Apparel / Textiles & Accessories

On September 13, 2022, Haining, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, the first chartered flight to sea to grab orders, consisting of 20 textile enterprises and nearly 40 foreign trade professionals, took off from Xiaoshan Airport, Hangzhou, and went to Japan to participate in the three-day Osaka International Living Goods Exhibition and the 15th Zhejiang Export Commodities (Osaka) Fair.

"This time, we have brought more than 300 new products, all of which are developed with new materials, new processes and new versions." Lu Zhongjie, Chairman of Haining Desai Knitting Co., Ltd., introduced that the enterprise is mainly engaged in the production and sales of fashionable socks, focusing on the Japanese market. The annual sales in the Japanese market is about 4.5 million dollars.

Lu Zhongjie said frankly that in the past two years, affected by the epidemic, the enterprise has not gone to sea to meet with customers for three years, and usually can only communicate by email, telephone and other means, which has brought about considerable impact on the development of the enterprise. "After a long time of absence, the relationship will fade. Especially in 2022, orders will begin to decline by about 20%. I have long wanted to go out to visit customers to grab orders."

For this rare opportunity to go to sea, every enterprise cherished it and made adequate preparations in advance. They contacted old customers, invited new customers to the exhibition site for face-to-face communication, learned about the enterprise's new processes and products, and observed the new changes, trends and demands of the Japanese market on the spot.

It is understood that Haining's export-oriented economy has developed well and its dependence on international trade is high. In 2022, the total import and export volume of international trade is expected to exceed 70 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), with more than 2000 enterprises engaged in international trade import and export business and nearly 2500 kinds of export products. Japan is a key trade partner of Haining City. From January to July 2022, Haining City's cumulative export to Japan reached 1.42 billion yuan, including 120 million yuan of socks products, which is the second largest product of Haining City. At the same time, Japan is also the third largest market for the export of Haining socks. Sports socks, baby socks, fashion socks and other products are popular with Japanese customers.

In recent years, in order to help international trade enterprises in Haining City effectively carry out international exchanges, Haining City has introduced the special action of "snatching orders from the sea and letting you come back" to solve the enterprises' worries of "going out, not coming back". Charter travel is an important measure in the special action.

"We chose Osaka, Japan, as the destination for chartered flights, mainly because Haining's boutique socks are very popular in Japan and have participated in the Osaka exhibition for many years in a row, so international trade enterprises have a strong desire to go out and register very enthusiastically," said Jiang Dasheng, deputy director of Haining Municipal Bureau of Commerce.