A knitwear cluster with annual transaction volume exceeding 20 billion yuan is now transplanting its domestic-era service logic into the export battlefield. At the opening of the 2026 Honghe Knitwear Season, the Honghe Integrated Domestic-Foreign Trade Service Center was officially launched, alongside two rounds of signing for overseas expansion strategy and international logistics cooperation. For buyers, this means the window for one-stop overseas order matching has evolved from concept to a physical space of 4,000 square meters.
Background
The Honghe knitwear industrial belt has been developing for five decades, hosting tens of thousands of business entities with annual market transactions surpassing 20 billion yuan and products reaching markets worldwide. The newly launched service center, located on the third floor of Honghe Zhongchuang Market, serves as the offline carrier of the Maoshanpai cross-border e-commerce platform. Over the past two years, the platform has organized over 200 local enterprises to explore markets in more than ten countries, attracting nearly a thousand overseas buyers to Honghe. These figures suggest that Honghe is not a novice in foreign trade but is leveraging accumulated customer resources and product selection experience.
Notably, the new center features four functional modules: a service module with an in-house R&D center and third-party quality inspection, supported by customs declaration, logistics, tax, and AR digital tools; a trade module with a 1,200-square-meter product selection center segmented by target markets such as Japan-Korea, Middle East, South America, and Russia-Europe-Central Asia; a brand module with an IP guidance station and overseas risk warning mechanism; and an incubation module with tiered cultivation for individual workshops, small enterprises, and larger companies. The implicit message: Honghe aims not only to sell goods but to nurture enterprises from workshops into brands.
Industry Impact
From an industry perspective, Honghe's move aligns with the functional transformation of professional markets. Ren Xingzhou, a special expert in domestic trade under the Ministry of Commerce, noted that professional markets are upgrading from single trading venues to full-chain service complexes, shifting from a 'produce-then-distribute-then-consume' logic to one where consumption guides upstream production. This means the old model of buyers pulling suitcases through stalls to compare prices is fading, replaced by one-stop reverse customization where buyers bring demand lists directly to selection centers, R&D hubs, and inspection services. For factories, this is both a challenge and an opportunity: those capable of small-batch, quick-response production and willing to embrace digital transformation will gain priority access to overseas orders.
Airport-adjacent location is another key move. With the international cargo routes of Jiaxing Nanhu Airport operating smoothly and the Airport New City developing rapidly, Dong Xialiang, president of the Honghe Knitwear Chamber of Commerce, emphasized 'deep integration of industry and city, dual opening to domestic and foreign markets.' For buyers, this means potentially shorter delivery cycles, as goods from the Yangtze River Delta hinterland, typically shipped via Ningbo or Shanghai ports, can now connect directly to international air cargo, benefiting high-value, time-sensitive knitwear. Xu Jianhua, director of the Circulation Branch of the China Textile Industry Federation, outlined three directions—deepening internal-external trade integration, strengthening digital empowerment, and pushing professional markets toward modern industrial enabling platforms—which essentially chart Honghe's path from a manufacturing base to a trade hub.