Claude Tchao believes the launch of Canada's first all-freight cargo flight service between Vancouver and mainland China will not only keep his existing Chinese customers happy but open up new markets for seafood exports.

"This shortens the time by about three to five hours between Shanghai and Vancouver," the chairman of Richmond-based Tri-Star Seafood said of the China Southern Airlines service, which recently began flights to China's manufacturing and industrial centre. "There's less handling and it's more efficient. Customers get the product much faster, especially in peak season. This will be very beneficial."

Tchao, who exports live Dungeness crabs and geoducks, a type of clam, to a Chinese market that's keen on B.C. seafood products, is one of the first local business owners to take advantage of the four-times-a-week service by China Southern, which also began three-times-a-week passenger flights between Vancouver and Guangzhou last month.

Tchao also uses Cathay Pacific's cargo flights to Hong Kong, where his seafood is transferred to other destinations around China.