The First China Ningxia International Cashmere Trade Exhibition will be launched from September 22 to 23 in Yinchuan, capital of Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Cashmere products manufacturers and traders as well as related agencies from home and abroad will be invited to take part in the event.

The exhibition will display cashmere products of various brands, raw materials, textile machinery and dyeing auxiliaries. In addition, standard booths will be available for domestic and foreign traders of cashmere and cashmere products to negotiate on trade and investment projects.

During the exhibition period, a forum on the development of the cashmere industry will be held. Experts, scholars and entrepreneurs involved in the industry will introduce the current situation and development trends for the cashmere industry, exchange their ideas on the market and technology dynamics, and explore solutions to speed up the growth of the industry.

Local cashmere industry

Ningxia is China's only autonomous region for the Hui ethnic group, with the Hui people, who are traditionally good at trade, accounting for one-third of the region's population of 5.98 million.

Since the launch of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s, Ningxia, one of the nation's top 10 pasturing areas, has developed into China's major cashmere distribution centre, as well as its cashmere processing and export base.

Over the past two decades, the cashmere industry has grown into a pillar industry of Ningxia with promising prospects.

First of all, the cashmere purchase and sales volume of the autonomous region now takes up about half of the country's total. More than 20,000 local traders are conducting this business across China, as well as in seven neighbouring countries, with the purchase volume of unprocessed cashmere accounting for 40 per cent of the world's cashmere industry.

In addition, a complete industrial chain has taken shape. The cashmere processing industry is turning from coarse processing to deep, refined processing, with its competitive edge being increasingly sharpened.

Furthermore, Ningxia's cashmere companies have established a mature sales network worldwide, exporting its cashmere and cashmere products to the European Union, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea. The region has formed solid co-operation relationships with the world's six major cashmere manufacturers - Dawson International PLC in the United Kingdom (UK), Ford in the United States, Alpha Tops Cashmere Co Ltd in Switzerland, G Schneider SA in Germany, Dong Bang Textile Co Ltd in Hong Kong and SIL Holding Ltd in the United Kingdom.

During increasingly fierce market competition, hosts of local cashmere deep processing corporations have come to the forefront. More than 10 of them have an annual output value of 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million). As a result, some local cashmere product brands have earned nationwide and even worldwide recognition. The St Edenweiss brand cashmere sweater, for instance, was rated as China's famous trademark by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce in 2002.

Ningxia boasts a favourable policy environment for cashmere industry development. The autonomous region government has already allocated a special fund to promote the light textile industry, while at the same time listing cashmere as one of the new materials in its 11th Five-Year Science and Technology Development Plan (2006-10). Additionally, the government will soon unveil a new preferential policy to secure the continuously healthy development of the cashmere industry.

Two cashmere industrial parks have taken root in the region, paving the way for the intensive growth of the industry. And an advantageous personnel pool in the fields of cashmere production and trade also add weight to the strength of Ningxia's cashmere industry.