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Yiwu International Trade Market reopens

chinadaily.com.cn| Updated :2023-02-03

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Domestic and overseas traders flock to the Yiwu International Trade Market on Feb 2. [Photo/WeChat account: yiwufb]

The Yiwu International Trade Market, one of the world's largest trading hubs for small commodities in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, reopened on Feb 2 after a brief suspension for the Spring Festival holiday.

On the opening day, a businessman from Ethiopia ordered products worth 600,000 yuan ($89,000) from Wang Gensheng, a kitchen and toilet hardware provider at the market.

Wang said that he had been communicating with clients via WeChat during the holiday and about 80 percent of his old clients were on a plane to China. He added that that he expects a more than 60 percent increase in orders from foreign clients.

Another businessman from India, who has lived in Yiwu for 15 years, also came early to the market to purchase articles of daily use and hardware tools for export.

He said that at the peak, there were more than 2,000 Indian businessmen in Yiwu, but the pandemic forced some to return India. Most of them have now returned to Yiwu, he added.

Statistics show that Yiwu is now home to more than 10,000 permanent foreign traders.

This year, the city rolled out 10 measures to improve its business environment and services for foreign trade in an effort to attract more foreign traders.

In 2022, Yiwu saw its foreign trade grow 22.7 percent year-on-year to 478.8 billion yuan.

The city's exports rose by 18 percent year-on-year to 431.64 billion yuan, while its imports increased by 93.5 percent to 47.16 billion yuan last year.