(Yicai) Nov. 8 -- A record-high number of businesspeople from Yiwu, known as the world capital of small commodities, are attending the China International Import Expo in search of new global opportunities and partnerships.

Some 4,000 buyers from more than 2,200 Yiwu-based enterprises signed up for this year’s CIIE, Shanghai Deputy Mayor Li Rui said during a promotion event held at the trade fair yesterday. The six-day expo in Shanghai will end on Nov. 10.

Yiwu companies penned 21 agreements worth over USD2 billion during the event yesterday. In addition to procurement deals, they also included CIIE exhibitors going to Yiwu to take part in import expos as well as investment deals on consumer goods, medicine and health care, technical equipment, food and farm produce.

Businesses are eager to meet suppliers and potential customers from different parts of the globe. “In the past, I had to go all over the world to buy commodities, but thanks to the expo, coming to Shanghai is enough,” a buyer told Yicai.

The CIIE is a world-class procurement platform, according to Wu Qing, head of Yiwu Rongxing Import and Export. The company signed an USD100 million deal with a Turkish pastry maker and trading company at the CIIE to buy a variety of nut products including pistachios.

Ge Wenyuan, an online marketing director for Ccokio China which has a 400-square-meter store in Yiwu International Trade City, told Yicai that his firm is both a buyer and an exhibitor at this year's CIIE. Ccokio is showing off its latest daily chemical products imported from Japan, South Korea, Europe, and the United States, while hoping to foster new client relationships. More importantly, it is seeking high-quality supply chain channels and opportunities to jointly develop new products.

Yiwu Haiou Import and Export has brought a variety of popular goods to the fair to heighten its profile, widen exchanges with potential customers, and explore more market opportunities, according to General Manager Cao Xiuhua, who is at his first CIIE.

Du Yuegang, head of yiwu-based Tony Supply Chain, told Yicai that his main purpose of coming to the CIIE is to see fresh ideas in the global market and provide more resources and information for the business the firm is considering.

Yiwu has been making efforts in recent years to transition from "selling globally" to "buying globally and selling globally.” The city’s imports jumped to CNY24.4 billion (USD3.4 billion) in 2021 from CNY2.4 billion (USD325 million) in 2013. In the first three quarters of this year, imports hit a new high of almost CNY48 billion, a 53 percent surge from a year earlier.

Editor: Emmi Laine