Firms hail Canton Fair, eye more opportunities

The China Import and Export Fair, which kicked off on Saturday and runs through May 5, will help global businesses benefit from Chinese manufacturers and create a platform for overseas companies to enter the Chinese market, executives and experts said.

The event, also known as the Canton Fair, is held twice a year in Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province. A total of 370,000 offline visits were registered on the first day, with 67,000 of those being foreign vendors and buyers, according to the organizers.

The fair also has in place online services for product promotion and matching and business negotiations, enabling both Chinese and international businesses to land orders remotely. The online exhibitions tallied 410,000 visits on Saturday.

Gao Lingyun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of World Economics and Politics, said there was a wide variety of China products featured at the fair, which were of high quality and well priced and provided people worldwide with an abundance of affordable consumer goods.

Over 39,000 companies are taking part in the trade fair online, with a further 35,000 enterprises from China and abroad attending on-site. A total of 3 million new products are being displayed for global and domestic buyers.

Coppel, the largest department store chain in Mexico, has attended the Canton Fair for the past 20 years and is eager to have in-person talks with established and new suppliers this year.

"We have been able to source quality suppliers of all categories at the trade fair and build strong partnership relationships, many of which have lasted over the years," said Jennifer Patton, sourcing director for Coppel.

The fair serves as a great platform to procure products on a one-stop basis at lower prices, which has helped Coppel achieve significant growth, Patton said.

"We look forward to many more years of participation in the Canton Fair. We are confident that this fair will continue to provide us with greater opportunities to expand our business, foster new relationships and learn about the latest trends in the industry," she said.

Fifty-three leading multinationals, including United States retailer Walmart, French retailer Auchan, German discounter Lidl and Abu Dhabi-based supermarket chain Lulu, are also attending the fair.

Over the past three years, the Taurus Group — a Spanish manufacturer of small appliances for kitchen and home use as well as personal care products — has been sourcing products online from the fair due to COVID-19 restrictions.

However, Joan Basagana, president of the company, said it was better to attend the trade fair in person. "The physical fair is still the one that we prefer, because we can have direct communication with Chinese companies, see and touch the products and make the right purchase with greater efficiency and get a better outcome," Basagana said.

Gao, the researcher, noted that China, the world's second-largest economy, also boasts a vast domestic market of nearly 1.4 billion consumers and a middle-income group of 400 million people. Consumer demand that has been suppressed by COVID-19 is being unlocked again, providing greater sales opportunities for foreign products and services.

The Canton Fair is a customer-centric, trusted and multichannel platform for domestic buyers to procure premium products from overseas, said Zou Yu, a procurement representative of the Thai agricultural and retail business conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, which runs a supermarket chain in China.

The company plans to place orders during the trade fair for Italian olive oil, Turkish figs and dried apricots and cereals from New Zealand, which are favored by Chinese customers in their supermarkets, he said.

China has a huge market potential to tap into, and the Canton Fair is a perfect opportunity for vendors to showcase both high-quality and budget-friendly commodities to Chinese customers, he added.