Fair game for China

More than 45,000 visitors descended on Shanghai for the Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics Fair late last month, bolstering China's reputation as the "hub of the textile world".
More than 100 Australian buyers were present at the fair - a similar number to the previous year.
Organised by German trade show giant Messe Frankfurt, Intertextile attracted over 1,500 exhibitors. Australia was represented by only one exhibitor - Australian Wool Innovation (AWI) - which fielded "many inquiries from international manufacturers" according to AWI deputy chairman Brian van Rooyen.
Intertextile's media spokesperson Jennifer Lam reported exhibitor numbers were up 20 per cent on last year. She attributed the increase to "more fabric companies seeking to profit from China's rapidly growing consumer market".
Representative of the sentiments of many exhibitors, Dean Turner, senior vice president of global product marketing for Cotton Incorporated, said, "China has a huge potential market and this fair perfectly meets our marketing strategy."
Of the 101 countries represented by buyers, the top ten visiting nations were China, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, USA, Italy, France, Germany and India.
Two new environmentally sustainable fabric brands were launched at the show - the soy-based Soycel brand and corn-based Ingeo brand.
Yvonne Yeh, from Far Eastern Textiles, which manufacture the new fabric made from corn fibre, said her company's booth was visited by big fashion brands like Nike and Adidas.
When asked by Ragtrader, representatives from both Soycel and Ingeo said they were open to interest from Australian apparel brands.