The Canton Fair will allow exhibitors to return in person in October, with a limited number of exporters and foreign buyers in China allowed to attend the trade exhibition after it was shifted online last year due to the coronavirus outbreak, the commerce ministry has said. The biannual trade event, which has been held since 1957, is the largest of its kind in China, but interest among the nation’s export manufacturers has been waning over the past year amid pandemic-related travel disruptions. About 26,000 exhibitors livestreamed their displays at the three virtual fairs in April, and June and October last year. The ministry said on Wednesday that resident representatives of foreign institutions and foreign companies in China, as well as domestic exporters, would be invited to attend the fair between October 15 and November 3, where there would be about 60,000 exhibition booths. The statement did not say if overseas buyers could apply to participate or if there was a chance for traders from neighbouring Hong Kong to attend. Provincial authorities in Guangdong have not yet made plans for Hong Kong residents to restart quarantine-free travel across the border, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor told the city’s lawmakers in mid-July. But reopening the border remains the Hong Kong government’s top focus , insiders have said, although even the chief executive had recently admitted progress in talks with mainland officials remains slow. Hong Kong will need to significantly raise its vaccination rate to put the government in a strong position for discussions. Government-backed manufacturing companies have indicated they will attend the October Canton Fair, while many private and small manufacturing exporters have said they will not, unless borders are reopened allowing a sizeable number international buyers to take part. It’s meaningless if we can’t meet new clients at the exhibition Steve Xie “It costs at least 150,000 yuan (US$23,164) for a single Chinese exporter to attend the Canton Fair … but it’s possible I might not make a single deal,” said Steve Xie, a Zhejiang-based garment exporter. “It’s meaningless if we can’t meet new clients at the exhibition.” A sales manager at a Guangdong-based machinery export company, who did not want to be identified, said his firm would attend just to maintain relationships with the fair’s operators and officials. “But we won’t release any of our breakthrough products at the fair if there’s few foreign buyers and only domestic rivals,” he said. “The company made no deals during the two last online sessions.” More 186,000 buyers from across the world attended the 126th session of the fair in October 2019, before the pandemic, with 45 per cent of them from countries taking part in the Belt and Road Initiative. The top three countries and regions by attendance were Hong Kong, the United States and India.