Learning process as firms thrive at event over years
-
2021-04-24 16:26:39
-
Original
-
791
The China Import and Export Fair has not only promoted the growth of Chongqing Welluck Trading but helps many other foreign-trade businesses from Chongqing, said Zhang Yu, chairman of the company.Chongqing Welluck, which mainly exports hand tools and agricultural machinery, accomplishes about 60 percent of its total exports via the fair annually. Its exports set a record last year, amounting to $150 million.
The company was established in 2006, restructured from the Chongqing branch of former China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corp. Zhang, who had been responsible for the branch’s business, was a frequenter of the fair.Chongqing began an independent group to attend the fair in 1983. In the following year, Zhang visited the 55th fair with his company.
His company had little experience exhibiting at the fair then, Zhang said.He added that it had no clue of what the international market demand was. As a result, their one-half of a booth was piled with nearly 100 kinds of samples. When overseas buyers visited the booth, more than 10 salespeople would rush forward to talk to them, which embarrassed the buyers, Zhang said.
He said the first lesson they learned was that buyers could not trust a company’s products if they did not pay attention to their image. The company later displayed appropriate products and exhibited with related production enterprises. The cooperation enhanced results and their confidence in negotiating with clients, Zhang said.
Several manufacturers from Chongqing developed rapidly thanks to the fair. Among them was automaker Dongfeng Xiaokang. At first, it only produced motorcycle dampers but later began to make whole motorcycles as it found prospects in the international market at the fair. It then produced automobiles and developed further after it gained an export entitlement.
