With annual trade exceeding 20 billion yuan and tens of thousands of business entities, Jiaxing's Honghe knitwear industry proves that upgrading a traditional cluster does not necessarily mean shrinking scale. The launch of the 2026 Honghe Knitwear Season and the opening of the Integrated Domestic-Foreign Trade Service Center reveal a path that leverages airport proximity and reshapes the value chain through service integration.
Background
Honghe's knitwear industry, with over 50 years of history, has formed a complete chain from raw materials and knitting to sales and logistics. The newly launched service center, located on the third floor of Zhongchuang Market, covers about 4,000 square meters and includes four functional sections: service, trade, brand, and incubation. The trade section features a 1,200-square-meter product selection area, divided by target markets such as Japan/Korea, Middle East, South America, and Russia/Europe/Central Asia, allowing overseas buyers to inspect and select products on-site.
Earlier, the local Maoshanpai cross-border e-commerce platform had organized over 200 companies to explore more than ten countries, attracting nearly a thousand overseas buyers to Honghe. The new center aims to consolidate these scattered export efforts into a normalized integrated service—from product R&D and third-party quality inspection to customs declaration, logistics, financial support, and AR digital product selection tools. For the first time, small and medium factories gain access to service packages comparable to those of large trading companies.
Industry Impact
For buyers, the airport hub's locational advantage is translating into tangible supply chain efficiency. The smooth operation of international cargo routes at Jiaxing Nanhu Airport has significantly reduced logistics time to overseas markets. Combined with the accelerated construction of the airport new city, the 'last mile' between the industrial belt and the airport is being bridged. This means knitwear orders that previously relied on coastal ports can now more flexibly choose air or combined land-air transport, especially suitable for small-batch, quick-response, high-value-added products.
For local factories, the incubation section of the service center signals a clear upgrade path: individual workshops receive policy guidance, small and micro enterprises get digital transformation support, and larger companies are guided toward global expansion. This tiered cultivation system effectively uses policy tools to push the entire industrial echelon upward. The brand section, with its IP guidance station and overseas risk warning mechanism, addresses the vulnerabilities of the past OEM model—when companies start building their own brands for export, patent and trademark protection becomes crucial.
Industry experts echo this view: professional markets are evolving from mere trading venues into full-chain service complexes, and the industry logic is shifting from 'produce and sell' to 'consumption guides production.' The new service center in Honghe embodies this logic by integrating service, trade, brand, and incubation functions, aiming to break down barriers between domestic and foreign trade. This allows the same factories to serve both flexible domestic e-commerce demand and customized orders from overseas brands.
Practical Advice
For Buyers - Prioritize booths or factories with integrated domestic-foreign trade service capabilities, as their supporting systems for quality inspection, customs, and logistics reduce the cost of coordinating multiple suppliers. - Utilize the product selection area's market-based zoning to quickly compare styles and prices for target regions, paying special attention to differentiated designs for Japan/Korea, Middle East, and other markets. - If orders require air freight, consult local logistics providers about the routes, transit times, and costs of Nanhu Airport cargo flights to assess the feasibility of small-batch, quick-response orders.
For Exporters - Front-load IP protection: use the service center's brand guidance station to complete trademark registration and risk screening before entering new markets, avoiding infringement disputes. - Connect with platforms like Maoshanpai to participate in overseas exhibitions or buying missions, leveraging the existing network of 200 companies to reduce independent client acquisition costs. - Monitor airport logistics policy developments and consider shifting some sea freight orders to air freight to enhance delivery speed for high-value products, thereby strengthening pricing power.
When 20 billion yuan in trade meets an airport hub, Honghe's choice is to let services lead. Whether this approach of using a comprehensive service center as a fulcrum to leverage dual domestic-foreign circulation becomes a model for other industrial clusters remains to be seen. But at least it offers a reference solution for origins trapped in low-price competition: use service chains to retain customers, brand chains to enhance premiums, and logistics chains to shorten distances.