The 132nd China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, opened online with more than 35,000 participating companies on October 15 ,2022.

Thousands of traders gathered online at China's landmark trade fair, which aims to provide a platform for importers and exporters from all over the world, with about 3 million products waiting to be traded. The event is seen as a symbol of foreign trade that gives confidence to international commerce dealers.

The 132nd China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, opened on Saturday online with more than 35,000 participating companies, up 40 percent from last fair held in April, according to statistics from the organizer. The popularity tells the vitality of China's foreign trade and attractiveness to global participants, analysts said.

China has become a major trading partner of more than 140 countries and regions, and its total merchandise trade ranks first in the world, according to official data. China's foreign trade stood at $4.19 trillion from January to August, up 9.5 percent year-on-year, according to customs.

The Canton Fair, dubbed as the No.1 expo in terms of scale, had an indispensable role in boosting China's foreign trade. The success of the fair was marked by the hard work of domestic and foreign participants in the past 60 years.

The Li family of Yuen Tai Trading Co, a Hong Kong-based food wholesaler, is a witness of the fair's success.

"We aim to bring 100 new and emerging food brands from the Chinese mainland to the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions in the next five years, and accelerate these brands to Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore," Michael Li Chi-fung, deputy general manager of Yuen Tai, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Li's grandfather, Li Huan, founded Yuen Tai Trading and participated in the first Canton Fair. The company has never missed any session of the grade fair since. 

Yuen Tai Trading exports Chinese food brands to the world, and it is searching for brands that are interested in going overseas through the Canton Fair this year, said Li.

The Canton Fair is barometer of China's foreign trade. Whether the Canton Fair is held online or on-site, as long as it is held, it gives confidence to traders, a Ningbo-based e-commerce industry insider surnamed Ning, also a veteran Canton Fair participant, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"My company will attend the Canton Fair online as we did previously. The Canton Fair has helped promote the transformation and upgrading of the company. We now focus more on e-commerce and we are actively developing B2C services on the basis of B2B," said Ning.

Her company sees the Canton Fair as an important window to display its brands and products, as the fair attracts buyers from all over the world. 

Other participants also present their products on the international platform. The number of products on display at the Canton Fair has hit a record high, with over 130,000 smart products, over 500,000 green and low-carbon exhibits and over 260,000 products with independent intellectual property rights.

To better help foreign trade companies, starting from the 132nd session, the online service period of each Canton Fair will be extended from 10 days to five months, which breaks the space-time bottleneck for the full display of more innovative products.

According to Ning, the Canton Fair has inspired traders from different regions to hold their own trade fairs or exhibitions, citing the China (Ningbo) Export Cross-Border E-Commerce and Foreign Trade Expo (China CEE), which has become a major trade expo especially for foreign trade companies in Ningbo and other areas in East China's Zhejiang Province.

"But all these expos and fairs - attractive, innovative and efficient - are the epitome of the vitality of China's foreign trade," said Ning.

Abu Dhabi businessman Thomas, a five-year participant of the Canton fair, told the Global Times that his company arranged a room for livestreaming on the official website of the Canton Fair to showcase products from partners.

Thomas helped Chinese companies export products to the UAE, and his company is slowly transforming to an e-commerce dealer. In the future, the Canton Fair may also function as a large cross-border e-commerce platform, which is good for promoting trade, said Thomas.

He added that he has participated in every session of the Canton Fair since 2018.

To get ready to welcome friends from all over the world, construction of the fourth phase of the Canton Fair exhibition hall was nearly completed in October. With a floor area of 560,000 square meters, the new hall adds 6,000 new booths.