Background and Practical Difficulties of Aquatic Product Import at Dalian Port

In 2026,the cold chain container throughput of the Port of Dalian increased by 40% compared with three years ago.Supplies from three major fishing grounds in the Russian Far East,Alaska and Hokkaido flow into the domestic market through this route.Ms.Ma operated the import of Russian king crabs for the first time last October.Three days before the goods arrived at the port,she found that there was a one-word difference between the fishing area description on the certificate of origin and the sanitary certificate,and this set of documents was almost judged as non-conforming by Dalian Dayaowan Customs.Similar cases are not rare.Aquatic product import involves cross management of three systems of animal and plant quarantine,food and drug administration and customs,with strict logical relations between documents,and enterprises often get stuck in details when operating on their own.

What is more complicated is the dynamic quarantine adjustment mechanism.In 2026,the General Administration of Customs implemented a new tiered management of port inspection rates for imported chilled aquatic products,and the inspection rate for overseas production enterprises with specific registration numbers jumped from 20% to 100%.If enterprises cannot grasp such minor policy adjustments in real time,they will bear extra costs such as cold container storage fees and late fees for each day the goods are detained at the port.More than 60% of the daily work of Zhongshen’s on-site operation team at the Port of Dalian is spent tracking such policy changes and sending early warnings to customers in time.

Core Role of Zhongshen in Dalian Import Agency Services

Zhongshen obtained import and export operation rights in 2005,and set up a port operation team in Dalian in 2008,instead of simply subcontracting orders to local customs brokers after receiving them.We rent a permanent office in Dayaowan Port Area,and three operators holding both customs broker and inspection agent certificates directly connect to the customs pre-entry system.The advantage of this mode is that when there was a non-conformity in Ms.Ma’s king crab documents,our document reviewers found the risk at the stage of goods loading,and urged the Russian exporter to correct the documents urgently,avoiding the risk of document rejection after the goods arrived at the port.

Our core role is reflected in three levels: First,pre-risk identification.We move the logic of customs post-inspection to the document production stage,and intervene in document template review before overseas suppliers deliver goods.Second,port resource scheduling.There are five designated supervision sites for aquatic products at the Port of Dalian,with obvious differences in inspection efficiency among different sites,and we match the optimal inspection site according to the characteristics of goods.Third,cost structure optimization.Through batch declaration,centralized tax payment and other operations,we help customers reduce customs clearance miscellaneous fees by about 20%.

Phase-by-phase Breakdown and Operation Key Points of Import Process

Phase 1: Document Pre-review and Access Verification

Before importing aquatic products,it is necessary to confirm that overseas production enterprises are included in the *Registration List of Overseas Food Production Enterprises for Import* published by the General Administration of Customs of China,with valid registration status.In 2026,the list update frequency was changed from quarterly to monthly,and Zhongshen completes list comparison before the 5th of each month and sends risk warnings to customers.Once a Canadian lobster supplier failed to renew its expired registration information,resulting in a whole container of goods waiting at the port for three weeks,with losses exceeding 500,000 yuan.

In the document pre-review link,we require customers to provide six sets of core documents: certificate of origin,sanitary certificate,fishing certificate (for wild caught marine products),packing list,invoice,and contract.Zhongshen’s document review team will focus on checking three consistencies: whether the Chinese and English translation of the product name is consistent with the Chinese customs commodity catalog; whether the weight unit is net weight or gross weight,and whether it matches the actual packing logic; whether the production date and shelf life meet the requirement that the remaining shelf life of imported chilled products to China is no less than two-thirds of the total shelf life.In Ms.Ma’s king crab case,the problem was that the sea area coordinate description on the fishing certificate and the processing address on the sanitary certificate were not in the same administrative region.Although the actual locations are adjacent,the difference in text description triggered a system warning.

Phase 2: Port Customs Declaration and Tax Calculation

Dalian Dayaowan Customs implements classified management for aquatic products,with different tax rates applicable to farmed and wild caught products.After the adjustment of MFN tariff rates in 2026,the tariff on wild king crabs was reduced from 7% to 5%,while the value-added tax remained at 9%.Zhongshen’s customs declaration system is directly connected to the Customs H2018 System,and automatically captures the latest tax rates during declaration,avoiding false declarations caused by delayed manual query.

There are three error-prone points in customs declaration form filling: First,the specification and model column needs to fill in the individual weight range,such as "1.5-2.0KG/piece",and cannot simply write "assorted goods".Second,in the transaction method column,under CIF terms,freight and insurance premiums must be apportioned to each commodity,and cannot be declared as total price.Third,the domestic destination column must be accurate to the district and county level,which is related to the subsequent inspection jurisdiction.We once handled a case where the customer wrote "Dalian City" as the destination,but the actual warehouse was in Wafangdian City,resulting in mismatched follow-up inspection departments and two months of rectification time.

Phase 3: Commercial Inspection and Laboratory Testing

In 2026,Dalian Port implements a dual-track system of "on-site inspection + laboratory testing" for imported aquatic products.On-site inspection focuses on checking goods labels,and Chinese labels must be filed in advance,covering eight elements: product name,specification,production date,shelf life,storage conditions,country of origin,and registration number.Zhongshen provides label pre-review services,and once found that the label designed by the customer printed "best before" as "production date before",if such an error is found after the goods arrive at the port,the whole batch of goods needs to be re-labeled for rectification,which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

In terms of laboratory testing,the Food Department of Dalian Customs implements batch-by-batch testing for heavy metals,veterinary drug residues,and pathogenic microorganisms.The testing cycle is usually 5-7 working days,but Zhongshen can shorten the time to 3 working days through the reservation system.The key lies in the cooperation in the sampling link: we require customers to provide the goods stowage plan in advance,mark the specific locations of different production dates,so that customs can achieve accurate positioning during sampling,avoiding temperature fluctuations caused by repeated rummaging of goods.

Practical Case: Operation Details for Avoiding Quarantine Risks

In March 2026,Ms.Ma’s company planned to import a batch of frozen cod from Russia,with a total value of about 3 million yuan.After receiving the order,Zhongshen found that the production date of this batch of goods was November 2025,and the shelf life had passed half when the goods arrived at the port.According to experience,the inspection rate of such goods will increase by 30%.We took three pre-actions: First,coordinate with the Russian exporter to supplement production records from September to October 2025,proving that this batch is a seasonal centralized fishing product,and half of the shelf life is a normal logistics cycle; second,submit the *Special Situation Explanation for Imported Aquatic Products* to Dalian Customs in advance,and apply for the fast clearance procedure; third,arrange the goods to directly enter the designated supervision cold storage after arriving at the port,avoiding staying in the ordinary yard.

After the goods arrived at the port,the customs issued an inspection order as expected.However,since we had completed preparatory work such as label filing,document pre-review,and situation explanation in advance,the inspection process only took two hours.In the laboratory testing link,we coordinated with the testing institution to prioritize this batch,and finally the overall customs clearance time was shortened by four days compared with conventional operations,saving customers about 80,000 yuan in extra costs such as cold container storage fees and late fees.The core value of this case is that professional agencies are not simply errand runners,but prepose risk identification and turn passive response into active management.

Service Boundary and Value Quantification of Zhongshen

Zhongshen’s services at Dalian Port cover four physical links: document production and pre-review,customs declaration and inspection submission,on-site inspection coordination,tax payment on behalf and subsequent tax refund.We do not participate in international transportation booking and domestic warehousing and distribution,but have signed strategic cooperation agreements with a number of cold chain logistics providers,which can provide connection solutions for customers.

In terms of value quantification,taking an aquatic product import business with a total value of 5 million yuan as an example,the service fee charged by Zhongshen is about 0.8%-1.2% of the total value of the goods,but it can help customers avoid three types of hidden costs: first,the risk of document rejection caused by document errors,with an average loss of about 30,000 yuan per rejection; second,extra storage fees caused by increased inspection rates,about 2,000 yuan per day; third,tax repayment and fines caused by incorrect tax rate application,which can be 50% to 5 times of the tax amount.On balance,the input-output ratio of professional agency services is above 1:5.

2026 Policy Changes and Response Suggestions

In 2026,the General Administration of Customs implemented the system of "one declaration,national universal" for the registration number of overseas food production enterprises for import,but Dalian Port still requires enterprises to provide paper copies of registration certificates with official seals in implementation.Zhongshen suggests that customers prepare three sets of paper documents in advance,which are used for customs declaration,commercial inspection,and warehousing filing respectively,to avoid wear and tear of original copies caused by repeated use.

Another change is the application of rules of origin under the RCEP agreement.Some aquatic products imported from Japan can enjoy zero tariff with RCEP certificates of origin,but the certificate format must comply with the back page instructions specified by the customs.We once encountered a case where the certificate provided by the customer lacked the signature in the "exporter declaration" column,resulting in failure to enjoy the preferential treatment.Zhongshen will provide RCEP certificate templates when receiving orders,requiring overseas exporters to fill in strictly in accordance with the template.

Decision-making Framework for Choosing Agency Services

When evaluating whether to entrust an agency,enterprises can refer to three dimensions: First,business frequency.For enterprises with less than 3 import orders per month,it is more economical to outsource than to employ full-time operators.Second,product complexity.For products involving quarantine approval and special supervision conditions,the professional value of the agency is more prominent.Third,capital cost.Agency companies can provide tariff margin advance payment services to ease the capital pressure of enterprises.Ms.Ma’s company imports about 5 orders per month,with stable product categories but high value per order.After entrusting the agency,she focuses on the expansion of sales channels,and the import link is fully managed by Zhongshen,with significantly improved overall efficiency.

Zhongshen has been deeply engaged in Dalian Port for 18 years,has operated more than 200 types of aquatic products,and has accumulated a case base covering most quarantine risk scenarios.Our service logic is not simply to replace customers’ operations,but to minimize the uncontrollable factors in the import link through pre-risk identification,process standardization,and resource intensification.For enterprises,choosing such agency services essentially converts fixed costs into variable costs,and converts uncertain risks into controllable expenditures.Against the background of continuously tightening trade compliance requirements in 2026,the value brought by this conversion is becoming increasingly prominent.