Customs officials inspect goods in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Ningbo Evening News]

Consumer goods valued at 8.49 billion yuan ($1.23 billion) were imported via ports in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province in the first quarter of this year, up 25.7 percent year-on-year, statistics from Ningbo Customs show.

The top 10 commodities in terms of import value during the three-month period were cosmetics, textiles and clothing, meat, aquatic products, alcohol and beverages, cooking oil, dairy products, cleaning products, ready-to-eat or instant noodles, and dried fruits and nuts.

From January to March, Ningbo imported 1.11-billion-yuan-worth of cosmetics and 870-million-yuan worth of textiles and clothing, both slightly less than in the same period in 2022.

Robust growth, however, was seen in imports of meat and edible aquatic products, which recorded a 2.2-fold and a 3.8-fold uptick, respectively, to 830 million yuan and 670 million yuan during the period, according to Ningbo Customs.

Imports of beef and pork, two major varieties of meat imported via the city's ports, hit 510 million yuan and 180 million yuan, up by 514.9 percent and 102.3 percent, respectively, year-on-year.

Notably, Ningbo imported 4,453.8 metric tons of fresh coconuts in the first three months of this year, which is nearly 90 times that of the same period last year.