China's Zhejiang Province has become the top destination of Pakistani exports to China in the past three years, said Ghulam Qadir, Commercial Counsellor at the Pakistani Embassy in China, according to China Economic Net (CEN). He said that in 2022, Zhejiang Province imported $954.59 million Pakistani products and exported $5.80 billion to Pakistan, adding that in 2021, Zhejiang Province imported $968.77 million Pakistani products, up from $436.47 million in 2020. Zhejiang’s imports from Pakistan in 2022 are mainly Refined Copper products ($456.97 million), billets and copper unwrought ($127.13 million), Copper anodes for electrolytic refining ($123.43 million), Pine nuts ($20.29 million) and frozen shrimps and prawns ($11.14 million), he added. He further said that Beijing was the second destination in China to import Pakistan products (worth $603.55 million) and the top destination for Pakistani rice. 

Last year, Beijing imported $114.62 million semi or wholly-mulled Pakistani rice (community code 10063020). "Pakistan would like to increase its export to China and the solution lies in producing higher value-added and therefore more expensive products so that even a small increase in exports can lead to a large increase in value. This year we will focus on enhancing our value-added products in China, therefore we are organizing two big expos on textile and food in Pakistan in May 2023 to bring Chinese investors to build factories in Pakistan", Ghulam Qadir told CEN. It is to be noted that in 2022, Pakistan's export to China was $3.41 billion while China's export to Pakistan was $23.089 billion and overall trade between the two counties sustained at $26.50 billion in 2022. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP