Countdown begins for fourth CIIE in November

For lovers of chewing gum in China, the Stride brand is as fun to browse as the gum is to chew. Today, the marque has taken one step closer to making it more accessible to local customers: it has added the "Made in China" tag to itself.

During last year's third China International Import Expo, Stride charcoal gum made its debut. The product was previously produced in Thailand. It attracted local eyeballs and enough social media traffic in China to make Mondelez, the company behind the gum brand, to shift production to China's Guangzhou plant this year, in which Mondelez has placed investment to expand capacity.

Apart from Stride, Mondelez's cookie brand Ritz was a hit during the previous editions of the CIIE, propelling the snack giant to accelerate localized production of these brands, according to Joost Vlaanderen, president of Mondelez China.

"We've been participating in the CIIE since 2018, its inaugural year. It provides an excellent platform to test our imported brands and learn from the feedback of the huge number of participants," he said.

Vlaanderen said he believed deepened localization has significantly supported the company's route-to-market innovation and upgrade, which in turn can help it "provide more consumers with Mondelez snacks, from top-tiered cities to towns and counties in China".

Mondelez's story, like those of many other CIIE exhibitors', best manifests the ideal of the CIIE to become a catalyst to "turn exhibits into merchandise and exhibitors into investors".

Silver Fern Farms, New Zealand's leading producer and exporter of premium quality beef, lamb and venison, shared that "learning mode" inherent in the CIIE gene.

According to Simon Limmer, CEO of Silver Fern Farms, the company has not only broadened its distribution and sales channels through the first two editions, but formed better understanding of Chinese consumers' preferences.

Based on these learnings, it developed some retail packaged beef products customized for China and presented them for the first time at the third CIIE last year. These include both traditional Western-style striploin and rib eye, as well as hotpot slices, shank meat and ox tail that are more suited to local tastes.

Following the event, these exhibits were quickly introduced in offline high-end supermarkets in major Chinese cities. Silver Fern Farms also established its flagship store on e-commerce site JD, where more Chinese consumers manage to get New Zealand premium grass-fed beef products suitable for cooking at home.

"The CIIE has provided a solid and efficient path for exporters like us to bring our products to Chinese consumers," said Limmer, adding the company is taking pasture-raised grass-fed venison to the upcoming fourth fair.

More serious undertakings, such as innovative drugs, also get turbocharged on landing in China, thanks to the CIIE's model effect. For multinational pharmaceutical firm Roche, this means expedited approval of drugs into the Chinese market and hence benefiting more local patients.

For instance, the company showcased during the inaugural CIIE an innovative medicine for treating a specific lung cancer. That medicine was approved outright during the expo period, setting a record for time taken for new drug approval that was nearly on a par with that in Europe and the United States.

Also, in the first half of this year alone, Roche has won the approvals for 10 new drugs or indications in China, some of which were on display during the previous expos.

"In the past three years, the CIIE not only provided an excellent communication and display platform for global innovative products and cutting-edge technologies, but also brought the spill-over effect to benefit more Chinese patients," said Vivian Bian, CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals China.

South Korean cosmetics company Amorepacific is another beneficiary of the CIIE's spillover effect.

A case in point: The debut of a personalized fragrance lip mask under the Laneige brand received a warm response during the second CIIE. So, the company quickly teamed up with the Tmall Innovation Center, the in-house new product incubation hub of e-commerce giant Alibaba, to co-design and create a line of related products, based on extensive and intensive customer research.

These co-creations later topped the selling chart under that subcategory during the Nov 11 shopping festival, China's most iconic online shopping gala, said Vickie Gao, chief marketing officer of Amorepacific China.

"The CIIE is also a synopsis of 'China speed' and 'China efficiency'," Gao said. "It will help our headquarters with a better intuition of the Chinese market and boost confidence in doing business here."