A Chinese vendor discusses business with a foreign client at China Yiwu International Trade City in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province on July 9, 2024. Photo: VCG

As the annual festive season draws near, a wide array of Christmas goods from Yiwu city in East China's Zhejiang Province, known for being the world's small commodities hub, are poised to be shipped all around the world, highlighting the strong global demand for China-made festive goods.

Experts attribute the international popularity and competitiveness of Chinese Christmas goods to the country's manufacturing scale and high quality, innovative designs and inexpensive prices, which are supported by a robust supply chain.

As the globe's largest distribution center of Christmas goods, Yiwu ships more than 20,000 varieties of festive products to over 100 countries and regions, serving as a genuine trading hub for holiday season orders, the experts noted.

Jiang Jiangping, a Christmas goods producer and exporter at China Yiwu International Trade City, the main wholesale market in Yiwu, told the Global Times on Monday that, so far this year, his marketplace's total sales has risen by over 10 percent year-on-year, despite challenges such as higher freight costs and longer logistics cycles this year.

Jiang has worked in the Christmas goods manufacturing sector for more than 20 years, and his shop stocks more than 1,500 varieties of Christmas products, with over 90 percent of these items being exported to international markets. 

"Yiwu is actually the beating heart of the global Christmas market, so our yearly sales have been steady year after year," Jiang said.

Global Christmas shoppers 

This year, Jiang's marketplace has seen a significant rise in customers as well as orders from South American countries such as Brazil and Colombia, and from many countries in the Middle East and Africa. The number of customers visiting China Yiwu International Trade City to browse products has grown by 20-30 percent compared to 2023, he said.

Yiwu's foreign trade has continued to go up despite increasingly complex uncertainties in global trade. From January to September this year, the city's imports and exports reached a new record, with a total trade value of 499.88 billion yuan ($68.98 billion), marking a year-on-year increase of 16.6 percent, according to official data. During the period, exports alone amounted to 441.09 billion yuan, up 16.1 percent.

Official data showed that Yiwu's Christmas goods exports increased 6.6 percent from January to July, rising to nearly 30 billion yuan, according to state broadcast CCTV.

This year, Yiwugou.com, the e-commerce platform run by Zhejiang China Commodities City Group, saw an earlier start to the Christmas season compared to last year, marked with growing orders from overseas merchants in the third quarter, the company told the Global Times on Monday.

In the first quarter of 2024, Yiwugou.com reported a 64.32 percent year-on-year surge in trading for Christmas-related goods, with orders from the US, Spain, Russia, and Mexico dominating the list of overseas orders. 

Another exporter surnamed Liu at China Yiwu International Trade City told the Global Times that her shop mainly focuses on exporting ornaments for Christmas trees. To date this year, total orders processed by her shop jumped by over 20 percent compared to last year.

The peak season for orders and shipments of Christmas goods came as early as July. According to Liu, green or eco-friendly ornaments featuring beautiful and creative designs, have gained notable traction among overseas buyers.

"The major increase in festive goods orders comes from our new customers in Europe, South America, Africa and Middle East — new markets brought about by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)," she said.

The fast-growing cooperation and connectivity between China and the BRI partner countries have created significant opportunities for Yiwu. From January to September, the trade hub's total imports and exports to the BRI partner countries reached 308.22 billion yuan, up 17.2 percent year-on-year, official data showed.

Agile market adaptability

Every year, from April to May, overseas customers place bulk orders; and from July to October, Yiwu sellers pack and dispatch their wares to markets across the globe, according to the exporters. Some of them like Jiang even start receiving orders for 2025 as early as the end of October, which tells of Yiwu market's well-known prestige abroad.

"For some consistently popular products, many of our customers have already placed orders for the next year," Jiang said, noting that Chinese manufacturers often start to launch new products early in the year, ensuring a seamless cycle of demand and supply, and buyers will quickly follow up with additional orders for those new items.

Over the years, Yiwu city has established itself as an indispensable market in global commodities trading, which also serves as the country's manufacturing sector bellwether, Li Yong, a senior research fellow at the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times in a recent interview.

"The marketplace's success lies in its robust integration capability of production, distribution and sales, enabling global buyers to access diverse products in one go. This one-stop service significantly improves procurement efficiency," Li noted.

Adding to their traditional manufacturing advantages, Chinese Christmas goods suppliers are stepping up their efforts in product innovation and design too, so as to maintain their competitive edge in the global market.

"Every year, we promptly update our product lineup based on customer feedback, launching at least 200 new products annually. We also phase out those products that did not sell well in the previous year," Jiang said.

Yiwu has built a highly flexible and responsive supply chain that enables its small and medium-sized enterprises to swiftly adapt to global market changes, Li said, adding it serves as a vivid example of the strength of China's manufacturing supply chain.