Railway and commerce workers take pictures at a railway station in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, on Nov 18, as they mark the seventh anniversary of a freight train service linking the city with Madrid, Spain. GONG XIANMING/FOR CHINA DAILY

Yiwu in East China's Zhejiang province reported a foreign trade volume of 311.3 billion yuan ($48.75 billion) between January and August, up 20.6 percent from the previous year, and accounting for 9.3 percent of the provincial aggregate, according to the latest statistics from the Yiwu customs office.

The city's substantial growth in foreign trade over the period is particularly reflected in its major trading partners, market procurement trade and China-Europe freight train service, exports of high-tech products, as well as imports of consumer products.

The trade volume between Yiwu and Africa, ASEAN, as well as the European Union was 62.63 billion yuan, 39 billion yuan, and 32.91 billion yuan, up 15.3 percent, 30.2 percent, and 34.2 percent year-on-year respectively.

The trade volume between Yiwu and the United States, India, Chile, as well as Mexico was 32.61 billion yuan, 13.5 billion yuan, 10.07 billion yuan, and 9.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 27 percent, 32.5 percent, 83.3 percent and 73.3 percent respectively.

As much as 78.9 percent of Yiwu's exports, which were valued at 231.42 billion yuan, was conducted in the market procurement trade mode, which features quick customs clearance, as well as value-added tax exemption.

The total value of cargo transported through the city's China-Europe freight train service soared by 65.2 percent year-on-year to 26.46 billion yuan.

The city's exported labor-intensive products were valued at 115.59 billion yuan, up 22.8 percent from the previous year, making up 39.4 percent of the city's total exports. A total of 12.3-billion-yuan worth of high-tech products were exported in the same period, up 168.8 percent year-on-year.

The city's imported consumer products surged 54.8 percent to 13.26 billion yuan, accounting for 74.2 percent of the city's total imports.