The export value of canned fish reached 77.44 million yuan ($12.04 million) in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 81.34 percent, according to statistics recently released by Maoming Customs.

The value of exports of cakes and pastries was 11.47 million yuan in 2020, rising by 239.62 percent compared to the previous year. The city also exported millet cakes for the first time last year.

Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, canned food and cakes exported from China have gained in popularity due to their being easy to carry and shelf-stable.

According to the person in charge of the Maoming-based Guangdong Eagle Coin Haibao Foods Co Ltd, the company's exports of canned fish to South America and South Asia have surged since 2020.

Maoming Customs has been optimizing its services to serve the high-quality development of the local economy.

It launched 11 supportive measures to stabilize foreign trade in Maoming and help enterprises expand their exports, it offered one-to-one technical support to control product quality, and it provided 24-hour reservation services to work overtime for supervised sampling and testing, speeding up customs clearance.

"We're very thankful for the support of Maoming Customs, who have carefully informed us of the customs clearance requirements for new products and helped us get cleared rapidly," said the manager, surnamed Wu, of Guangzhou Restaurant Group Liangfengyuan (Maoming) Food Co Ltd.

Customs officers inspect millet cakes meant for export. [Photo by Ding Zhen/mm111.net]