the bonded-food sector is expected to grow further, exploring viable pathways for high-quality development of the food industry in special supervision zones nationwide.