Fonseca are a large auto upholstery, shoe upper and leather goods tanner from Argentina. ‘We recently launched our new range of shoe upper leathers through Celyeur in China and we have seen a lot of interest from China based buyers’, he added.
Making use of the brand new East wing facilities of the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, the exhibitions are spread over 80,500 square metres, occupying seven halls. Over 15,000 visitors attended during the first two days of the fair up on last years total.
This expansion demonstrates the positive trend and healthy outlook of the leather industry in China, which has so far resisted the global economic downturn. Witness the figures for the period of January to July 2011 announced by Mr. Su Chaoying, Chairman of China Leather Industry Association: the gross industrial output value for China’s leather industry recorded an increase of 25.9% year on year, while the total exports of leather, fur and leather products increased by 27% over the same period last year. This is despite a decrease of 18.5% and 17.2% respectively of the volume and value of the export of leather garments.
The atmosphere was intense, as visitors and exhibitors were discovering the new premises, and were getting ready for three days of business meetings, discussions, and happenings.
According to Michael Duck, Director of APLF, the show is expected to attract more than 18,000 visitors. At the end of the second day, over 15,000 buyers had already passed through to the seven halls of the exhibition (over 10% increased in attendance as compared to 2010).
With 51 exhibitors in total, Turkey has become one of the best represented countries at the fair. Jak Galiko, chairman of the Aegean Leather Products Exporters’ Association is confident that Turkish suppliers will establish their presence in China. ‘I expect one third of the capacity of Turkey’s leather production will be channeled to China in the next two to three years’, he predicted.
