They are all on show at the 2-day African Commodities Exposition that aims to further promote China-Africa trade.
Opening Monday at the Beijing International Conference Centre, the event continues the spirit of "Experiencing Africa in Beijing," following the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Co-operation, which ended on Sunday.
About 170 enterprises from 23 African countries are displaying products ranging from agriculture to high technology. About 2,000 visitors came yesterday.
Farm produce remains a popular commodity at the exhibition. Ai Hongqi, business consultancy director from China's Yarn and Textile Machinery Solutions, was busy talking with representatives from Uganda.
"Uganda and Sudan's cotton is good. It is long and soft compared with that from other countries," Ai told China Daily. "Also attractive is that China currently has no tariffs on cotton from African countries, which makes the price good. But the transportation cost is a bit higher."
The Rwandan booth was also crowded with visitors, as exhibitors were selling coffee at low prices.
"The fair is a great opportunity for us to promote our coffee, as we are targeting the Chinese market," said Faustin Bizimungu, marketing director of Ocir Cafe, Rwanda's state-run coffee board.
"From the crowd I see the great potential of the Chinese market and we're also looking for an agent in China."
By riding booming global demand for specialty brews, the East African country has made premium coffee-growing a national priority. In 2005, coffee accounted for 30 per cent of Rwandan exports, totalling US$35 million, and the figure is expected to double this year.
Zhang Yonghai, a customer who bought two packages of coffee at the price of 160 yuan (US$19), said Chinese people should learn more about African products.
"The coffee is good," he said. "I brought back some when I visited Africa last year. At first, we knew very little about African coffee, but gradually we began to love it."
Besides traditional agricultural produce, some African countries were also promoting their electronic products.
The booth showcasing "Made-in-Egypt" Olympic Brand refrigerators, washing machines and small home appliances drew streams of customers.
Khaled Hegab, regional export general manager of Olympic Group Financial Investment in Egypt, said they were at the exhibition to find the right factory for joint production, since his company already had an office in Shanghai and had developed a trade partnership with Haier, the world's second biggest home-appliance producer.
A producer surnamed Huang came all the way from East China's Jiangsu Province to look for African partners.
"They are more sincere in co-operating with us (than Western companies), and their terms are really preferential," Huang said.
Many exhibitors and visitors said they hope such a fair would take place more frequently and cover a wider range of commodities.
"I hope this type of exhibition will be regular, helping us to know more about China and Chinese know more about our country," said Doris Seng, senior executive with Mauritius Investment Board.
Figures from China's Ministry of Commerce show that in the first nine months this year, China-Africa trade surged to US$40.6 billion, up 42 per cent year-on-year. Raw materials and farm produce are still major African exports to China, but the export of high-tech products is also on the rise.
Premier Wen Jiabao proposed on Saturday that China and Africa should fully tap co-operation potential and strive to bring their trade volume to US$100 billion by 2010, 8,400 times the US$12 million in 1956 when China started importing cotton from Egypt.
