Toy exporters find foreign orders not so tough
Updated: 2008-04-29 09:13
However, a buyer from the United States said the negative news about Chinese toys last year had only a limited impact on consumers. "Parents are smart shoppers. They know the best price," she said.
She said, "Our company has an independent testing center, and we've never found any quality problems with Chinese toys. We don't worry about the quality. The price is our main concern."
However, higher prices are inevitable. "Prices of raw materials are increased by more than 15 percent last year, and the yuan is going up too fast," said Wang Liyu, an exhibitor from Shanghai Toys Import & Export Co., Ltd.
The yuan has strengthened by more than 18 percent since the government de-pegged it from the US dollar in 2005. So far this year, it is up more than 4.4 percent, and it broke the 7-yuan/dollar mark on April 10.
"Some customers didn't attend or reduced orders," Yan Lulu of Nanjing International Gifts Co., Ltd. said. "But fortunately, most buyers could understand the situation and accept new prices."
"We have no choice," John Magginnis, president of the U.S.-based J&L Toys Inc., said. "Chinese products are still the most competitive in the world. We considered shifting to other countries before, such as India and Indonesia, but the shipping costs were too high. The overall cost would be even higher."
He said he usually sent toy samples to customers in past years, but from this year on, he would only send e-mail descriptions and product photos to reduce costs. "That could save me up to 50,000 dollars a year," he said.
"The price has already reached our limit," a buyer from the United Kingdom said. "Customers definitely don't want to pay more for those toys, so we have to reduce our profit margin."
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