"World's supermarket" city sees record trade in Q1

Yiwu, the eastern Chinese city known as "the world's supermarket," saw its foreign trade value reach a record high of around 209.37 billion yuan (about 30.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the first quarter of this year, latest official data showed.

According to statistics from Yiwu Customs, the 200 billion yuan threshold was reached one month earlier compared to last year. The year-on-year growth rate of 25 percent is 10 percentage points higher than the national import and export growth rate.

Specifically, exports in the first quarter amounted to 178.61 billion yuan, a 21.3 percent increase year-on-year, while imports reached 30.76 billion yuan, surging by 52.2 percent year-on-year.

In the first three months, Yiwu conducted trade with over 220 countries and regions worldwide. Notably, trade volume with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) grew by 68.3 percent, making it the fastest-growing major trading market for Yiwu.

During the same period, trade with countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 147.4 billion yuan, a 29.8-percent increase, accounting for over 70 percent of Yiwu's total import and export volume.

Trade with Africa stood at 41 billion yuan, representing a significant 47.3-percent growth.