A total of 10,00 medium butterfly orchid, or Phalaenopsis, seedlings started their journey to the United States after a ceremony Wednesday that was held in Foshan's Shunde district.

The inauguration ceremony was held after Weng Minqiang, general manager of Dingliang Biological Technology Co Ltd, was given a special certificate by local inspection and quarantine department to export the flower seedlings.

"The medium butterfly orchid seedlings were given the green light to the United States after they passed strict inspection and quarantine to meet the import standards of the United States," Weng said.

The seedlings are expected to be shipped to the United States in about 20 days via the sea route, Weng said.

This is the first time that butterfly orchid seedlings from the mainland were exported to the United States.

"I hope it is a good beginning for the medium butterfly orchid seedlings exported to the US," Weng said.

According to Weng, the US is a big market for the medium butterfly orchid seedling as the country annually imports more than 23 million butterfly medium butterfly orchid seedlings.

Now only Taiwan province in China exports medium butterfly orchid seedlings to the US, Weng said.

Weng is expecting to be able to be able to annually export more than 1,000 containers of medium butterfly orchid seedlings to the US in the following years. A container contains from 20,000 to 30,000 seedlings of the medium butterfly orchid.

Yang Guohai, deputy director general of the Guangdong Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, said his bureau would further improve the inspection and quarantine systems to better serve local companies to help promote the export of more high quality flowers abroad.

zhengcaixiogn@chinadaily.com.cn