The world’s largest commodities market has something to sell and brag about – .

Silicone wristbands with the inscription “Paris 2024” occupy the most eye-catching position at Lin Daoye’s booth in the international trade market in Yiwu County, Zhejiang Province. They are not for sale, but rather a symbol of Lin’s high-end clientele.

Lin is proud of the orders his plastic factory receives from the Olympic organizing committee. Over the past 12 years, the bracelets they have produced have been presented at the Games held in London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.

“In the blink of an eye, our line of bracelets with Chinese zodiac signs was gone,” he said. “How time flies !”

Lin and his wife founded Sanbao Plastics 15 years ago. The factory is based in the southern city of Dongguan. Five years ago, they opened a stall in Yiwu because the business environment there makes it easier to find new customers and receive more orders.

The stand is part of the first of five sections of the Trading Market, the largest wholesale commodity market in the world. Surrounding Lin’s stall are hundreds of stalls selling toys, many aimed at foreign customers from Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The toys section is popular with foreign tourists.

“Last year, business was still quite slow following the coronavirus pandemic, but this year things are improving a lot,” Lin told Shanghai Daily. “The market here, as well as throughout Yiwu City, is bustling again.”

The order for one million bracelets from the Paris Olympic Games Organizing Committee arrived last October. The first batch of 500,000 was delivered in December.

Besides the authorized bracelets, the Lin factory also prepared products displaying different national flags for the Olympic Games.

“Such products do not require authorization but are in high demand during global sporting events like the Olympics and the World Cup,” he said. “People in Yiwu never miss the train.”

It’s true. According to Yiwu Customs, the export volume of sporting goods reached 1.7 billion yuan ($235 million), up 70 percent year-on-year. At the same time, the value of exports to France increased by 42 percent to 540 million yuan.

In section 3 of the commercial market, stall owners selling sports-related items also expect to receive more orders in this year of the Summer Olympics. Feng Zhonglai Trophy Firm is an example.

While Feng Zhonglai takes care of his factory operations, his partner Feng Xiuqin sits in the booth to welcome customers. The store is full of different models of medals and trophies, some with the names of countries engraved, others in the shape of sporting goods.

Feng Xiuqin said they don’t really know which events will award trophies and medals, but when they receive orders, they produce items strictly according to design specifications. The medals are made from a relatively inexpensive electroplated alloy.

“Every time the Olympics are held,” she said, “sporting events increase around the world and we receive more orders from abroad. You can see from the engravings that our products are destined for Uzbekistan, Kenya, Kazakhstan and many other countries”.

Yiwu, a small county in the city of Jinhua, about 100 kilometers south of Hangzhou, has long been a symbol of “made in China”. Its commodities business began in the 1960s, when people traded goods on street corners. In 1982, the first commodity market was opened and it expanded several times over the next four decades. It has over 75,000 stalls selling over 2 million varieties of products.

The name Yiwu means “righteous crows” and the locals have plenty to brag about.

Last year, the value of Yiwu’s merchandise exports rose 16 percent from the previous year to a record 500 billion yuan. The main customers were Africa, Latin America, India and Saudi Arabia.

One of the secrets of the market’s success is the uncanny knack of Yiwu sellers for keeping up with trends halfway around the world – whether it’s sports, fashion, comics, Christmas trinkets or celebrity paraphernalia.

Lin said his factories always follow trends. Bracelets representing NBA teams (“Lakers”), rap stars (“Eminem”) and comic book characters (“Superman” and “Batman”) are very popular.

“I admit I don’t know anything about foreign celebrities,” he said, “but our business partners always keep us up to date with trends. And the silicone is environmentally friendly, making these accessories even more popular in North America and Europe.”

Today, the brightest star in Yiwu’s product line is probably American pop singer Taylor Swift, who is now making headlines with her Eras world tour.

Its 152 performances on five continents have boosted the demand for idol products among fans. Taylor Swift friendship bracelets are the most popular.

The bracelets are made of polymer clay beads on which letters of the alphabet are engraved, forming “Taylor Swift”, “Eras Tour” or the titles of her songs and albums. After Swift announced the tour, her fans suggested they exchange bracelets during a show. The idea probably came from a Swift song called “You’re on Your Own, Kid,” in which the lyrics say: “So make the friendship bracelet, enjoy the moment and taste it. You have no reason to be afraid.”

And where do these popular bracelets come from? Yiwu.

In the Shiyan Accessories warehouse, boxes of bracelets are waiting to be delivered. The products were handcrafted by workers in the company’s factories located in Zhejiang and Henan provinces.

“Orders were mainly from Amazon suppliers, since the end of last year,” said Yang Jingyu, founder of the company. “I can’t count how many bracelets we’ve sold, but certainly more than 100,000.”

Yang said that before the bracelets became a hit, he had heard of the singer, but only by her Chinese nickname “Mei Mei.” Of course, he had never listened to any of Swift’s songs.

“It’s never new that we make products about celebrities, so usually we don’t really care who they are,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yang admitted that the competition in bracelets had become somewhat nasty in Yiwu.

“If you go to 1688.com, an online platform for us commodity makers, and search for ‘Taylor Swift friendship bracelets,’ you will find dozens of results, all from different companies,” he said. -he declared to Shanghai Daily. “Most of them come from small workshops in Yiwu, based in residential areas and staffed by only five or six people. They can offer much better prices than us because I have a whole business to support, so I have to raise my prices a little. “.

Therefore, Yang was considering new opportunities. In March, he sold earrings in the Middle East to mark Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.

“Our pretty but inexpensive accessories are so popular that we had to work around the clock to meet the growing demand in March,” he said. “I think the Middle East market will be our main target for a while.”