By Lu Xinyan

On June 25, business negotiations continued across the exhibition floor on the final day of the 16th China-(Poland) Trade Fair and China (Ningbo) International Consumer Goods Fair (Poland) at PTAK Warsaw Expo. Visitors entering the venue were greeted by the slogan "Ningbo's Intelligent Manufacturing Connects Global Trade", underlining Ningbo's identity as a manufacturing powerhouse of China.

Held every two years, the China-Central and Eastern European Countries Expo is not scheduled this year. Instead, Ningbo, one of the expo's host cities, brought its own trade fair directly to Poland, one of its most important markets in Central and Eastern Europe.

Poland is the region's largest economy and Ningbo's biggest trading partner among CEE countries. Bilateral trade reached 24.7 billion yuan ($3.4 billion) last year. Shipments of home appliances, household goods and hardware products regularly depart from Ningbo Zhoushan Port for the Polish port of Gdańsk.

More than 200 companies from 20 Chinese cities participated in this year's exhibition. Ningbo accounted for 32 exhibitors, occupying more than 300 square meters of exhibition space, the largest presence among participating Chinese cities.

At the booth of Cixi Jianhui Electrical Appliance Technology Co., Ltd., export general manager Luo Tao had just wrapped up discussions with a Polish buyer. The company specializes in air circulator fans, a product category that is still relatively new in the European market.

To prepare for its first push into Poland, the company spent months researching local distribution channels, redesigning product appearances, reaching out to buyers online and refining product prototypes.

The preparation paid off. On the exhibition's opening day alone, the booth welcomed more than 40 prospective customers, about half of whom were considered serious buyers. Before the event concluded, Luo had already scheduled future meetings with five potential clients.

"Air circulator fans are still in the growth stage in the Central and Eastern European market, and they're especially popular with younger consumers," Luo said. "We see strong potential here."

According to the organizers, the exhibition attracted more than 20,000 preregistered professional buyers, up 16% from last year. In addition to Poland, buyers came from neighboring countries including Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.