Source: Yiwu sourcing agent Author: Gary Date: 2008-02-25
Toy makers from the Chinese mainland, where 70 percent of the world's toys are produced, are being challenged by Hong Kong counterparts and by foreign importers' demands for better products.
Tons of made-in-China toys have begun to languish in warehouses since EU importers lowered the maximum dibutyl phthalate content in plastic toys to 0.1 percent on January 16th.
Toy importers are spurning plastic and stuffed toys in favor of complicated ones, said LiZhuoming,deputy director of the toy association in Guangdong Province, China's largest toy production base, adding that EU and US buyers are focused on electronic toys and toys that encourage children to think.
Chinese toy makers are under pressure because their mainstream products are cimple, low addedvalue items such as stuffed toys and dolls,Li said.
Hong Kong toy manufacturers are upsetting domestic toy producers by grabbing market share both on the mainland and overseas, said Li Zhouming.
From January to November 2006,Hong Kong's sales of toys on the mainland soared 84 percent compared with the same period in 2005.
Home-made toys are mostly targeted at overseas markets and less than 20 percent of their products flow into the domestic market, according to a report conducted by China Toy Association.
The domestic market is estimated to be worth about 20 billion yuan(about 2.56 billion U.S. dollars), said Tong Yuanzi,secretary-general of the Yiwu toy association in China's southeast Zhejiang Province,but very few toy makers foucs on the domestic market because of low consumption rates and immature sales channels.
China is also a toy importer. The United States is its biggest source, accounting for 40 percent of China's toy imports, followed by Europe with 30 percent,according to the report.
The report says that 36 of the 50-odd toy brands on the market are from foreign countries such as the United States,Japan,Germany,Denmark and Italy while only 13 are home-made.
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