(Yicai Global) Oct. 13 -- China is becoming more important than ever for the Italian fashion industry as the upcoming China International Import Expo proves.

Production and sales came to a halt in March when factories and domestic retail outlets were shut due to the European country's coronavirus lockdowns. After that, lockdowns in other countries and the resulting economic slowdown canceled international orders for existing stock.

"It was a blow unlike anything we've seen," Nicola Guerini, managing director of the Milan Fashion Institute, told Xinhua. "We're starting to climb out of it now, but it will be a difficult process."

The Italian fashion industry should emerge from the crisis transformed, according to Guerini. One of the reasons is that tourism has majorly contributed to domestic sales.

The Italian tourism sector is not expected to return to full strength before 2023, according to Dario Franceschini, minister of cultural heritage and tourism. Recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to be regional and uneven, which should affect the country's more than 60,000 fashion firms.

"It all combines to make China an even more important market than it's been in the past," said Guerini. "In the past, many Chinese consumers bought products while traveling in Italy in part because they cost so much less... once transportation costs and tariffs were figured in."

Balancing international pricing could be one way to overcome the reduced travel. "We are working to get the premium down to 20 or 30 percent more in the Chinese market, not double," he said. "Otherwise we run the risk of losing those consumers to competitors who produce lower quality alternatives."

Italian fashion retailers' focus on the Chinese market is not new, according to Raffaello Napoleone, chief executive of Pitti Immagine, the organizer of an annual fashion event in Florence that dates back to the 1940s.

Because the Chinese market is so large and so complex, fashion brands that have operated there for years and even decades have a big advantage over rivals in terms of brand recognition and market presence, according to Napoleone.

But international trade fairs, such as the CIIE, can be a way for new arrivals to catch up. The Chinese market is one of the few in the world to gain fast recovery since July, with the pandemic largely under control, he added.

"CIIE is an unusual opportunity for fashion companies that want to find a place in the Chinese market," said Napoleone. "That is always true, but it will be even more the case this year and probably in future years."

The fashion industry is always looking six months ahead so the products that will be on display at the CIIE next month will be part of the spring and summer 2021 collections.

"Fashion houses are delivering the fall and winter collections now," he said. "We have the luxury and the challenge of working now on what customers will buy two or three seasons in the future. Hopefully, the collections on display [at the CIIE] will be sold to consumers in a world where the coronavirus is much less of a problem."