(Yicai Global) Feb. 2 -- Merchants in Yiwu International Trade City, a globally renowned wholesale market for small commodities, welcomed more customers than expected when it reopened yesterday following the end of the lunar new year holiday, leaving some stores sold out.

An Yiwu-based maker of ribbons and textiles, which has a shop in the market, delivered double the orders of a year earlier yesterday, an executive at the company told Yicai Global, while the orders placed with Hengxin Toys has put it on track to achieve double-digit growth in orders this year, according to Zhang Zhimin, the firm’s boss.

Along with Yiwu International Trade City, factories, online retailers, and logistics firms in Yiwu, a city in China’s eastern Zhejiang province dubbed the world capital of small commodities, reopened yesterday after closing in late January for the Chinese New Year holiday.

The bustling market sends a positive signal, boosting business confidence, another local merchant said. 

Yilingnuo Sanitary Ware has received more enquiries and orders than in the same period of last year, according to the company’s general manager. Business is expected to grow about 36 percent, Liu Junming said.

Since the market has reopened many foreign buyers resident in Yiwu and those who hopped aboard a charter flight to the city organized by the Yiwu government last year have also begun placing orders. There are over 10,000 foreign traders living in the city

Deepak, an Indian businessman who traveled to Yiwu on the charter flight, has already closed a deal with his old supplier for socks worth CNY2 million (USD296,600).

Yiwu’s foreign trade was resilient in the face of Covid-19 outbreaks last year, as the city’s imports and exports totaled about CNY478.8 billion (USD71 billion), a gain of 23 percent from 2021.

Some shopping malls that had to close or change focus because of Covid need more time to restore their business to the level of 2019, another vendor told Yicai Global.

Editors: Shi Yi, Futura Costaglione