Rwandan coffee exporters see CIIE as best-selling platform in market expansion

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coffee companies from Rwanda, a major coffee producer in Africa, see the 7th China International Import Expo (CIIE), which opened on Tuesday in Shanghai, as the best-selling platform to increase brand visibility and expand market presence in China.

Since its first edition in 2018, the CIIE has served as a platform for Rwandan coffee companies to build bonds with Chinese importers and increase brand awareness in the Chinese market. It offers them not only a very good opportunity to access the Chinese market and increase export, but also to promote other beneficial bilateral cooperation.

"I want to participate in the CIIE every year now, so that more Chinese people can know about our products. The samples I brought to each edition of the expo would be sold out on the second day. It's a great opportunity. We won't quit. We must attend the CIIE every year," said Andy, a coffee trader.

Aside from displaying their products, Rwandan coffee companies have also gradually learned about the needs of Chinese consumers at the CIIE, based on which they would adjust their products and services to better adapt to the Chinese market.

"It's a good opportunity for us, for the company to have relationship with China market and to grow up. It's an opportunity and a good step for, in general Rwanda agriculture, particularly in coffee, which will help us to open some areas of doing business," said Diego, another coffee dealer.

Rwanda's exports to China rose by more than 87 percent to a record high 131 million U.S. dollars in 2023.

Themed "New Era, Shared Future", the 7th CIIE is scheduled for Nov 5 to 10. It is attended by 77 countries and international organizations in national pavilions, along with nearly 3,500 exhibitors from 129 countries and regions in the business exhibition. 

As the world's first national-level import-themed expo, the CIIE has become an important stage spotlighting China's new development paradigm, a platform for high-level opening-up and a public good for the whole world.

Rwandan coffee exporters see CIIE as best-selling platform in market expansion

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Vietnam Bui Thanh Son in Beijing on Tuesday, with both sides pledging to promote the China-Vietnam community with a shared future.

Noting that China and Vietnam are comrades in the socialist cause and good partners on the path of reform, Han said General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and President Xi Jinping and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President To Lam have made strategic plans for advancing the China-Vietnam community with a shared future, providing clear direction for the development of bilateral relations.

Noting that next year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the China-Vietnam Year of People-to-People Exchanges, Han said the two sides should follow the important consensus reached by the top leaders of the two parties and two countries, maintain strategic communication, expand practical cooperation, consolidate the foundation of public opinion, strengthen multilateral coordination and promote the building of a China-Vietnam community with a shared future, bringing more benefits to the two peoples.

Bui Thanh Son said that developing long-term friendly relations with China is the consistent proposition, objective requirement, strategic choice and top priority of Vietnam's diplomacy.

Vietnam firmly adheres to the one-China policy and is willing to strengthen high-level exchanges, consolidate political mutual trust, deepen pragmatic cooperation with China, and jointly promote the building of a Vietnam-China community with a shared future with strategic significance, he added.

Chinese, Vietnamese officials pledge to promote China-Vietnam community with shared future