A fair in Shanghai displaying goods selected from the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) attracts lots of attention. [Photo/ciie.org]

At Wujiaochang in Yangpu district in Shanghai, a fair displaying goods selected from the second China International Import Expo (CIIE) attracted lots of attention recently. More than 500 imported goods, including many being sold in China for the first time, were selected for the fair.

"Last year, the second CIIE was held (in Shanghai), with more and more overseas businessmen participating," said one of the organizers of the fair, "However, due to the limited number of people able to get into the main stadium, many people do not have the opportunity to see, touch and buy various commodities at the expo."

The fair was rolled out with the goal of eliminating the last kilometer between "exhibition" and "sale" of goods from CIIE, and injecting a new impetus for holiday consumption.

Theland, a New Zealand dairy company, launched a new kind of pure milk worldwide during the second CIIE from Nov 5 to 10, 2019. A few days after the expo, the new product was already available to consumers in Haikou, Hainan province. This year, not only people in Hainan, but also those in relatively remote areas such as Pingluo county in Ningxia Hui autonomous region and Hegang in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province can buy the milk.

With the help of the expo, Theland used the channel from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen to reach fifth-tier cities. Where it used to take two or three years for a business to reach these areas, it now takes only a month.

The spillover effect of the second CIIE is being released continuously during the Spring Festival. After the expo, sunflower seed oil from Ukraine, milk from Poland, olive oil from Spain, and cookies from Portugal and Denmark arrived in the inland city of Wuhan, Hubei province.

In Hankou north market in Wuhan, the sales volume of imported goods accounts for about 25 percent of the total category of New Year goods.