GUANGZHOU, Nov. 4 — The 140th China Import and Export Fair, known as the Canton Fair, closed Wednesday, after drawing 352,000 overseas buyers from 219 countries and regions — up 12.2 percent from the previous session and marking a record high in the event’s 70-year history.
Since its inaugural session in 1957, which attracted just over 1,200 buyers, the fair has grown into China’s largest and longest-running international trade event. Over the years, buyers from more than 220 countries and regions have attended, with cumulative transaction volume reaching 1.6 trillion U.S. dollars.
For many buyers, the trade fair serves as a conduit linking China’s industrial capabilities with global market demand. They say China’s comprehensive, stable, efficient supply chain offers rare certainty as trade barriers raise costs and threaten supply chain stability.
“The majority of our member companies source their suppliers through the Canton Fair, and they have long been partners who have grown together,” said Juan Camilo Basto, a council member of the Colombian-Chinese Chamber of Investment and Commerce. “No online platform can replace the Canton Fair. It makes cooperation more grounded and friendship more meaningful.”
The fair also showcases the transformation of Chinese manufacturing, with innovation and green development taking an increasingly prominent role.
More than 32,000 exhibitors presented 4.88 million products, 64 percent of which applied technologies such as the industrial internet and AI. Exhibits ranged from dexterous robotic hands to PV curtain walls. New and green products accounted for 23.2 percent and 26 percent of the exhibits, respectively, both record highs.
For longtime participants, the fair’s evolution reflects broader changes in China’s manufacturing sector.
Michael Jensen, the Asia general manager of Denmark’s F&H Group, first visited the Canton Fair in 1998 and has since attended about 40 sessions. He said the fair has evolved from a sourcing platform into one that facilitates collaborative innovation. With AI and other technologies, Chinese product development has accelerated, and Chinese manufacturing remains stable in supply, quick to iterate and reliable in delivery, he said.
The changes showcased at the fair come amid China’s high-quality foreign trade expansion, which is creating new opportunities for the world. The country’s total imports and exports rose 18.8 percent year on year to 39.94 trillion yuan in the January-September period.
“The Canton Fair accelerates win-win cooperation between China and the world,” said Zhou Mi, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce. As an effective platform for China to expand high-standard opening up, the fair’s enduring vitality fully demonstrates that China’s development benefits the world, he said.(Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
