Annual transactions exceeding 20 billion yuan, tens of thousands of business entities, and products sold worldwide—this is the scale of the Honghe sweater industrial cluster in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. However, what truly deserves industry attention is not the existing volume but its latest strategic move: the launch of an integrated domestic-foreign trade service center and two rounds of cooperation agreements on overseas expansion and international logistics. This signals a clear intent: a traditional sweater cluster is attempting to break the low-price involution trap through a combination of airport economy, service integration, and branding.
Background
Honghe's transformation is not groundless. The regular operation of international cargo routes at Jiaxing Nanhu Airport and the accelerated construction of the airport new city have filled the most critical logistics gap for this inland industrial belt. The airport location means that sweaters—highly seasonal with strict delivery requirements—can be connected to overseas markets more flexibly. The newly launched service center is located on the third floor of Honghe Zhongchuang Market, covering approximately 4,000 square meters. It serves as the physical extension of the Maoshanpai cross-border e-commerce platform that has been running for two years. Over that period, the platform organized more than 200 local enterprises to explore markets in over ten countries and attracted nearly 1,000 overseas buyers to visit Honghe—these figures indicate that channel development had already been laid out ahead of time; the launch of the service center merely consolidates scattered efforts into systematic services.
The service center is divided into four functional sections, each targeting a different pain point. The service section has established an in-house product R&D center, introduced third-party quality inspection, and provides customs declaration, logistics, tax, and AR digital tools—with the clear goal of helping enterprises escape the trap of pure price competition. The trade section features a 1,200-square-meter product selection center, divided into zones for Japan/Korea, the Middle East, South America, and Russia-Europe-Central Asia, allowing overseas buyers to source products on-site efficiently. The branding section sets up an IP guidance station and an overseas intellectual property risk warning mechanism, aiming to reverse the inertia of OEM work that benefits others. The incubation section classifies support for individual workshops, small enterprises, and above-scale enterprises, offering policy guidance, digital transformation support, and globalization planning, forming a complete upgrade ladder.
Industrial Impact
For buyers, the service center effectively reduces the hidden costs of cross-border procurement. Previously, overseas buyers had to contact hundreds of factories in Honghe, screen them, audit them, and follow up on orders independently. Now, the 1,200-square-meter selection center categorizes products by regional market, compressing the time spent on market visits. More importantly, integrating quality inspection, customs declaration, and logistics into one physical space means procurement cycles may shorten, increasing the feasibility of small-batch, quick-response orders. For buyers accustomed to sourcing from Japan, Korea, or the Middle East, Honghe aims to offer a one-stop option similar to Yiwu, but differentiated by deep specialization in sweaters rather than full-category coverage.
The impact on factories is more direct. Ren Xingzhou, a domestic trade expert from the Ministry of Commerce, made a noteworthy remark at the event: the operating logic of specialized markets is shifting from 'produce-what-you-can-sell' to 'production guided by consumer demand.' In factory language, this means that instead of weaving what you produce and hoping clients buy, you must weave what clients demand. For Honghe enterprises accustomed to large-batch, standardized production, this implies that flexible manufacturing capability is no longer an option but a necessity. The incubation section's support for digital transformation of small enterprises is essentially helping factories build the capacity to accept small orders and quickly turn them around. However, it must be acknowledged that digital transformation requires substantial investment, and not all workshops can achieve it overnight. In the short term, this may exacerbate differentiation within the cluster.
Another variable that cannot be ignored is the time dividend brought by the airport economy. Sweaters are seasonal products; European and American orders are often locked in six months in advance, but replenishment demand is frequent. With the cargo routes at Nanhu Airport, Honghe enterprises can theoretically switch some high-value-added orders from sea to air freight, trading time for premium. However, air freight costs are much higher than sea freight, meaning only products with sufficiently high unit prices and strong design can cover the additional logistics costs. Therefore, Honghe's push for enterprises to shift from selling products to selling brands is not a hollow gesture—without brand premium, air freight becomes unaffordable, and the airport advantage would be wasted.