Fair organisers turn to domestic buyers as overseas orders plummet
The organiser of the Canton Fair has invited big domestic department stores, supermarket chains and leading wholesalers to the mainland's biggest and oldest trade fair that opens today, as overseas orders dry up amid the financial crisis.
The trade fair has already seen a significant drop in exhibitor participation, with only 22,104 manufactures joining the event, 237 fewer than in the previous session, which was held in October last year.
In order to help mainland manufacturers open up the domestic market, the fair will have a special zone designated for exhibitors and buyers to meet and negotiate.
Wen Zhongliang, a senior foreign trade official at the Ministry of Commerce, said they had worked exceptionally hard this year in order to counter the negative impact of the global downturn.
'The financial crisis will affect us, but how big the impact is going to be, for example, comparing this one with the previous session, I'm not sure. Because we are fully aware of its impact, we came up with a number of special measures this year,' he said.
'We are working to combine external and internal trade but it is clear that domestic spending will not make up for all the loss on exports.'
The twice-a-year event is one of the three backed by the Ministry of Commerce and is a barometer of overseas appetite for Chinese-made products. Officials refused to disclose how many buyers have registered. It had sent 800,000 invitations to overseas companies.
At the fair's autumn session in October last year, exhibitors complained about a low turnout of overseas buyers, airlines and hotels reported reduced bookings, and black-market rates for booths slumped to as little as a third of cost.
The organiser's figures showed 174,562 buyers from 212 countries signed contracts worth US$31.5 billion at the autumn fair, a year-on-year drop of almost 17.5 per cent.
This year, the organiser has offered free air tickets, discounted hotel rooms and even free meals to frequent buyers and those from Fortune 500 companies. It also offered discounts on stall rentals, while extending daily trading time by an hour.
The incentives to lure participants would cost an estimated 100 million yuan, and at least 10 million yuan was spent on overseas promotion.
