BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) -- Chile has retained its position as China's largest source of cherry imports for more than a decade, data from China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) showed Wednesday.

In the first four months, China imported cherries worth 17.54 billion yuan (about 2.44 billion U.S. dollars) from Chile, accounting for 16.2 percent of its total imports from the Latin American country during the period, GAC data showed.

Bilateral trade totaled 163.19 billion yuan from January to April, up 5.4 percent from a year ago, setting a new record for the period. The growth rate outpaced China's overall foreign trade by 3 percentage points, according to the GAC.

The two countries forged diplomatic ties in 1970. Chile is the first Latin American country to sign a free trade agreement with China, and currently China's third-largest trading partner in Latin America. China is Chile's largest trading partner globally.

Trade between the two countries has grown rapidly, rising from 70.85 billion yuan in 2006 to 437.95 billion yuan in 2024, with an average annual growth rate of 11.2 percent.■