Canton Fair: Traditional Agricultural Trade Landscape Accelerating Transformation

Reporters interviewing at the 117th China Import and Export Fair held in Guangzhou found that the domestic market for China's agricultural products is becoming increasingly active, more and more deeply processed agricultural products are being exported, and the traditional agricultural trade landscape at the Canton Fair is accelerating its transformation.

As is well known, the Canton Fair, with a history of 58 years, has become a barometer and bellwether of China's foreign trade. At this Canton Fair, these new changes in China's foreign trade of agricultural products have not only attracted the attention of overseas buyers, but also provided valuable clues for the global market to "take the pulse" of China's economic transformation.

Rising costs and exchange rate fluctuations have reduced the "raw materials" of corporate exports and increased the number of finely processed finished products. Unlike previous sessions, it is now difficult to see piles of garlic, carrots, ginger, vegetables and fruits at the Canton Fair. What is presented to global buyers is mostly deeply processed and finely processed garlic slices, ginger powder, dried fruit slices, dehydrated vegetables and chilled fresh products. This is not only an inevitable result of Chinese agricultural product export enterprises adapting to the shift in international industrial comparative advantages, but also brings richer commercial choices to the global market.

Jia Jicai, general manager of Jiangsu Dongfang Liming International Trade Co., Ltd., whose products are exported to more than 30 countries and regions, said that due to rapid exchange rate fluctuations and rising domestic labor costs, the competitiveness of the company's exported fresh products is no longer as good as similar products from Southeast Asia, but in terms of deeply processed products, enterprises with complete industrial chains, strong technical reserves and ample funds still have great prospects.

"We are increasing the degree of deep food processing, and in the future we will manufacture more finished products such as garlic soft capsules, black garlic, garlic powder, garlic slices, etc. We do not compete over who is cheaper in cost; we compete over who makes higher-quality products." He said.

Launching new products, specialty products and products for segmented markets is the response strategy of some other agricultural product enterprises.

Shen Long, regional manager of Shandong Baizao Gangmu Biotechnology Co., Ltd., said that the company does not plan to export jujubes, but instead focuses on newly developed jujube wine and honey wine, which also target fashion-conscious consumers. Also drawing on the development experience of international brands, the related products are beautifully packaged and creative, and sales in the past year exceeded 80 million yuan.

With the rapid growth of domestic demand in recent years, more export enterprises have begun to turn their attention to the domestic market.

After "quietly" exporting to the Japanese market for more than 10 years, Shandong Longteng Fuji Foods Co., Ltd., known for supermarket and convenience store instant foods, for the first time split its originally uniform export booth "into two" at this Canton Fair. Half continued the original export negotiations, while the other half directly targeted the domestic consumer market.

"We began shifting to the domestic market last year. This year sales are expected to reach 30 million yuan, and next year we aim to reach 60 million yuan. Export sales of agricultural products are now difficult, but the domestic market is picking up." Said Li Xiaoqiang, section chief of the product department of Longteng Fuji.

Deng Yingzhe, sales manager of Shandong Laiwu Yongqing Foods Co., Ltd., whose sales to Japan account for more than half of total sales, said that the "more realistic choice" for enterprises now is to do import business, because amid exploding domestic demand, the trend of reversal in agricultural product prices between the domestic and international markets is becoming increasingly obvious, and importing high-quality overseas agricultural products for sale in the domestic market yields higher profits.

Dong Li, business manager of Shandong Jining Brothers International Trade Co., also said that judging from the situation at this Canton Fair, while export enterprises have somewhat decreased and competitive pressure among similar products has eased, more and more enterprises will shift to imports in the future.

Industry insiders said that China has already cultivated a large number of agricultural specialty products and large-scale processing enterprises that meet high international standards, which can not only provide deeply processed products to the international market, but also, with the rapid growth of domestic consumer demand for high-quality and high-priced agricultural products, these production capacities will inevitably shift to serve domestic demand.