ASTANA (TCA) — The first rail transportation of fruit and vegetable products from Pakistan to Kazakhstan has been organized by KTZ Express, a subsidiary of Kazakhstan’s national railways company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), the company’s press office said.

The new rail service opens a new corridor for shipment of food products from Southeast Asia to markets in Central Asia and Russia.

The refrigerated container train with 260 tons of tangerines covered the distance of more than 5,000 km along the route Pakistan-Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan for 18 days. The products of the Pakistani manufacturers are stored in warehouses of the transport-logical centre of the A class in Astana.

“Previously, fruits and vegetables from Pakistan arrived in Kazakhstan only by motor transport, or by sea transport through deep-water ports. The products went more than 45 days, and now the delivery time is reduced by more than half”, said the director of the container transportation department of JSC KTZ Express A. Karimov. He added: “When the service will work at its full capacity, we will plan to carry out a regular weekly dispatch of container trains.”

The new logistics service promotes to the increase in the transportation of goods requiring compliance with the temperature regime. These are vegetables and fruits, frozen and chilled products, medical and pharmaceutical products, and electronics.

Iran also hopes to use the same rail link to Kazakhstan for transit of goods from its southeastern port of Chabahar to Central Asia and Europe in what would eventually become a major East-West corridor.