BEIJING: As Christmas is around the corner, data released on Monday showcased the sustained resilience and vitality of East China’s Yiwu, the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities and an epitome of China’s foreign trade sector.
In the first 11 months of 2025, the city recorded total imports and exports of 770.39 billion yuan ($108.5 billion), up 25.5 percent year-on-year, with exports growing 24.9 percent, official data showed on Monday. Despite a complex and volatile global trade environment, local exporters have been able to secure orders and maintain production, providing solid support for peak-season shipments, according to the Yiwu Municipal Bureau of Commerce.
Yiwu has been guided by a new round of comprehensive international trade reforms aimed at building a global benchmark for trade, while stepping up efforts to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment and boost consumption, achieving steady and sound growth in its commercial sector.
While Christmas is just around the corner, many exporters in Yiwu, East China’s Zhejiang Province, said they had entered “the Christmas mode” about four months ago, as foreign clients rushed to place additional orders and expedite shipments for fear of missing the peak sales season in December.
Analysts said the popularity of Chinese Christmas products in overseas markets underscores the competitiveness of Made-in-China products amid the global peak consumption season, while China’s advantages like a full industrial chain, growing export diversification and continuous innovation underpin the sustained steady growth momentum of China’s goods trade and contribute to the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains.
“Every year, our peak shipping season falls in August and September, and this year’s [shipping season] had been especially bustling. Back then, customers were scrambling to add orders and request earlier deliveries for fear of missing the peak sales season,” Sun Lijuan, owner of Hongsheng Toys in Yiwu International Trade City and exporter of Christmas product, told the Global Times on Friday.
Despite global trade uncertainties, Sun said her company’s export volume still increased this year, with clients mainly coming from Latin America, Africa, Central Asia, and Europe.
In addition to surging sales, Sun highlighted a striking trend this year: Smart products integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) conversational functions are exceptionally popular. “Despite their higher prices, these high-end offerings have garnered more orders,” Sun said.
Gong Sihan, CEO of Bosen Christmas Factory in Yiwu, told the Global Times on Friday her company’s export volume by November has exceeded last year’s record. “As overseas orders keep flooding in, our production capacity cannot fully meet the demand,” Gong said.
Based on the changes in the global market, we proactively adjusted our export strategy and shifted to explore the markets with faster growth instead of the US, Gong said. –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
