Fruit trade between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has maintained a strong momentum in recent years, the organisation claimed at a recent round-table meeting.

Statistics provided by China’s ministry of agriculture show it exported 517,000 tonnes of fruits to ASEAN in the first half of this year, up 24.7 per cent year on year and accounting for 28.9 per cent of China's total fruits export for the same period.

The value of fruits exported to ASEAN reached $180 million, or 18.6 per cent of the value of China's total fruits exports for the same period.

China's fruits imports from ASEAN totaled 424,000t in the January-June period, up 8.8 per cent over last year's same period, and accounting for 71.1 per cent of China's total fruit imports for the same period.

The value of fruits imported from ASEAN was $170m in the January-June period, accounting for 49.4 per cent of the value of China's total fruit imports, and up 28.2 per cent over last year's same period.

China and ASEAN member nations have signed a series of agreements to promote trade in fruits, vegetables and other farm produce since China joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) nearly four years ago, said Lu Xiaoping, deputy head of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Experts said that with a population of 1.8 billion, China and ASEAN are a huge potential market for each other. The China-ASEAN free-trade zone, now under construction, will be the largest free-trade zone in the world. Completely formed by developing countries, it will post a GDP of two trillion US dollars and 1.2 trillion US dollars in trade volume.

China and ASEAN member countries are expected to see a further boom in fruit trade in the future in tandem with the liberalisation of trade in the region, according to experts.

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