NEWS
CHINA’S HAINAN REQUESTED TRACE CODES ON PRODUCTS AS DUTY-FREE SALES JUMPED
By Tony Zhu
3-8-2021
Source: Hainan Provincial Government
Consumer duty-free products sold on China’s island province of Hainan have to add a traceability code to allow consumers to trace their source from 1 August, as the island reported a 226% increase on travel retail sales year-on-year.
Hainan provincial government announced that consumer products like perfumes, cosmetics, liquors and mobile phones will need a traceability code from 1 August. By the end of December, all other duty-free products including daily necessity products will need a trace code as well.
The authority said such system will allow consumers to trace a product's origin and allow for regulators to stop illegal reselling of the product.
The move was welcome by Chinese consumers who flocked to the tropical island to shop for duty-free luxury goods during the pandemic.
Hainan has replaced Hong Kong to become China’s duty-free shopping hub in the past year, the province has also emerged to be the most vibrant travel retail market in the world.
According to customs data, Hainan’s duty-free sales reached RMB 46.8 billion (USD7.24 billion) between last July and June this year, representing an increase of 226% increase year-on-year, while the number of tourists increase 102% to reach 68.2 million.
Apart from benefiting from COVID travel restrictions that barred Chinese tourists from travelling abroad, Hainan’s policy of lifting the yearly duty-free shopping quota for individual visitors to RMB100,000 (USD15,220) from RMB30,000 last July also boosted the growth of duty-free retails.
The province has added six new duty-free outlets this year, making it the only bright spot in the world’s travel retail sector amid travel suspensions around the world.
As a sign of confidence, Tax Free World Association (TFWA) held the last TFWA Asia Pacific duty-free trade show in June this year in the Hainan city of Sanya.
The TFWA Asia Pacific show has always been held in Singapore. Originally planned to be as a physical show, the June Sanya show was eventually held mostly online out of COVID safety considerations.
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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