Beijing – October 15, 2026 -- The Canton Fair has grown from 9,600 square meters and 1,200 buyers in April 1957 to 1.55 million square meters and around 340,000 buyers, as the 140th edition opened on Wednesday with Phase 1 featuring more than 25,000 booths and over 12,000 exhibitors.
Xi and Li frame the fair as a vehicle for China's high-level opening-up
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the 140th China Import and Export Fair, saying the event has promoted trade exchanges between China and other countries over its 70 years. Premier Li Qiang delivered the keynote at the opening ceremony. He said China will promote high-quality development, expand high-standard opening up and share more market opportunities with partners.
Overseas buyer attendance has passed 10 million since inception
The fair has run without interruption for 140 sessions. The total number of overseas buyers attending onsite and online has exceeded 10 million.
At its 101st session in 2007, the fair was renamed from the Chinese Export Commodities Exhibition to the China Import and Export Fair. It introduced an import section for the first time, turning a one-way export platform into a two-way trade one. In 2021 it ran both online and offline for the first time and opened fully to domestic buyers, helping foreign exhibitors explore the Chinese market while global trade was disrupted.
The import section has since expanded to more than 17,000 companies from over 100 countries and regions, including Fortune 500 companies.
Phase 1 puts advanced manufacturing and 17 future-industry zones on display
Phase 1 is themed "advanced manufacturing" and includes 17 emerging future-industry zones, among them service robots, drones and display technology. Two exhibition halls focus on brain-computer interfaces, new energy storage, high-end chips and AI visualization products.
The organizers cast China as a "factory of factories": exports of intermediate products support production and exports in other countries and help overseas factories upgrade digitally. Chinese manufacturing offers full-chain supply capacity, from core components and high-end equipment to system solutions, which the source says helps offset industrial-chain fragmentation and supply-chain volatility.
iROOTECH cites 50% faster fault diagnosis for a Thai customer
Guangzhou-based industrial IoT provider iROOTECH serves enterprises in more than 120 countries and regions. Sales director Xu Zinan said that at one Thai customer, fault detection and diagnosis time fell by over 50 percent and maintenance efficiency rose 30 percent. Avoided unplanned-downtime losses exceeded 100 million yuan ($14.9 million), he said.
Repeat buyers use the fair to source suppliers and enter the Chinese market
Pakistan-born Rehman, director of social media services at RK Co, Ltd., has attended for 10 years. He said he found suppliers at the fair and partnered with them to deliver customized products to customers in the Middle East.
Juan Camilo Basto, co-founder of Basal Trading Co and a member of the Colombian-Chinese Chamber of Investment and Commerce, has attended 25 times. He said China offers large opportunities for Colombian and Latin American enterprises. Malaysian PVC manufacturer Tek Seng started with a small independent booth about 10 years ago and used the fair to sell globally, according to a company representative.
Beijing-based economist Tian Yun said Chinese enterprises are a crucial part of the global supply chain and that China's widening market offers opportunities worldwide.