XINJIANG, Jun.2 – Pakistan’s first ever land containerized seafood cargo has successfully arrived in Xinjiang through the Karakoram Highway, marking a major achievement for Pakistan in exporting seafood via land route.
According to the Chinese Embassy in Islamabad, the shipment took 10 days to reach China, while a sea route typically takes 28 days.
The frozen seafood was transported from Pakistan’s Gwadar Port on the shores of the Arabian Sea in container trucks and entered China through the Khunjerab Pass, a land port in southern Xinjiang’s Kashgar prefecture, covering a journey of over 1,500 kilometers.
Following a successful trial, regular shipments commenced on April 1, as reported by Mufeng Biological Technology, which shipped products from its cold-storage distribution center near Khunjerab, a recently opened seasonal port.
Experts believe that seafood and fruits have the potential to become significant contributors to Pakistan’s exports to China, and the key lies in unlocking this potential. While the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) aims to connect Gwadar Port in Southwest Pakistan with Kashgar, the majority of seafood consumed in Xinjiang is currently sourced from the southeastern coast of China, which is thousands of kilometers away.
However, with the availability of Pakistan’s high quality products, it is now feasible to fulfill the seafood demand of Xinjiang consumers, thereby expanding China’s imports from Pakistan, a South Asian nation.
