Quality Becoming More Important
to China’s Domestic Consumers

China's domestic apparel market is no longer driven just by price, which was demonstrated by ending the severe price-cutting strategy that once was common to gain market share at the retail level.  At the end of 2006, domestic apparel prices increased for the first time in several years.  Consumers are also increasingly paying attention to the quality of the product. 

Inspections  

The local government has begun to regulate the quality of apparel through spot quality checks -- earlier in the year, several major quality issues were raised in children's apparel products by these spot checks.  

The inspections were carried out at several of the major malls in the Shanghai.  Apparel products of 17 international brands failed the quality inspection, which was linked mostly to chemicals used in processing the garments.  Some contained too much formaldehyde, which is sprayed on the garments to reduce mildew during shipping.  The inspection also centered on the garments' makeup compared with what was displayed on the label -- an example of this was a European brand cashmere-blend was labeled as 20 percent cashmere when it was only 1.7 percent. 

Similar tests of local brands revealed many problems earlier this year.  These changes most illustrate the coming of age of the Chinese domestic market and the quality demand this involves.  China is the fastest growing market in the world for luxury brands. 

Financial Aid from the Government 

In order to transform quantity-based into quality-based economy, Government of Shishi city allocated RMB3 million to provide technical support in textile, garment and shoes industry.

There are total 24 units to accept the first technical support, including six units from textile and dyeing trade, three shoes units, two textile machine units, two garment units, two chemical units.

The highest amount of fund is RMB250,000, the lowest support is RMB50,000.

In addition, the support fund of the Government will gradually focus the high and new technical industry. There are six high and new projects in the first batch.

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