The history of Yiwu Wholesale Market

Where is Yiwu?

Yiwu, located in the central of Zhejiang Province, which develops from originally an agricultural city to a commodity market place. Due to the central location, Yiwu is simultaneously a distribution center of Zhejiang, whose amount of foreign trade accounting more than 15% of China.

The history of Yiwu Wholesale Market

Feel free to skip this part if you are not a history person, but, knowing it better will make you deal with your business better there right? We will share the history of different stages of Yiwu as a person who born there for you to get familiar with this city.

The First generation of Yiwu Market

Yiwu Small Commodity Market originated in the late 1960s. As the Reforming and Opening-up Policy in China begins, the small commodity market started to spring up in Yiwu. In the special era, under the contradiction between the superior’s order to prohibit, ban, and semi-legal “exchanging candy for chicken feathers” and the need for the existence of the market, wholesale and retail seasonal market was quietly born. In 1984, the turnover of this market reached 24 million RMB, and the goods were mainly sold to the counties and cities around Yiwu.

The second generation of Yiwu Market

Along with the development, the need to expand the market has increased greatly. After the second generation market opened, nearly 2,000 stalls were quickly set up and more than 10,000 people came to trade in the market every day, among which more than 60% were not local people and there was an endless stream of applications. At that time, no matter the popularity, fame, information, or traffic, the local and Yiwu commodity market are beyond comparison.
In 1986, the turnover of the Yiwu market exceeded 100 million RMB, and the range extended from the surrounding counties and cities to the province and beyond.

The third generation of Yiwu Market

In the third phase, there was a question of whether to continue to expand the market or to retain agriculture. In the end, a compromise was reached, and the market broke ground in December 1985, and by mid-September 1986, a large market was completed with a railway station platform, covering an area of 44,000 square meters, 4,096 stalls, and a total investment of 4.4 million yuan, which could accommodate 30,000 people trading on the site.
In 1991, the turnover of the Yiwu market exceeded 1 billion RMB.

The fourth generation of Yiwu Market

Yiwu fourth-generation market was organized in 1990, construction began in 1991. On January 17, 1992, it passed through the handover inspection and acceptance, with the ability to arrange 7100 stalls. So far the construction area of the Small Commodity City has expanded to 228,000 square meters and the number of stalls increased to 23,000.
In 1992, the turnover of China Commodity City was 2.1 billion RMB, in 1993 it was 4.5 billion RMB, in 1994 it soared to 10.21 billion RMB, and in 1995 it reached 15.2 billion RMB.

Yiwu Market in China

The foreign trade export rate of commodities is over 60%, more than 90% of the business seats undertake foreign trade business, and the commodities are sold to more than 140 countries and regions. This place is definitely friendly for business people all over the world. Before you are going, check our pre-planned suggestions to know more about your trip.