57 Canton Fair Witnessed Hubei's "Growth" In Foreign Trade

On the 5 day, the 115th China Import and Export Fair (also known as the Canton Fair) closed in Guangzhou.

The Canton Fair, founded in 1957, was named for the two quarter of spring and autumn in Guangzhou. It is the highest and largest international trade event in China. It is known as the "barometer of China's foreign trade".

The 57 Canton Fair is a history of new China's foreign trade, and also witnessed the upgrading and upgrading of Hubei's exports. During the past 57 years, the export commodities of our province from the earliest medicinal materials, salted duck eggs to the water bottles and sheets of the 80s and 90s of last century, and then to the new era of lasers and ships, constantly upgrading, and the total export volume increased from less than 200 thousand US dollars to 22 billion 800 million US dollars.

Since mid April, our reporter three went to Guangzhou to visit the scene of the Canton Fair and trace back to Hubei's foreign trade history.

　 "Living fossil" at the Canton Fair

Antique hot water bottles tell old brand brilliance

"Jingjiang brand thermos bottle!" in April 24th, the reporter was surprised when he saw this "antique" at the Canton Fair. Is this the old brand in Hubei?

"Yes, it was built in Hubei that year." Exhibitors Jingzhou joint Fung daily necessities Co., Ltd.'s reply is confident and powerful. In the exhibition area, more than 100 kinds of iron shell thermos were printed with "Jingjiang" two characters, and the style was almost the same as childhood memories.

Jingjiang brand thermos bottle, once known to everyone, has disappeared for many years in the domestic market.

In the 50s of last century, Shashi hot water bottle factory began to produce Jingjiang brand thermos bottle. Since its entry into the Canton Fair in 80s, it has been known as "living fossil on the Canton Fair".

"At that time, the Hubei brand went through the red sky and had a great position in the Canton Fair." Looking back on the glory of the year, Gan Zhengxiang was proud of himself. As an old worker of the former Shashi thermos bottle factory, he attended the Canton Fair for more than 30 years. He recalled that from the 80s to the mid 90s of last century, the state had the right to import and export trade, and after the Canton Fair obtained the order, it was allocated to the provinces. At that time, Hubei's light industry was well-developed, including the sand pine refrigerator, the big bridge brand toothbrush, the active 28 washing powder, Jingjiang brand thermos bottle, the Yuanyang brand sheet and the Jiaying plastic brand. shoes A number of famous brands will become suppliers and products will be exported to Asia and Africa. Jingjiang brand thermos bottle exports as high as about 6000000 US dollars per year. Due to too many orders, factories often work overtime.

Gong Shengqiang, who worked in the China Light Industry Import and Export Corporation Hubei company, joined the Canton Fair in 1982. He described that the popularity of these brands was just like that of today's GREE and the United States. The profit of a single product is over 20%.

Insiders said that Hubei's strong economic strength and strong industry created these brands. Unfortunately, after the mid 90s of last century, these batting brands failed to keep pace with the planned economy's transformation to the market economy and gradually fade out of the stage of history. In those old brands, only one of the fruits of Jingjiang hot water bottle was left in the Canton Fair.

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1 cents for 1 dollars.

Hubei's small native produce made big foreign exchange.

In Hubei, Xie Kuidong, 88, is one of the earliest participants in the Canton Fair. He took part in the first Canton Fair in the spring of 1957 and retired in 1987. He worked in the province's foreign trade system for half a lifetime, and also witnessed the changes of Hubei commodities in the Canton Fair.

Talking about the Canton Fair, the old man has a tummy tale. He said that the Canton Fair in 50s of last century was held in a 6 storey Pavilion beside the Zhujiang bridge, when it was the largest building in Guangzhou. According to the "dispensable export priority" policy of the state at that time, the commodities exported by Hubei were mainly local products such as medicinal materials, handicrafts, agricultural and sideline products, such as Eucommia ulmoides, jute, chestnut and Auricularia auricula.

"Do not belittle these native products, they are the main force of Hubei earning foreign exchange." Xue Deling, 71, retired from the position of deputy general manager of Hubei medical and health products import and export company, participated in the Canton Fair for 30 years. In her impression, the fist products exported to Hubei in the Canton Fair were "Hubei three wood" and "gold and silver flowers".

"Hubei Miki" refers to the three Chinese medicinal herbs, namely Eucommia ulmoides, magnolia bark and Phellodendron chinense, which are produced in Enshi, Yichang and Yunyang district (now Shiyan). These herbs are stripped from trees that have been growing for more than 15 years, and the cost is less than 13 yuan per kilogram. They sell for 130 dollars at the Canton Fair, which is equivalent to the cost of less than 1 cents, and earn 1 dollars for the state. "Because of the beautiful products, we controlled sales. Generally more than 20 tons per year, the highest peak is not more than 300 tons.

"Gold, silver and one flower" is a Codonopsis pilosula from Huanggang, produced by Poria cocos, Coptis chinensis, and Banqiao, Enshi. These three kinds of medicinal materials are very popular, with an average of 3 cents for 1 dollars in foreign exchange, and most of the annual sales are between 300 and 500 tons.

"At the first Canton Fair, foreign exchange earnings from Hubei's merchandise exports were less than US $200 thousand." Xie Kuidong recalls. Later, with the gradual increase of commodities, by the 60s of last century, a number of materials such as Jingzhou's grain and cottonseed oil, pig eggs and eggs were included in the export list, making Hubei's exports rise to millions of dollars rapidly.

At that time, the material was scarce, but the export was very particular. It was more critical about the style and quality of the products. At that time, the Wuchang family clothing The factory received a batch of orders, but delivery time. clothes The colors on both sides of the grid are inconsistent, the quality is not up to standard, and the final compensation is 200 thousand dollars.

In 1972, American businessmen first appeared in the Canton Fair. Subsequently, some of Hubei's products began to export to the United States. By the end of the 70s, Hubei's exports had reached 15 million US dollars.

Entering the period of reform and opening up, Hubei household appliances, Spin Mechanical products began to exert themselves in the Canton Fair. The foreign trade department of the Provincial Department of Commerce introduced that in the late 80s and early 90s of last century, textile light industrial products replaced agricultural products and became the largest export commodities of our province. This is not a small step. Since then, export commodities have changed from resource intensive to labor-intensive.

In 1987, our province earned more than 200 million US dollars in export earnings. In the first 30 years of the Canton Fair, Hubei's exports increased 1000 times.

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Send business cards to the first pot of gold.

In the new era, private enterprises are singing foreign trade dramas.

In the 90s of last century, there were two landmark events around the Canton Fair.

First, in the autumn of 1994, the seventy-sixth Canton Fair ended the history of the group of professional headquarters, and implemented the "provincial and municipal groups, chambers of Commerce, museums and groups, and Industry Exhibition"; secondly, in 1999, the state liberalized the foreign trade policy and allowed private enterprises to participate in the Canton Fair.

This means that the right to export is concentrated by the state and gradually liberalized to local and private enterprises. With this policy, Hubei's foreign trade has entered an era of soaring, and a large number of export enterprises have sprung up and sprung up. Hanchuan Tong Ba baby stroller company is one of them.

In 1996, Cheng Xinguo, who had just established Tong Ba company, couldn't wait to come to the Canton Fair. "At that time, private enterprises were still unable to participate in the exhibition. I spent 300 yuan each day to buy a temporary representative card through the relationship." After entering the scene, Cheng Xin Guo held a corridor and sent business cards and information to foreign businessmen. Unexpectedly, 3 days later, I got a $40 thousand order, which became the first barrel of the company's start.

In 1999, private enterprises could officially participate in the Canton Fair. Since then, Cheng has become a frequent visitor to the Canton Fair. In 2013, Tong Ba company exported more than 10 million US dollars, and 80% orders came from the Canton Fair.

At the same time, we also have the business card technology. Shu Jinxia, director of marketing department, recalled that when a box of business cards was issued, 2 orders were actually sold, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

During this period, our province's foreign trade companies and private enterprises were significantly increased. At this Canton Fair, a reporter looked through the list of 415 exhibitors in Hubei. At least 30% of them were restructured from the former state-owned trading companies, and over 98% of them were private enterprises.

"From 2000 to 2008, a group of foreign trade enterprises and export industries grew rapidly at the Canton Fair." Aili, director of the foreign trade department of the Provincial Department of Commerce, said that after the child's dominance, Hanchuan has set up 28 baby stroller enterprises, all of which are mainly exported. Last year, the export of children's cars in the city amounted to US $45 million, and 90% orders came from the Canton Fair.

The "letinous edodes corps" in Suizhou also entered the Canton Fair. In 2002, after the establishment of the Hubei Yu Guo mushroom industry company, we participated in the Canton Fair. After that, dozens of letinous edodes export enterprises in Suizhou followed suit. Last year, Suizhou letinous edodes exported 650 million US dollars, ranking first in the country, 80% of which came from the Canton Fair.

According to incomplete statistics, nearly 50% of the more than 3000 enterprises with export performance in Guangdong Province have participated directly or indirectly in the Canton Fair. Under the pull of the Canton Fair, a number of industrial cluster effects began in Wuhan, such as ship, optoelectronics, display industry, auto parts industry in Xiangyang and Suizhou.

According to the information of the Provincial Department of Commerce, after China joined the WTO in 2001, the structure of commodity export in our province gradually adjusted, and completed another leap from labor intensive to technology intensive. By 2004, the export of mechanical and electrical products exceeded textile and apparel for the first time; in 2006, foreign trade for the first time exceeded 10 billion US dollars, among which electromechanical products and hi-tech were far ahead.

Last year, our province's exports exceeded US $20 billion for the first time, reaching US $22 billion 840 million.

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　　 Hundreds of enterprises collapsed in 2005

"War Within Three Kingdoms" lessons push Hubei enterprises to upgrade

There are more than 5 exhibitors and more than 150 thousand purchasers in this Canton Fair. So far, the Canton Fair is still the most influential and fiercely competitive foreign trade exhibition in China.

The global financial crisis in 2008 brought strong challenges to Hubei's foreign trade. Facing the double pressure of the global economic recovery and the adjustment of domestic industrial structure, what is the performance of Hubei enterprises in the Canton Fair?

On the morning of April 18th, the booth of Hubei Jinshan light industry and household electrical appliance company was packed with merchants, and more than 100 kinds of household appliances were attracting attention. The company has participated in the Canton Fair for more than 10 years, and has launched several new products every time.

"This time, we brought several emergency lights for the African market." Yin Jinshan, general manager of the company, said that this is a new product that they independently developed. The lamp is equipped with radio and fans, and can catch cool and listen to the radio in their spare time.

Kingsoft Corp used to be a pure foreign trade enterprise without design and R & D. On one occasion, at the Canton Fair, a customer wanted to purchase 200 thousand dollars of household electrical appliances. Yin Jinshan looked for several factories to design, but the samples failed to meet the requirements, and the final order was yellow. Drawing lessons, Yin Jinshan set up a R & D team in 2004, and the product varieties also expanded from several to several hundred. In 2013, the company exported more than US $10 million.

In Hubei, the half of the exhibition area is the hand-made rattan sold to the United States, and half of the new products produced by independent research and development machinery. General manager of the company assistant Pu Qu introduced that before, 95% of the company's products were hand woven rattan series. After manual wages rose, handmade rattan profit was only 2%. Last year, the company began to adjust its structure to produce by independent research and development machinery. At present, the proportion of hand-made rattan sales has dropped to 60%, and the new products are selling well in the European market.

Experience and lessons. In the past few years, a group of enterprises in our province tried to win the price war at the Canton Fair, and the result was a failure.

Hu Qiu, chairman of Hubei's Hanchuan daily products Co., Ltd., said that in the past few years, Hanchuan children's car companies had been killing each other for customers, like playing "War Within Three Kingdoms" cards, and everyone was in danger. Finally, a child's car with a cost of 50 yuan was sold at a price of only 35 yuan. In order to reduce losses and reduce quality, enterprises eventually lead to customer churn.

The vicious competition of letinous edodes industry in Suizhou is more intense. Lei Yuguo, chairman of Hubei Yu Guo mushroom industry company, said that the price of a bag of one kilogram of letinous edodes was 40 yuan, and the final transaction price was often only 20 yuan. In 5 years, more than 100 letinous edodes enterprises in Suizhou were reduced to 25, with 20 failures on average every year.

This year, Lei Yu Guo has brought the company's high-end letinous edodes, which is jointly developed by Huazhong Agricultural University and other universities, including selenium rich letinous edodes and polysaccharide letinous edodes, which sells for 300 yuan per catty. Despite the high price, the number of European and American businessmen who came to negotiate over 3 days exceeded 100.

"Painful lessons are forcing us to transform and upgrade." He said that the Canton Fair is a stage for global competition. Only by constantly innovating can we maintain a place.