Spillover gives firms extra revenue boost

From east to west, a growing number of small and medium-sized traders are tapping into China's great consumption appetite by exhibiting their products at the China International Import Expo.

A set of aloe vera products from South Africa, which include 4,000 bottles of aloe vera capsules for healthcare and 1,000 units of aloe vera gum for skincare will be on display at the CIIE at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. After the exhibition, the products will immediately be made available for sale at the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center, a 365-day trading platform in Shanghai for the CIIE, said Le Jiayi, general manager of the Shanghai KJ Import and Export Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Orient International (Holding) Co Ltd.

"Thanks to the solutions offered by the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center, we are allowed to sell our products on display rapidly," Le said.

According to Le, aloe vera products are favored by Chinese consumers, but it usually takes a long time to make the products available for sale in traditional channels due to the goods category requirements.

Likewise, Scotch whisky brand Glenroy is making its debut in China at the CIIE with nine products on display this year.

"The plan is to exhibit and seek business negotiations during the CIIE, but the brand has already prepared to ship 200,000 British pounds ($224,027) worth of products to the China market next year," said Li Xiang, official partner from China with the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce.

There are quite a few enterprises in Glasgow seeking business opportunities overseas and the 365-day trading platform offered by the CIIE provides handy support from beginning to end, Li said.

Li added that products from Glasgow including food, accessories, fashion, luxury items and consumer products as well as technology products are about to appear at next year's CIIE.

The Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center will serve as the platform for expanding the spillover effect of the CIIE throughout the year, according to Zhu Jing, deputy general manager of Shanghai Hongqiao International Import Commodity Exhibition and Trade Co Ltd.

"In the past four years, more than 70,000 products from over 6,000 brands from some 90 nations and regions have been exhibited and sold via the platform," Zhu said.

The 365-day trading platform will see 10 categories of products both imported and exported generate a combined trade value of about 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) annually in 2025.

Coffee and alcoholic drinks are among the first batch of the 10 categories expected to reach a business scale of 10 billion yuan by the end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) at the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center.

The CIIE's magic spillover effect for business expansion means snowballing revenue on an annual basis for Wang Zhengxiang, chairman of Horgos Abeba Trade Co Ltd, a coffee bean trading startup based in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

"After exhibiting our coffee beans imported from Ethiopia at the CIIE in 2021, we joined the 365-day trading platform. After that, our annual sales expanded from about 100,000 yuan per year to more than 2 million yuan this year. And as our products are becoming available for sale at this year's CIIE, our revenue may get a further lift to about 5 million yuan in the coming year," Wang said.

Wang added that he is planning to register a new trade company in Shanghai this year and will develop his own coffee brand. "We can receive better support from the Hongqiao Import Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center," Wang said.