BEIJING – A Chinese snack company signed a deal with Pakistan pine nutprovider worth 300 million yuan (US $ 42 million) during the second ChinaInternational Import Expo in Shanghai as the company furthers overseasefforts with opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative.
With the new move, Halo Foods, Pakistan’s largest pine nut purchase andprocessing firm will continue to offer pine nuts to the Chinese firm,Bestore following their cooperation for over ten years, according to theChinese media here on Thursday.
Hand-peeled pine nuts is now one of the most expensive nut products for ourcompany, but both demand and output has grown rapidly with an annualincrease of 20 percent, according to Yang Yinfen, CEO and president ofBestore.
“For Halo Foods, such cooperation will help the Pakistan firm to furtherexplore the potential of the Chinese market,” said Shahbaz Siddique,financial head of Halo Foods.
“Globalization has been one of our key strengths. Currently, over 25percent of our raw material comes from overseas,” Yang said. Among overseaspurchases, Belt and Road economies including Malaysia and the Philippinesas well as Turkey are some of the major sources.
“We are also considering and exploring some emerging markets, such as theAfrican market,” Yang revealed. An earlier report pointed out that Chinesepeople consume around two trillion yuan of snack food every year followingthe country’s booming internet wave accelerating the growth.
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To date, the Wuhan-based company in Hubei province has adopted 190 types ofraw materials from 32 countries and regions. It has developed over 1,000kinds of snacks so far.
Over 35 Pakistani companies will participate and showcase their productsincluding top textile, leather and sports goods, surgical equipment, homefurnishing and other products at the 2nd China International Import Expo(CIIE) scheduled to be held in Shanghai from November 5 to 10.
Advisor on Commerce, Textile, Industry and Production and Investment, AbdulRazak Dawood will lead the Pakistani delegation. Pakistan’s top businessexecutives will attend.
It may be mentioned here that a number of top export-oriented Pakistanicompanies are exhibiting textile, leather and sports goods, surgicalequipment, home furnishing and other products at their stalls set up at theexpo in an effort to enhance exports to China.
