KATHMANDU - Nepal's exports to China surged four-fold over the first four months of the current fiscal year , reports said Thursday.

However, the surge in export remains insignificant compared to the country's import from the northern neighbor resulting in huge trade deficit for Nepal.

Trade and Export Promotion Centre statistics show that the export to China surged to Rs 980 million ($11.15 million) in four months from Rs 240 million during the same period last year.

Handicraft items like metal crafts, pashmina and woollen products along with edibles including wheat flour, noodles and chocolates are among the major exports to China, according to the TEPC.During the same period, the country imported goods worth Rs 24.76 billion that led to the swelling of Nepal's country's trade deficit with China to Rs 23.78 billion.

"Increasing participation of Nepali entrepreneurs in trade fairs in China along with rise in Indian tourists helped increase exports to China," The Kathmandu Post quoted Rajesh Kaji Shrestha, president of Nepal-China Chambers of Commerce and Industry as saying.

With China also providing duty free access to 7,787 Nepali products alongside those from other least developed countries, Shrestha expects Nepal's export volume to China to grow further.

Traders here are hopeful that exports to China would rise further once the proposed dry port at Larcha comes into operation. The construction of the dry port got underway last week after Commerce Secretary Lalmani Joshi and Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Yang Houlan laid the foundation stone at the project site.