African products make inroads in China

African products are gradually making inroads in the sprawling Chinese southeast city’s commercial market in Yiwu, touted as the world’s largest commodity market.

The Yiwu market occupies an area of 5.5 million square metres, with more than 75,000 booths and shops, selling over 1.8 million kinds of goods from 200,000 domestic and foreign businesses.

Included in the market is an Imported Commodities Mall that covers an area of 100,000 square metres where over 50,000 kinds of goods from more than 90 countries are sold. In all, the market has built economics ties with 219 countries.

Africa has not been left out as each African country has been allocated a booth to exhibit and sell its wares, but that opportunity has to be grabbed with all the seriousness it deserves if businessmen and traders on the continent are to benefit fully from this market where almost every small commodity is sold.

“If there is the name Yiwu tagged on every commodity in the market, then it is possible that every household in the world will have a commodity sold from the market,” our market tourists’ guide confidently told us during a visit to the market.

"The 200,000 visits a day and 500,000 foreign visits a year, combined with 150,000 foreign residents and 5,000-odd businesses, constitute a large buying group. They guarantee the high volumes and become the core competence of the Yiwu Market."

Ghana’s stand at the area allocated to African commodities attracted the attention of some African journalists, including this writer, who visited the market as part of their working visit to the southeast Zhejiang Province.

Savannah Larabanga Company Limited

The Savannnah Larabanga Company Limited, which operates the Ghana stand in the sprawling market, attracts quite a number of customers.

Within the one hour that this writer spent at the shop, a number of customers, both Chinese and Africans, visited the shop and bought some of the goods which range from medicinal plants, seeds, herbs and cosmetics and pharmaceutical products made from shea nuts.

Also in the shop are sculptures made from rosewood, teak and gift articles.

The versatility of Alhaji J.S Jimoh, owner of the shop, in the marketing of the products to visitors to the stand, ensured that no one left the shop without picking an item.

“He is good. The way he will introduce the products to you makes them attractive to prospective customers,” Ms Zhou, a Chinese customer, told this reporter.

Concerns

Alhaji Jimoh explained that it had not been easy operating the shop since 2011, because exporting the commodities from Ghana to China involves a lot of money.

“Each container cost not less than 60,000 RMB (about $10,000) and it also takes a long time before the container is cleared,” he said and added that the initial assurance that goods from Africa should be exempted from tax had not been implemented.

Moreover, about 90 per cent of the shop originally allocated to African countries are now owned and operated by Chinese nationals.

He mentioned Ghana, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Niger, Tanzania and Sudan, Senegal as the only countries whose businessmen are operating shops allocated to them in the Yiwu Market.

Officials of the market explained that the shops were allocated to the African countries free of charge for three years (2011-2013) and added that some African businessmen did not show interest in further operating their shops.

That, according to the officials, compelled them to allocate the shops to Chinese nationals since they could not be left unoccupied.

A Senegalese businessman, Mr Omar Sall, explained that even though business was slow, “we are making some sales.” 

Graphic Business