Food importers are increasingly leveraging the China International Import Expo as an ideal platform for fostering and reaching customers, with some enterprises attending every expo since its inauguration in 2018.

Take Goodfarmer Foods Holding (Group) Co Ltd, for instance. Since its launch in 2002, the company has experienced phenomenal growth. It has established itself as a leading fruit importer, with projected total sales of 14.6 billion yuan (US$2 billion) this year.

"Custom statistics in 2016 show we are already the top banana importer in China, and we are beefing up our share in imports of such fruits as pineapples, dragon fruits, young coconut, blueberry, and cherry," said Zhang Jingzhen, CEO of Goodfarmer Fruit.

The benefits have been enormous, Zhang said. With an average 120 containers of imports per week, Goodfarmer accounts for about 49 percent of imported pineapples in China. A species worth special mention is black diamond pineapple, witch debuted at the CIIE in 2022. A collaborative cultivation effort between Goodfarmer and Philippine farmers, the pineapple available in the Chinese market is unique for its succulence and fragrance, with golden flesh, and dark green rind.

"Following the fruit's launch at the CIIE, its sales have soared, from zero to about 50 containers per week today," Zhang said.

The pineapple is not the only fruit to have been promoted via the CIIE. Also included are organic bananas from Ecuador and Mexico, and golden pitahaya from Ecuador.

Avocados from New Zealand have also been promoted via their CIIE debut.

For four years running, Goodfarmer has also been promoting its fresh coconut juice sourced from young coconuts in Thailand, under the now well-known Jiaguoyuan brand.

"We are keen to reach more of our customers across the country through the CIIE," Zhang said.

By establishing strategic partnerships with more than 270 farms in the Philippines, Ecuador and Costa Rica, and thanks to the amplification effect of CIIE, the fame of these fruits has spread far and wide.

Also effusive about the effects of the CIIE is Jin Lin, CEO of the Innovation Hub of Argentina (Shanghai), a collaborative effort between, among others, Argentina's Foreign Affairs Ministry and the country's International Investment and Commerce Agency.

Fully positive about the spillover effects of CIIE, the hub, in conjunction with the Harbour City Group, recently launched the Argentina Bonded Goods Exhibition and Trading Center in the Lingang Special Area.

An excellent example of system innovation, the center affords Argentinean enterprises a chance to showcase and promote their brands, as well as opportunities to distribute their goods through retailing, cross-border e-commerce, or wholesaling, both online or offline. It is an efficient, holistic solution that enables premium Argentine goods to spread from the market in Shanghai to across the whole country.

The innovation hub has attended every CIIE since 2018, and this year they are looking at some new products, such as Alaskan crabs, or green mussels.

"This could have been impossible without the CIIE," Jin said.

Jin is also thinking of new product lines, as mineral water mined from glaciers in Argentina.

Extending their product line to other Spanish-speaking countries, such as Chile, Mexico, or Spain, is also underway.

"One of the strongest factors motivating us to attend the CIIE is that it is an annual event, so that you can always move on, which is simply fantastic. There is always more in store for us. For instance, we have not yet imported cheese or milk from Argentina, which is strange, and we are currently deliberating how to make that happen," Jin said.

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