More than 20 procurement teams from over 10 countries, including Pakistan and Bangladesh, met with 63 local food producers in Anbu Town on July 17 and 18, as Chaozhou hosted its first dedicated sales-channel matchmaking event aimed at connecting its signature food industry with new overseas and domestic retail channels.
The sessions, part of the fourth Guangdong (Chaozhou) Specialty Food Expo, gave each company a short roadshow slot to pitch its products on stage for buyers to taste, followed by open-floor negotiations. For a city that has long supplied sweets, preserved fruits, snacks, and nutritional foods to exporters further down the Pearl River Delta supply chain, the format represented an attempt to shorten the route between factories and foreign buyers.
Chaozhou's food industry comprises more than 1,700 enterprises producing over 2,000 product varieties across 20 categories. Much of the industry is concentrated in Anbu, a 30-square-kilometre town known locally as the "Candy Town." Here, nearly 800 food manufacturers operate alongside packaging, printing, and logistics firms in a vertically integrated cluster.
The expo marked the first time organisers had brought in trade partners from more than a dozen Belt and Road partner countries specifically for face-to-face matchmaking with local producers. For many smaller producers, it was their first opportunity to meet overseas purchasing teams directly without relying on export intermediaries.
Author | Feng Huiting
Photos | Nanfang Plus
