In a processing shop owned by Huida Lemon Co, located in Chongqing's Tongnan district, workers are busy loading trucks with boxes of carefully-selected fresh lemons that have just passed through Chongqing Customs. These lemons will then travel to Singapore by sea.

In fact, Tongnan district is not the only place that is able to send its products overseas. According to local news reports, six of Chongqing's districts and counties have been newly approved by the Ministry of Commerce as national foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases, following an unveiling ceremony held on May 31.

The products of the six bases include automobiles and auto components in Liangjiang New Area, instrumentation in Beibei district, pickled mustard tubers in Fengdu county, motorcycles and their spare parts in Banan district, naval architecture and marine engineering in Fuling district, and biomedicine in Chongqing High-Tech Industrial Development Zone.

Chongqing currently boasts 13 such bases in total, covering products from five major categories – electro-mechanics, agriculture, clothing, medicine and new materials. Based on the number, scale and quality of these bases, the municipality is becoming a powerhouse of foreign trade in mid-western China.

"Being granted the title – national foreign trade transformation and upgrading base – is not an easy task," said Liu Kan, an official from Chongqing Commerce Commission. "The industry that owns the title must be a heavyweight player in the local economy with robust foreign trade volume."

The national foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases act as models to other market entities of the industry. Taking lemons in Tongnan district as an example, they have vast markets in more than 40 countries and regions worldwide, including Russia, Cambodia, and South Africa, and possess over half of the export market share in China.

The pickled mustard tuber industry in Fuling district has also become a competent international market player since 2018, with the lovers of these products scattered over 50 countries and regions, including the United States, Japan, and many European countries.

Data indicate that Chongqing Fuling Mustard (Group) registered more than 16 million yuan ($2.4 million) in export volume from January to April in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 38.39 percent.