Visitors attending Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles 2007 will have plenty to see during the three-day show: 88,500 sqm of exhibition space and more than 700 exhibitors from more than 21 countries.

To help visitors navigate through so many suppliers, the show is featuring several international and Chinese special pavilions grouped by country or region.

For the first time this year, the show will include a pavilion from Portugal as well as a returning pavilion from Pakistan. The show, which runs 29 – 31 August 2007, includes bed, bath, table and kitchen linens; wall and window decorations; upholstery fabric and much more.

The show has doubled in size over the past three years and in 2006, more than 29,000 visitors from 106 countries and regions attended.

New highlight: a Portugal Pavilion:
Portugal is one of the top 10 textile producers in the European Union. After China, Portugal and Pakistan each accounted for the largest market share of home textile exports in 2004, with about 8% each.

For the first Portugal national pavilion, nine companies will feature a full range of products such as bed linen including knitted, flannel, percale, satin, and jacquard fabrics; bath items including terry towels and robes; and table and kitchen linen including cotton damask.

One company, Têxteis Domingos Almeida, is participating thanks to one employee’s long-standing interest in China. “We’ve decided to attend the show in Shanghai because all my life I’ve worked for institutions related to China,” says Ms Ana Tróia, Business Developer.  
 
She told her company about the growing potential in China and they were sold. “So for Têxteis DA it will be the first contact with China. And we hope to show our products to all visitors, especially chain stores interested in home textiles of high quality. Our main targets are retail, wholesalers, private label and hotels.”

The company, which produces mainly Jacquard woven textiles, bed linen and tableware, usually unveils a new collection when attending important trade fairs such as Heimtextil, the parent show to Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles, in Frankfurt, Germany.

For their first experience in China, the company chose something special to feature, Ms Tróia says: ”The collection we intend to show was chosen specially for the Chinese environment; a collection made with golden colours but crossed with western motifs.”

The Pakistan Pavilion returns:
In 2006, a new special pavilion was created to highlight suppliers from Pakistan at Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles. Textiles account for half of Pakistan's exports and are a leading manufacturing base in the country.

At the new Pakistan Pavilion, 13 companies will be represented with products including cottons and coated products for bedding, bath, tabletop, curtains and other speciality items.