The China Import and Export Fair, held in Guangzhou and known everywhere as the Canton Fair, is the largest of China's biannual trade fairs and the most effective single way to build the business relationships that make trading with China work. We finished our 2019 attendance having spent the week doing the thing that email cannot do: standing next to the product while somebody asks about it.
Key takeaways
- The Canton Fair is the largest biannual trade fair in China, held in Guangzhou.
- Overseas buyers are invited two ways: an e-invitation, which is the faster route, or a paper invitation card.
- We showed checkout counters, fruit and vegetable racks and stainless steel fresh tables — the products we actually build in volume.
Why The Canton Fair Still Matters
The Canton Fair is the largest of any kind of biannual China trade fair, and it has become something close to compulsory for anyone serious about doing business here. What it offers is not really the stands. It is the density: potential customers, new market opportunities, next season's direction and a great deal of informal information, all in one building over a few days.
For a manufacturer that exports, that density is the point. A container of store fixtures is a considerable commitment for a buyer to make on the strength of a website, and a fair is where that commitment stops being abstract.
How The Invitation Works
The Canton Fair invites overseas buyers in two ways: the e-invitation and the paper invitation card. The e-invitation is an online service of the fair and is considerably more convenient than the paper card, which has to be applied for through the Foreign Liaison Department or through the Chinese Embassy in your region. Either way, the invitation is the first step, and it is worth starting earlier than feels necessary.
Who We Met
During the exhibition we met people from all over the world, and a good number of them were genuinely interested in what the company makes. There is a real chance that several of those conversations become working partnerships, and we would be glad to see more people get to know us and work with us.
We have worked with a lot of companies by now, and their comments on our supermarket checkout counters have been good. We would rather have more customers enquire and judge for themselves, and anyone is welcome to contact us and visit the factory — showing people round and letting them see how the company works is genuinely a pleasure rather than a chore.
A container of store fixtures is a serious commitment to make on the strength of a website. A fair, or a factory visit, is where that stops being abstract.
What Was On The Stand
Keshun Business Equipment is based in Suzhou and is a specialised business covering research and development, production and sales of shopping mall and supermarket equipment. The main products are checkout counters in a range of specifications, fruit and vegetable racks and stainless steel fresh tables among others.
The company continues to hold to the cultural principle of scientific management, the pursuit of excellence and precise manufacturing, and is committed to building a business that develops sustainably, quickly and in good health. That reads like a slogan on a wall, and to some extent it is; the part of it that shows up in a container is the manufacturing discipline behind it.
What we build, in short
Twelve product categories built in one plant in Changshu since 1999. Bodies folded from 0.8 to 1.5 mm metal sheet with stainless steel board, or faced in 1.5 to 2.5 mm board, finished in RAL or PANTONE references and packed in standard wooden export cases.
Keshun Technical Team. First published 21 October 2019, rewritten 8 August 2026. Fair details and invitation procedure are as recorded at the time.
