Source: Yiwu sourcing agent Author: Date: 2009-08-30
Every day is Christmas Day in Yiwu, and especially in the height of summer, when temperatures soar into the 30s . In Wang Qiaoling' sstore, model Father Christmases line the shelves, crowd the floors and scale the walls . Everywhere you turn, you see him： climbing down a chimney, rocking in a chair and rattling along on his sleigh. Sometimes just a few centimetres high, sometimes 1.5m tall, he is skating, parachuting, doing the twist and brandishing a frying pan - simultaneously belting out carols and jingling all the way .
This incongruous Santafest is our doing . Half of Europe' s Christmas products are made in or traded through this eastern Chinese city, say officials; even more of America' s . To ensure they are shipped to stores in time, western buyers arrive between June and August . In Wang' s store, a toy Santa croons the song Last Christmas into his gold microphone . it's the worst year for business since the Yule Sun Christmas Toys Company was founded 10 years ago . Usually it sells goods worth 12m yuan annually, but this year it will be closer to 7m yuan.
But manufacturers are fighting back with the same entrepreneurial spirit that made them seize on a foreign holiday such as Christmas in the first place . Last year, about 40% ofWang' s buyers were European or American while 60% were Russian. Now it is more like a 10/90 split and she is training her sights on more Russians . Father Christmas has ceded shelf-space to a new range of blonde Snow Maidens in fur-trimmed robes .
At the Yiwu Spaceflight Craftwork Company - despite its name, the firm is a Christmas specialist - boss Huang Yiming tells a similar tale . Last year, the firm sold about $10m worth ofChristmas decorations to more than 50 countries, but the bulk ofits customers have always been European and North American. Now South America is its biggest client and it is diversifying a 10, 000-strong product line to include Valentine's Day hearts, Easter bunnies and Halloween monster masks .
The firm hopes quality and innovation will see it through the worst; many manufacturers that collapsed were vulnerable because oftheir low-cost, low-margin model . Christmas manufacturers in Yiwu have the daunting task ofmuscling into the crowded Chinese New Year sector or selling a largely alien festival to their compatriots .
Huang is embracing that challenge with enthusiasm. He spotted a niche for festive goods in China some years ago, and realised he could produce them when the western rush was over and his factory would otherwise lie idle . Now he hopes to persuade more Chinese people to deck their halls this December .
“General sales will decline, and especially foreign trade, by about 20%. But we will do our best to make that up in domestic custom, ” he pledged . “Christmas is becoming more common here and young people like it a lot .”
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