China, Pakistan sign food deal at CIIE

Chinese snack company Bestore signed a deal with Pakistan pine nut provider worth 300 million yuan ($42 million) on Wednesday as the company furthers overseas efforts with opportunities brought by the Belt and Road Initiative.

With the new move, Halo Foods, Pakistan's largest pine nut purchase and processing firm, will continue to offer pine nuts to the Chinese firm, also known as Liangpinpuzi, following their cooperation for over ten years.

Hand-peeled pine nuts is now one of the most expensive nut products for Bestore, but both demand and output has grown rapidly with an annual increase of 20 percent, according to Yang Yinfen, CEO and president of Bestore.

"For Halo Foods, such cooperation will help the Pakistan firm to further explore the potential of the Chinese market," said Shahbaz Siddique, financial head of Halo Foods.

The deal was signed during the second China International Import Expo, which kicked off in Shanghai on Tuesday.

"Globalization has been one of our key strengths. Currently, over 25 percent of our raw material comes from overseas," Yang from Bestore told China Daily.

Among overseas purchases, Belt and Road economies including Malaysia and the Philippines as well as Turkey are some of the major sources.

"We are also considering and exploring some emerging markets, such as African market," Yang revealed.

A earlier report pointed out that Chinese people consume around 2 trillion yuan of snack food every year following the country's booming internet wave accelerating the growth.

To date, the Wuhan-based company in Hubei province has adopted 190 types of raw materials from 32 countries and regions. It has developed over 1,000 kinds of snacks so far.