(Yicai) Oct. 24 -- At the autumn session of the Canton Fair, Belgian home goods buyer Benedicte Toumpsin hurried through the exhibition halls with a backpack, following a tightly packed procurement schedule. On Oct. 22, she showed a Yicai reporter her detailed itinerary.

Toumpsin said she had arrived in Guangzhou on Oct. 15 for the first phase of the Canton Fair, then went to Hong Kong for the gift show, returned to Guangzhou on the 22nd, and will attend the second phase from Oct. 23 to 27.

Between the second and third phases, the buyer will make a quick trip to Tokyo before coming back for the final phase. Toumpsin plans to leave Guangzhou on Nov. 6.

Toumpsin said she sources a wide range of products for large-scale distribution across multiple sectors, including food, construction, textiles, electronics, and household appliances. Chinese companies are very open to customized services and work hard to meet client needs, she told Yicai. And compared with other countries, China simply offers far more supplier options.

Her clients include major European supermarket chains such as Super U, Carrefour, and E.Leclerc, for whom she purchases more than USD1 million worth of goods from China each year. For these clients, product price and quality are crucial, she said. To compare a wider range of products and supply chains, she also visits the Hong Kong Mega Show and attends business meetings in Tokyo during the intervals between the fair’s three phases.

As supermarkets demand more diverse products and artificial intelligence reshapes consumer goods, Toumpsin is also seeking new electronics and beauty-related items this year, such as small hair and skincare appliances. Products with CE certification are especially popular in Europe, she noted, and imports of higher-value goods are steadily rising.

What draws Toumpsin back to the Canton Fair each year is the chance to reconnect with long-time exhibitors. She also attends smaller fairs to discover promising small factories, which, she said, tend to value each order more than large factories that require three months’ notice.

China’s industrial clusters and transport convenience are another advantage, Toumpsin said. Visiting cities such as Guangzhou, Toumpsin said she can find hundreds of factories in the same industry, such as textiles. In Shenzhen, she can explore other specialized sectors. And it’s easy to travel in southern China -- both Guangzhou and Hong Kong are very accessible.

Toumpsin believes Chinese products’ global competitiveness depends on technology. She recalled working with Hisense a decade ago when the brand was little known in Europe. Hisense has kept improving its technology and now performs strongly in the European home appliance market, she said.

Toumpsin added that she admires the Chinese mindset of continuous improvement -- striving to get better and shed the label of cheap products.

Editor: Emmi Laine