Macau's food and beverage imports rose by 46.3 percent year on year to 5.99 billion patacas in the first quarter, the Statistics and Census Bureau (DSEC) has announced.
According to a DSEC statement on Friday, F&B imports were Macau's top import segment in the first three months of the year, accounting for 16.7 percent of total imports.
Macau's total imports, however, fell by 6.4 percent to 35.7 billion patacas in the three-month period, accounting for 91.8 percent of Macau's total external merchandise trade in the first quarter.
Other major import items included beauty, cosmetics and skincare products (3.52 billion patacas), gold jewellery (3.49 billion patacas), clothing and footwear (3.46 billion patacas), handbags and wallets (3.21 billion patacas), and watches (2.51 billion patacas). Retailers say that a major part of their imported goods are bought by mainland Chinese visitors.
In the first quarter, mainland China (26.7 percent), France (18.5 percent) and Italy (12.7 percent) were Macau's top suppliers of imported goods.
Total exports dropped by 18.6 percent to 3.1 billion patacas. Re-exports accounted for 90.1 percent of total exports. Domestic exports declined by 38.6 percent to 309 million patacas between January and March.
Macau, a founder member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and member of the World Customs Organisation (WCO), is a free port and separate customs territory of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
