HONG KONG — Hong Kong welcomed its first major trade show dedicated to accessories when China Sourcing Fair: Fashion Accessories premiered at Asia World Expo, the city’s mammoth new exhibition center.
The show, which ran from April 15-18, featured more than 500 booths and attracted 10,000 visitors. Sarah Benecke, executive director of Global Sources, which organized the event, said, “This is a brand-new show for us. It’s highly specialized and focused. There are no garments, no textiles and no products other than accessories.”
The hall was chockablock with exhibitors showing hats, scarves, belts, handbags, luggage, costume jewelry and footwear. Although there were exhibitors from India, Indonesia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the majority of those showing — about 70 percent — were from mainland China. That ratio is understandable given China’s dominance in the accessories market. The country produced more than $1 billion worth of hats last year and makes more than 60 percent of the world’s footwear.
For many accessories manufacturers, the lure of the new fair was the chance to show their products at a focused event to the right international buyers.
Joe Poon, managing director of Pop Up, a Hong Kong-based maker of PVC handbags, said he normally shows his assortment only twice a year in China, but will now attend both Fashion Accessories events in Hong Kong.
“All the buyers at the show are very focused on fashion accessories,” said Poon.
Miranda Xi of the Fujian Province-based Unison Manufacturing Co., which produces handbags and backpacks tricked out with new technological touches like LED lights that activate when a bag is opened or backpacks with solar panels that recharge batteries, said while traffic was not overwhelming at the inaugural Fashion Accessories fair, the quality of customers was high.
Some companies, like Honour Win, with headquarters in Shenzhen, China, used the fair as a coming-out party. The costume jewelry and small accessories maker is a joint venture between companies in India, the Philippines, China and Spain. The products are designed in Spain and made in Asia.
“Buyers are really responding to the combination of European design and low prices,” said company representative Carlos Estrada, who added that for fall-winter customers were snapping up black and royal blue handbags and jewelry.
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The Indonesian government organized a small contingent of exhibitors, including craftsmen and silversmiths, for the show. Imade Karditabandem is the organizer of the Bandem community of silversmiths in Bali. He said it has become essential for the country’s manufacturers, no matter what the size, to show their wares abroad.
“Bali has 10,000 villages and we live by tourism,” Karditabandem said. “But since the last bombing [in October 2005] we have [far fewer] customers. The government is beginning to support us, but we certainly need more help.”
Typical of many fairs in Hong Kong, a majority of the buyers represented local sourcing offices for international brands. Thus, big names like Gap Inc., Carrefour, Walt Disney Co., Liz Claiborne Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. all had buyers at the show.
Organizers were pleased enough with the response of exhibitors and buyers to have already made plans to expand the autumn show. China Sourcing Fair: Fashion Accessories will take place again in October and is expected to double in size. Global Source’s Benecke confirmed that the show’s next edition will fill two halls and will add three new product categories: swimwear, lingerie and undergarments. Around 1,000 exhibitors are expected to take part in the fair.
Benecke said she expects the fall edition to continue to be focused mainly on China.
“We want to see more Indian companies here and we’re in talks with the Department of Export in Thailand, which we hope will set up a pavilion,” Benecke said. “But about 60 percent of the exhibitors will be from China, which makes sense because China dominates the categories we’re adding.”
Even before China entered the World Trade Organization, its manufacturing capabilities and capacity were growing exponentially. Coupled with its surging domestic retail market, trade show organizers, exhibitors and buyers are doing all they can to pave the way for even more business in the country. The fair’s most popular seminars were all centered on China and focused on avoiding knockoffs, responsible sourcing and protecting intellectual property rights under Chinese law.
Jennifer Li, an associate with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a law firm specializing in intellectual property disputes, said the Chinese government is engaged in a huge effort to tackle such issues. But the country’s motivation may not be what foreign trading partners imagine. Chinese manufacturers and brands are now concerned with protecting themselves from piracy, but acquiescing to international pressure on such issues is a lower priority.
“Domestic need for stronger IPR protection is the driving force,” said Li. “It’s not just an incentive to attract foreign investment.”
She described foreign investment as a motivation in bureaucratic circles, but said the real changes were happening in China “as local economies prosper and local companies grow.”