A shipment of tomato seeds from CNUS Vegetable Seeds, Inc in Jiuquan city successfully made its way to Kenya after passing the quarantine inspection by Jiuquan Customs under Lanzhou Customs.

Yang Meirong, the company's manager, said the customs department provided technology and customs clearance support. The seeds of tomatoes, peppers, melons and other crops produced by their company were smoothly sold to Kenya, which strengthened the company's confidence in expanding the African market.

The Hexi region of Northwest China's Gansu province has abundant sunlight, a dry climate, a long frost-free period, a large temperature difference between day and night and relatively few occurrences of plant diseases and pests. The plump seeds grown in this region have strong disease resistance, making it one of the most suitable areas for seed breeding in China and even worldwide.

The region has developed into the country's largest base for the external seed breeding of vegetables, melons and flowers. The African market is one of the areas where Gansu established trade relations at the beginning of the development of its external seed breeding industry. After over 40 years of development, Gansu has established long-term cooperation with seed production companies in 14 African countries, such as Uganda, Libya and Nigeria.

In the first seven months of this year, Gansu exported 1,484.5 tons of externally bred seeds to Africa, an increase of 419 percent compared to the previous year. The export value was 17.72 million yuan ($2.5 million), up 5.2 percent.