China-Egypt trade surges as they mark 70th anniversary of ties

China-Egypt bilateral trade has maintained double-digit growth in recent years, with both imports and exports rising steadily as the two countries mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties and zero-tariff policy dividends continue to boost economic cooperation.

In the first seven months of 2026, China’s trade with Egypt grew 18.7 percent year on year, with imports from Egypt to China soaring 49.4 percent, according to customs data.

Egypt, Africa’s leading fruit exporter, ships more than 400 agricultural products to over 160 countries and has held the world’s top orange exporter ranking for six consecutive years. Chinese imports of Egyptian agricultural products surged 82.6 percent year on year from January to July, accounting for 41.7 percent of China’s total imports from the country.

“We have four containers of Egyptian juice delivered to our warehouse every month, covering seven varieties, which are very popular among Chinese consumers,” said Liu Xingwen, general manager of Yifan Import and Export Trading Co., Ltd. in Horgos, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

On the export side, Chinese machinery and electronic products continued to gain traction in the Egyptian market.

At Taicang Port in east China’s Jiangsu Province, large numbers of vehicles were loaded onto ro-ro vessels bound for Egypt and other Belt and Road Initiative countries. In the first seven months, more than 5,000 new energy vehicles were exported from Taicang to Egypt, up 17-fold year on year.

“Chinese independent brands account for more than 90 percent of vehicle exports from Taicang Port to Egypt, and export models are becoming increasingly diverse. In addition to traditional sedans, orders for SUVs, buses and pickup trucks are also on the rise, with the growing variety of models helping to expand overseas sales channels,” said Wang Rui, head of the statistics and analysis section at Taicang Customs under Nanjing Customs.

In the first seven months, China’s exports of mechanical and electronic products to Egypt grew 23.9 percent year on year, accounting for 56.9 percent of China’s total exports to the country. The complementary nature of the two economies, coupled with Belt and Road cooperation, continues to deliver mutual benefits.

China has continued to deepen cooperation with Kyrgyzstan in meteorological satellite application, joint scientific research, and emergency disaster prevention support.

Kyrgyzstan and northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are both located in the Tianshan mountain system and share similar climate conditions. Driven by climate change, regional extreme weather events have increased, making joint meteorological disaster prevention, mitigation and relief a key priority. With the help of the China Meteorological Administration’s Fengyun-2 satellite receiving and application system, Kyrgyzstan has received a steady and reliable supply of meteorological observation data.

In May this year, the city of Manas in Kyrgyzstan was hit by a mudslide triggered by torrential rainfall, and the local authorities declared a state of emergency. The Chinese side deployed Fengyun-3 and Fengyun-4 satellites in time to carry out high-frequency dynamic monitoring, capturing the evolution trend of the disaster and providing data support for Kyrgyzstan’s disaster relief and emergency response.

“Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese side has activated the relevant emergency support mechanism twice to help Kyrgyzstan respond to flood disasters. Meanwhile, we have continued to optimize the ‘Mazu’ intelligent meteorological early warning solution, opened and shared independent innovation achievements including Fengyun satellites and meteorological AI models, to provide support for meteorological disaster prevention and mitigation as well as climate situation analysis in Central Asia,” said Zheng Zhaojun, chief expert of the International User Service Center under the National Satellite Meteorological Center.

Relying on the Urumqi Institute of Desert Meteorology of the China Meteorological Administration, China has established a stable cooperation platform with Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries. Through multiple rounds of sample analysis, research teams have systematically reconstructed the patterns of temperature, precipitation and glacier mass changes across Central Asia over the past 200 to 500 years.