Freshly cut flowers are placed in storage racks ahead of being traded at the Dounan International Flora Auction Trading Center in Kunming of Yunnan province. (Photo: China Daily)

KUNMING -- Southwest China's Yunnan province saw robust growth in its foreign trade in the first two months of 2021, local authorities said on Tuesday.

The total import and export values reached 54.58 billion yuan (about $8.4 billion) in the January-February period, up 86.2 percent year-on-year, data from the provincial statistics bureau showed.

Exports soared to nearly 36.36 billion yuan, marking a 2.8-fold increase from the same period last year, while imports shrank 7.1 percent year-on-year to nearly 18.23 billion yuan.

The province's retail sales of consumer goods reached nearly 153.23 billion yuan in the period, a year-on-year increase of 23.1 percent.