A Brief History Of The Canton Fair

Trades fairs are exhibitions where industry leaders showcase new products and services in order to promote them and encourage professional interest in them. During a typical trade fair, new products and services are demonstrated and reviewed and representatives attending the fair get to learn about what products their competitors are manufacturing and what the latest marketing and developments trends are in their industry. Trade fairs are also either open to the public ("Public" fairs) or are for company representatives only ("Trade Only" fairs). Importers and exporters can particularly benefit from attending trade fairs as they are able to determine, respectively, which new products would do well in their countries and which countries their products would sell in.

The Canton Fair is a Trade Only show that exhibits products and services in both the consumer and industry sectors and which concentrates mainly on export trade. April 1957 saw the very first Canton Fair being held in the former Sino-Soviet Friendship Building in North Guangzhou. The Friendship Building's exhibition space was spread over 18,000 sq.m. and was able to contain the entire fair. Several years later the fair was moved to the Liuhua Complex and remained there for many years. Recent fairs have taken place in Guangzhou's enormous China Import and Export Fair Complex, however, and, with 1,125,000 sq.m. of exhibition space now available - and fully occupied - the fair is now a very different exhibition from that which debuted in 1957.

Like previous Canton fairs, the 2010 fair will be organised by the China Foreign Trade Centre and co-hosted by the People's Republic of China's Ministry of Commerce and the Guangdong Provincial Government. The fair has shown steady growth in both volume and turnover over the years and thus deserves its appellation of China's No.1 Fair. The next fair is due to take place in Spring 2010 and will be the 107th Canton Fair. It will be attended by 48 trading delegations made up of the cream of Chinese industry as well as foreign trade companies, private enterprises and research institutes.

The Canton Fair is held every year in Spring and Autumn sessions of three phases each with the first session taking place in April/May and the second in October/November. Each phase usually lasts five days and showcases different product types. It is not for nothing that the fair is known as China's largest and, during the 206th fair, 188,170 overseas buyers spent 30,470 USD while inspecting products displayed in 55,927 standard booths set up by 21,934 national and 386 international exhibitors.

The different phases exhibit products that are representative of different sectors of consumer and industry manufacturing. The 209th fairs first phase showcased products like electronics and household electrical appliances, vehicles and spare parts, chemical products and lighting equipment. The first phase was also home to those booths belonging to the international exhibitors. The second phase included home decorations, gifts and consumer products while the third phase spotlighted medical products (medicines, medical devices and health products), food and native produce as well as clothing and office supplies (specifically cases, bags and recreation products).