Canton Fair holds promotional event in New York, US and China still booming for business

Fresh from the Canton Fair, the largest in history, delegates from the long-running trade fair gathered at a packed New York venue to drum up further support from American buyers and visitors.

Throughout the Canton Fair’s history, American buyers have been a major force at the fair, and despite the focus on trade tensions between the world’s first and second largest economies, the Canton Fair continues to connect American buyers with China’s vast supply chain network.Held in Guangzhou, this supply chain is largely condensed in one place for two weeks at the Canton Fair showcase.

The biannual Canton Fair has just completed its 135th edition.^Number The third Canton Fair, held in early May, attracted 246,000 international buyers, setting a new record for buyer attendance at the fair. Each year, more than 10,000 of those buyers are from the United States. At the most recent Canton Fair, 247 American exhibitors attended.

Established in 1957 and often regarded as a barometer of economic relations between China and the United States, the Canton Fair is a premier event offering a glimpse into technology, production and industry originating from China, while also placing great emphasis on facilitating trade. During the recently concluded edition, the event generated $24.7 billion in export transactions, with $3.03 billion generated through online platforms.

Laying the foundation for even more US buyers to attend 136^Number During the October event, trade representatives from the Canton Fair and Chinese Consul General Huang Ping traveled to downtown New York to promote the unique opportunities the fair offers American businesses.

Kevin Kuehl of Big Lots, a longtime participant in the New York event, noted how important the fair is to global sourcing.^Number On his visit to this year’s fair, he noted that it “provides an opportunity to meet with potential factories in a very effective and efficient way.”

Abraham Merchant, a restaurant industry professional who recently attended for the first time, also said his main goal in attending the Canton Fair was to source the highest quality products for his U.S. restaurant chain, while the head of another industry group from Ohio said, “With our connections at the Canton Fair, we can get what we need ourselves” without going through a middleman.

Zhu Shijia, chairman of the board of directors and president of China Foreign Trade Centre Group, the organization involved in organizing the Canton Fair, spoke about the fair’s plans to continue expanding its influence and help more businesses around the world grow and prosper.

With nearly 30,000 exhibitors, it’s hard to imagine the Canton Fair getting any bigger, but it continues to seek more visitors, exhibitors and business. “I walked 35,000 steps in the whole day and I haven’t even seen half of it,” said one attendee at the New York event.

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