Made-in-Shantou creative toys attracted global buyers, inking 10.8 bln RMB deals

The 22nd China Shantou (Chenghai) International Toys and Gifts Fair was held in Shantou, a special economic zone in eastern Guangdong, on April 1st. Over 9,000 professional buyers and more than 100 cross-border e-commerce companies from home and abroad attended the fair, and inked intened agreements with a total amount of 10.8 billion RMB. 

“I have seen that the toy products here have made great progress, they are getting more creative,” Sutjiadi Lukas, President of the Indonesian Toy Association, told GDToday.

Offline fairs promote economic recovery

Chenghai District of Shantou is known as the "Capital of Toys and Gifts in China", At present, Shantou owns over 50,000 toy production and operation companies, covering the entire industrial chain of raw material supply, R&D and design, IP creation, manufacturing, and trade.

Besides the toy and gifts fair, the 5th Chenghai Toy Machinery Exhibition and the first IP Creative Derivatives Exhibition were also held at the same venue, displaying the latest creative and smart products. 

A total of 460 companies and more than 500 brands participated in the exhibition, displaying a total of over 180,000 products online and offline. Foreign buyers from the United States, Canada, and Brazil, and domestic buyers such as MINISO signed agreements with local suppliers during the fair.

More than 20 buyers from the Indonesian Toy Association also participated in the fair. Sutjiadi Lukas told GDToday that thanks to the Belt and Road Initiative, more than 60% of Indonesia's toy products now come from Chenghai.

Fira, a Lebanese buyer, has been cooperating with Shantou toy companies and manufacturers for a long time, selling toy products to Brazil and Lebanon. "It's number one because of the competitive prices and the fact that you can find almost all the products in the toy industry." 

Creative toys attract global buyers

These years, Shantou take the toy industry as the pillar industry, paired with toy intelligent manufacturing bases, service trade bases, e-commerce bases, and amusement experience bases. With a mature and complete industrial chain, the local industry is gradually developing high-end sectors such as creative culture, artificial intelligence, and educational equipment.

In this year’s CIT, the IP Creative Derivatives Exhibition brought together more than 500 domestic and foreign popular IPs, attracting more global buyers. 

T.C. OH, Deputy Secretary-General of the Malaysia Wholesalers Association, has attended almost every CIT in Shantou. He saw more innovative toys when he came to Shantou again. "Almost 90% of toy merchants in Malaysia come to Chenghai to make purchases. We have met with several manufacturers today, and they introduced some new smart products to us. I think these products should sell well in Malaysia because many parents need to buy smart toys for their children's education," he said.

Author | Alice

Editor | Olivia, Nan, Will, James