Workers check the pet food at a factory in Pingyang county, Zhejiang province. [Photo/wzpy.cn]

Pingyang county, Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, exported 390.6 metric tons of pet food to 23 countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), according to the Wenzhou Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

The total export value from Pingyang to BRI countries reached $1.86 million in pet food industry, up 17.2 percent year-on-year.

"The United States, UK and Japan are the traditional export markets for Pingyang's pet food. However, the situation has been challenged recently due to the relatively saturated market needs of these countries," said an official from the city's Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

He pointed out that in a bid to settle the difficulties, the bureau decided to help enterprises explore new markets by collecting international policies and regulations on pet food, cutting down on the red tape for pet food companies and innovating the inspection and quarantine mechanisms.

Each country has strict requirements on pet food production, so the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau collected policies and regulations from different countries such as Russia, Thailand and European Union, to help local companies improve their production to meet these requirements.

Moreover, to facilitate the globalization of pet food, Pingyang promoted comprehensive reform on administrative services in 2017. The county integrated the procedures of inspection and quarantine, and made the whole process paperless to reduce companies' visits to government agencies.

The Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has also figured out innovative mechanisms to lower institutional costs.