A businessman (left) from Georgia looks at trophies in Yiwu, East China’s Zhejiang Province on April 8, 2024. With the Paris Olympic Games approaching, Yiwu has ushered in a peak season for the sale of sporting goods, with people from all over the world shopping for balls, flags and trophies in a wide range of stores. Photo: VCG

 
Orders related to the upcoming Paris Olympic Games have seen strong growth for merchants in Yiwu, the small commodities hub in East China’s Zhejiang Province, the Global Times learned from industry insiders on Monday.

The strong orders demonstrate that China’s products remain competitive and in demand in the international market.

There are three months to go until the Paris 2024 Olympics in July, and factory owners and traders in Yiwu are busy fulfilling all the orders from Europe.

Wen Congjian, general manager of Yiwu Danas Import and Export Co, is dealing with orders related to sports events around the world, the Paris Olympics in particular.

He was so busy with new orders or talking with clients that he was interrupted several times during an interview with the Global Times on Wednesday.

Wen’s company is also dealing with urgently needed orders for the Euro 2024 and Copa América soccer tournaments, which start in less than two months in June.

Because of the booming orders and tight production schedule, Wen said that “the new orders for the Olympic Games have piled up till June.”

Yiwu Danas Import and Export Co mainly deals in original jerseys, from design to manufacturing, giving them a competitive advantage in terms of original design and production cost. 

In preparation for this year's Paris Olympics, Wen has been increasing innovation related to sports jerseys while also registering the copyrights for the original designs. From February until now, he has registered nearly 20 copyrights. Currently, his company has received more than 150,000 orders for these new jerseys.

The orders for Wen’s company are mainly from overseas, and the goods are sold to 53 countries around the world.

Orders for the Olympic Games in Paris started coming in at the end of last year and they are still coming, Chen Xianchun, another Yiwu-based trader, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Chen’s company makes trophies and medals, mainly for export to France, and at present, “orders have been scheduled until May,” he said.

The competitive advantages for Yiwu goods remain strong as orders can be arranged at short notice and the production costs are relatively low, industry insiders told the Global Times.

Zhou Jian, a manager with Yiwu Jianyong Sports Co, told the Global Times that the Olympic Games offer huge business opportunities. The table tennis balls that Zhou’s company makes are selling well and are highly profitable. 

The cheapest table tennis ball in the store is 0.6 yuan ($0.083) each, while the price of six table tennis balls for the Paris Olympics are around 40 yuan, which is equivalent to more than six yuan each, Zhou said, indicating the high profitability for the Olympic product.

The hot sales are reflected in the trade figures for Yiwu. Data that Yiwu Customs provided to the Global Times on Monday shows that in the first quarter, Yiwu's sports goods exports totaled 22.0 billion yuan, an increase of 46.2 percent year-on-year.

Among them, sports goods exports from Yiwu to the EU amounted to 2.3 billion yuan, up 32.2 percent year-on-year. Also in the same period, Yiwu's exports to France reached 7.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.4 percent, with the Olympic Games being an important driver.