BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- The first charter flight carrying pine nuts set off from Kabul to Shanghai on Tuesday, marking the first direct cargo flight of pine nuts from Afghanistan to China.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani attended the inauguration ceremony for the charter flight on the same day.
In his speech, Ghani said that pine nut is the main economic crop in Afghanistan, and there is a huge consumer market in China. Therefore, direct export of pine nuts to China will bring new growth points for the bilateral trade.
According to Afghan official data, the country's annual output of pine nuts is about 23,000 metric tons (tonnes), and about 20 tonnes of pine nuts are exported to China through the first charter flight.
After the two governments signed a protocol in June this year, China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) promulgated a document allowing Afghan pine nuts to enter China from October 31. (Edited by Li Wenxin, Yang Qi, liwenxin@xinhua.org)
A single purchase
