Exports of Christmas products such as artificial pine trees from Shenzhen grew 5.9 percent this year. But the growth rate was 21 percentage points less than last year's 26.9 percent.
The figures are fresh evidence of how weakening overseas demand is hurting the country's export sector.
Shenzhen exported $610 million worth of Christmas products this year, according to Customs figures.
But the southern city exported only $360 million worth goods to the US, down 7 percent, when for years, it had been supplying seven out of every 10 artificial trees to American families.
Selling goods to the US is difficult now because the global financial crisis has made Americans reluctant to spend. Retailers in the US are offering discounts as big as 70 percent, said Liu Yingying, who is spending her sixth Christmas in the US.
Only by offering huge discounts could they boost sales a bit over the last weekend before the festival, she said. Her company, which makes debit cards for department stores, has seen a nearly 50 percent drop in its sales this season.
Back home, Christmas-product makers have their backs to the wall. "The impact of the financial crisis is so obvious that our factory is on the verge of bankruptcy," said Zhu Chengbin, general manager of a Taiwan-based processing firm that has been running a plant in Shenzhen for 16 years.
The firm used to get 99 percent of its orders from the US by February, and began shipping its products from August, Zhu said.
"But orders have shrunk by at least 15 percent this year. Some buyers suddenly cancelled their orders, or began bargaining for lower prices from August.
"That worsened the situation which was already bad because of the yuan's revaluation, the rise in raw materials' prices and rising labor costs," Zhu said.
The sector realized at the beginning of the year that tougher days lay ahead when Boto International Holdings, once the world's largest maker of artificial Christmas trees, shut down its factory in Shenzhen.
Source: China Daily
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