China Sourcing Fair Miami Preview

The China Sourcing Fair will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center from July 10th through 12^th, giving North and Latin American buyers the opportunity to interact with and purchase from the best and brightest Chinese manufacturers. The 2012 fair will be the second in Miami, after a successful launch in July 2011.

Global Sources USA, a publishing company focused on the import/export industry, has run China Sourcing Fairs in a number of locations around the world since 2003. The trade shows connect Chinese and other Asian manufacturers with global buyers. Bringing the show to Miami allows wholesale buyers in the Latin American market to easily see Chinese products. “A lot of our customers were looking to tap into the Latin American market, and obviously the North American market,” says Bill Janeri, General Manager of Global Sources. “The North American market serves the Latin American market, and it’s easy for the Latin American buyers to come up to Miami, which is a natural trading center. So they can come up to Miami, along with other buyers in North America who sell into Latin America.”

The Growing Latin Market

Janeri notes that many of the manufacturers that come to the show use the opportunity to work with smaller buyers who are hoping to grow their business, allowing the manufacturers to expand into the newer Latin markets and grow their businesses as well. “It’s kind of a put your toe into the water, get to know you exercise, where a lot of the manufacturers test to see what types of products work in these markets and which ones don’t work, as well as see what the level of buying sophistication is of the buying community coming to the shows,” he adds.

The Miami show will have sections set up for consumer electronics, gifts and premiums, home products, garments and textiles, babies and children’s products, fashion accessories, and hardware/building materials. There will also be a side pavilion called the India Sourcing Fair that will feature consumer goods manufacturers from India. “China and India really compete with each other, so from a buyers point of view, providing one venue where they can see hundreds of exhibitors in these categories is really beneficial,” Janeri notes. “They can look at the China products, and then go to another hall and see the India options in the same product category.” He adds that there was a lot of interest in consumer electronics and garments and textiles at the 2011 show, and because the Latin market is an emerging market, there is also a large demand for construction and hardware products for building hotels, subdivisions, and office buildings.

“When people are buying in volume, their default benchmark is always going to be China, wherever their sourcing market is,” Janeri adds. “So we wanted to give the buying community an entire show devoted to the one sourcing market that they will be looking at anyway. You might end up buying things from other sourcing markets, but ultimately, if you can find the same type of quality coming out of China, and your per item cost is less, then China is more logical.” He adds that most of the exhibitors are well-established and have been in the business for decades, manufacturing for the leading brands in the marketplace.

The fair will feature a conference program entitled “How to Source From China,” which was a big hit last year, and Janeri expects the Miami show to grow about 40% in 2012. All visitors to the event must present a business card with their name and company printed on it, as the fair is solely for qualified, registered buyers.