Lithuania Post building on rapid Chinese e-commerce growth

Lithuania Post is having some success in its bid to become a gateway into Europe for Chinese e-commerce. The company revealed this summer that it has been partnering with Chinese firms including SF Express and CLEVY to deliver items from China into Europe and Russia.

Latest figures suggest that 51% of Lithuania Post’s international packages now originate from China.

During the third quarter, the company said it received and dispatched 12m items.

Rasa Radzevičienė, the director of postal operations at Lithuania Post, said: “The number of items sent from China is rapidly growing. Last year, 27% of international items had Chinese origin, and this year (3rd quarter) the result is 51%. The main reason for this is e-commerce with China’s e-trade market taking one of the leading positions in the world.”

The partnerships with Chinese firms see Lithuania acting as a transit country, with Lithuania Post ensuring delivery of Chinese items to the EU member states as well as Russia, Belarus, and other countries.

Lithuania Post said the most popular destination countries for the incoming international items were Poland, Germany, the USA, and Latvia.

19% of outgoing international items were destined to Russia within the 3rd quarter of the current year.

Radzevičienė said the increase in the number of items going to Russia was mainly determined by the cooperation between Lithuania Post and its partners in China.

Apart from Russia, other popular destination countries were Great Britain, Germany, the USA, and Latvia.