With annual transactions exceeding 20 billion yuan and tens of thousands of business entities, Honghe sweater industrial belt in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, has long been a volume player. But the recent launch of a 4,000-square-meter service center may mark a turning point from volume to value.
A New Fulcrum for the Industrial Belt
The Honghe Sweater Integrated Domestic and Foreign Trade Service Center, located on the third floor of Zhongchuang Market, reveals clear transformation intentions. A 1,200-square-meter foreign trade selection hall is divided into zones for Japan/Korea, Middle East, South America, and Russia-Europe-Central Asia, allowing overseas buyers to source efficiently. The service section introduces third-party quality inspection, customs brokerage, logistics, tax services, and AR digital tools to help companies escape low-price competition.
Deeper signals lie in the brand and incubation sections. An IP guidance station and overseas risk warning mechanism signal a shift from selling products to building brands. A tiered incubation system targets different scales—individual workshops receive policy coaching, small enterprises get digital transformation support, and larger firms are guided toward global expansion. This gradient design essentially builds a replicable upgrade path for the entire belt.
Notably, the center serves as the offline carrier for the Maoshanpai cross-border e-commerce platform. Over the past two years, the platform has organized over 200 local companies to explore more than ten countries and attracted nearly 1,000 overseas buyers to Honghe. The linkage between online platform and offline service center is turning scattered export attempts into systematic channel development.
Airport Proximity and Changing Market Logic
Honghe's upgrade is inseparable from a locational variable: the smooth operation of Jiaxing Nanhu Airport's international cargo routes and the accelerated construction of the airport new city. For time-sensitive apparel, airport-adjacent logistics enables small-batch, quick-response orders and shortens cross-border response cycles. The traditional reliance on road and sea networks is now complemented by air freight capacity.
Ren Xingzhou, a special expert on domestic trade under the Ministry of Commerce, noted that the logic of professional markets has shifted from "produce-what, circulate-what, consume-what" to "consumption guiding upstream production." This explains why Honghe divides its selection hall by overseas market—not merely displaying goods but letting production directly sense regional preferences. For buyers, this means higher sourcing efficiency; for factories, it forces more flexible production organization.
Xu Jianhua, chair of the Circulation Branch of China National Textile and Apparel Council, emphasized "flexible small-batch, quick-response manufacturing." Combined with airport proximity, this direction allows the belt to handle orders with small quantities, diverse styles, and short lead times. This may define Honghe's next decade more than capacity expansion.
From Event to Trend
The two signing ceremonies—sweater export strategic cooperation and international logistics channel cooperation—are not isolated actions. Together with the service center's launch, they aim to streamline customs clearance, logistics, and overseas warehousing. Honghe Sweater Chamber of Commerce President Dong Xialiang summarized the phase as "consolidating domestic trade, expanding foreign trade." Buyers from over ten cities including Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu participated in business matching, indicating the domestic network remains a stable base.
A telling detail: local company Zhejiang Qiuweite Fashion was listed as a visiting model. This suggests Honghe is not just about small workshops; some factories already possess manufacturing and management capabilities to serve international brand orders. Whether such "hidden champions" can drive surrounding enterprises to upgrade will determine the belt's overall ceiling.
Practical Recommendations
For Buyers - Prioritize the overseas selection hall to match suppliers by target market, reducing comparison and audit costs. - Focus on factories equipped with AR digital display capabilities—they are more likely to accommodate small-batch, quick-response and remote communication needs. - Leverage the belt's airport-adjacent logistics by specifying air delivery clauses in contracts to secure shorter lead times for high-value orders.
For Foreign Trade Companies - Quickly integrate with the Maoshanpai platform and the offline service center's one-stop customs, logistics, and tax services to reduce upfront costs of building overseas channels. - Use the IP guidance station to establish trademark and patent early warnings in target markets, avoiding disruptions from infringement disputes. - Adjust product development based on the selection hall's regional zones—e.g., long-sleeve and moderately loose fits for the Middle East, delicate knitting and minimalist design for Japan/Korea.
As a 20-billion-yuan trade meets airport hub and digital services, Honghe is answering a fundamental question: how can a traditional industrial belt grow brand and channel muscles without abandoning its manufacturing roots? This sample's progress deserves continuous tracking by all textile clusters reliant on professional markets.