With an annual transaction value exceeding 20 billion yuan and tens of thousands of business entities, Honghe sweater industry in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, has a solid existing base. But the more noteworthy signal for the industry is the recent launch of an integrated domestic-foreign trade service center, which consolidates customs declaration, logistics, quality inspection, and product selection into one physical space. This move indicates that the five-decade-old cluster is attempting to restructure supply chain efficiency through service chain upgrades.
Background
This upgrade is not an isolated move. Public data shows that Honghe has gathered tens of thousands of sweater businesses, with a market transaction value exceeding 20 billion yuan annually, and products exported to many countries. With the smooth operation of Jiaxing Nanhu international cargo routes and the accelerated construction of the airport new city, the airport-adjacent advantage is transforming from paper plans into practical logistics benefits. For buyers, this means a closer air export node compared to traditional coastal ports.
The newly launched service center is located on the third floor of Honghe Zhongchuang Market, covering about 4,000 square meters, with a 1,200-square-meter foreign trade product selection area divided into zones for Japan/Korea, Middle East, South America, Russia-Europe-Central Asia, etc. This zoning approach directly reduces the time cost for overseas buyers—previously they had to compare prices across thousands of stalls; now they can do initial screening in a single space.
Notably, the online platform behind the center has organized over 200 local enterprises to explore markets in more than ten countries over the past two years, attracting nearly 1,000 overseas buyers to Honghe. These numbers indicate that Honghe's sweater exports are not starting from scratch but upgrading services based on existing customer relationships.
Industry Impact
The four functional sections—service, trade, brand, and incubation—address four pain points in sweater industry upgrading. The service section introduces third-party quality inspection and AR digital empowerment tools, enabling companies to move beyond pure price competition and enhance bargaining power through compliance and digital presentation. For factories long reliant on OEM production, this could be a springboard to ODM transformation.
The brand section sets up IP guidance stations and overseas risk warning mechanisms, directly tackling a chronic weakness in Chinese textile and apparel exports—trademark squatting and infringement disputes. As companies shift from selling products to selling brands, legal protection becomes as important as production capacity. The incubation section's tiered cultivation system, from individual workshops to large enterprises, helps fill gaps in the industrial ladder and prevents small businesses from being eliminated due to lack of digital capabilities.
From a macro perspective, Honghe's approach aligns with the direction proposed by experts on specialized market transformation: markets are evolving from single trading venues to full-chain service complexes, and the industrial logic is shifting from "produce-then-sell" to "consumer demand guiding upstream production." The zoning of the product selection center is a concrete application of this logic—first research overseas market demand, then organize local supply.
Practical Advice
For Buyers - Prioritize the partitioned product selection center to quickly match suppliers by target market and reduce cross-stall search costs. - Use third-party quality inspection reports introduced by the center as a hard criterion for supplier screening to reduce quality risks. - Leverage AR digital tools for remote sampling, especially for overseas clients unable to visit Honghe in person, to shorten decision cycles.
For Foreign Trade Enterprises - Make IP registration the first step in overseas expansion, using the brand guidance station to check trademark conflicts in target markets in advance. - Connect with international logistics channel cooperation partners to evaluate air-freight and sea-freight combinations, balancing delivery time and cost. - Participate in digital transformation projects under the incubation section, prioritizing small-order, quick-response systems to adapt to fragmented overseas order trends.
The launch of the Honghe Sweater Season is essentially a concentrated display of industrial service capabilities. When transaction volume is no longer the core KPI, service depth and brand premium become the decisive factors in the next phase of competition. For other sweater or textile clusters nationwide, Honghe provides not a template but a disassemblable reference framework—the key lies in combining locational advantages, digital tools, and institutional innovation into a cohesive force.