Pakistan exports fruit to Russia via land route in trade boost

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has begun exporting fruit to Russia via a land route that covers nearly 6,000 kilometers, a milestone for the South Asian nation’s efforts to boost regional trade, state media reported on Monday.

Sixteen trucks of Pakistan’s National Logistics Corporation (NLC) carrying oranges entered the Russian cities of Derbent and Grozny over the weekend, Radio Pakistan said, citing a statement from the NLC.

“Russia applauded the efforts of the NLC for the promotion of bilateral trade between both the countries.” Pakistan, which has been facing an economic slowdown for the last two years, is trying to expand trade ties with several countries, especially its neighbors in Central and South Asia.

The country is also seeking foreign investment, mainly from the Middle East, to shore up its dwindling reserves and stabilize its currency, which has lost more than a third of its value since 2018.

The NLC, a state-owned enterprise that provides transport and logistics services, has been facilitating the export of Pakistani products such as bananas, meat and seafood to Central Asian states and China, Radio Pakistan said.

Last September, goods from Russia reached Pakistan under the Transport International Routes (TIR) Convention, a global transit system that allows the movement of goods across borders without intermediate customs checks.

Pakistan and Uzbekistan, two of the signatories of the TIR Convention, have also taken steps to enhance bilateral trade this year, including signing a $1 billion trade deal in February. In June, a convoy of trucks carrying liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) from Uzbekistan arrived in Pakistan via Afghanistan, marking the first time that the landlocked Central Asian nation exported gas to a South Asian country.