The 32nd China East Fair (CEF), a four-day import and export trade fair, ended on March 4 in Shanghai. A total of 72 Jiaxing exhibitors received more than 2,100 business cards and reached potential deals worth $83.36 million at the fair.

The CEF was held across an exhibition area of 126,500 square meters, with four sub-exhibitions for clothing, textile, household, and gift products, and two exhibition areas for overseas and cross-border e-commerce. A total of 3,422 enterprises from 13 countries and regions participated.

The Jiaxing delegation had 72 enterprises with 97 booths, displaying products such as clothing, fabrics, toys, appliances, bags, and gifts.

Seeking new business opportunities, Jiaxing enterprises premiered approximately 800 products at the fair, showcasing their new technologies, processes, and materials.

"We prepared some new eco-friendly products, such as tencel, eco-cotton, organic cotton and acetate. They are very popular with renewable and environmental characteristics," stated Wu Huiping, director of Zhejiang Jiaxin Silk Co Ltd.

Moreover, Jiaxing enterprises used digital equipment to display their products online, attracting customers' attention. "Customers can use the VR system to view the samples and customize the styles in real time," explained Wu.

Many Jiaxing enterprises also used overseas social platforms to expand markets. For example, Jiaxing Mengdi Import and Export focused on exporting medium and high-end women's clothing, and cultivated customers from the United Kingdom and Greece through LinkedIn. A Greek customer placed an order of $200,000.

The CEF is the largest trade fair in China for textile, clothing and light industry products. It plays a key role for traditional foreign trade enterprises in obtaining overseas orders and diversifying their markets, explained an official of the Jiaxing commerce bureau. The bureau will organize 3,600 enterprises to participate in overseas exhibitions this year, and aims to obtain effective orders exceeding $3.5 billion.