Home decorations, Christmas ornaments, and other festival products are on display at Canton Fair, China's oldest and largest trade fair in Guangzhou, capital city of south China's Guangdong Province, as it entered the second phase.

In late April, the entire exhibition hall at the Fair, is dedicated to holiday ornaments and Christmas decorations.

China has been a major exporter of these products for Christmas, and other holidays.

In the first quarter of 2024, China's exports rose 4.9 percent year on year. For domestic holiday suppliers at the Canton Fair, this upward trend is reflected in recent sales.

"In the second phase, we're focusing on holiday gifts, trees, and plant products, including artificial flowers and trees. Just in the past two days, we've received a customer flow between 500 and 600. So, the numbers are really good, as is the quality of our clients," said Li Rui, sales manager of Longstar, a Chinese supplier of household products. Although Halloween and Christmas are more than half a year away, the fair is crucial for many of these time-sensitive products hitting the shelves on time.

Establishing business relationships and closing deals this early, is nothing peculiar for companies here.

"Our products sell mostly to the western countries. We sell directly to the retailers in the US and Europe. We've been in this industry for more than twenty years. Because we have enlarged our production lines, we have more capacity, for the Christmas balls we can get more customers for the next year. So, I would like to say Canton Fair is very important to our company, because 80 percent of the customers are from Canton Fair," said Huang Jun, sales director of Eagle Gifts, an exporter of Christmas merchandise in China.

"The U.S. market is definitely the largest for these kind of products. Our company has done most of the business in both Europe and the U.S. So far, 40 percent of our sales come from Europe, and the remaining 60 percent from the U.S.," said Li Rui from Longstar.

The second phase of the Canton Fair which features household items, gifts and decorations, building materials and furniture, started on Tuesday and will close on Saturday. The biannual Fair that was launched in 1957 plays a vital role in expanding China's high-level opening up and promoting the building of an open world economy.