(Yicai) July 1 -- After a hectic start to the year, orders for Olympic-themed sportswear, souvenirs, clothing and other merchandise are coming to an end in China’s Yiwu, known as the world’s capital of small commodities, as the Paris Olympics draw near.

Jerseys, hats, wristbands, fans, and cups adorned with France’s blue, white and red colors fill the shelves in the China Yiwu International Trade City, the world's largest small commodities wholesale market. Eiffel Tower ornaments in particular have become very popular.

"We are now at the end of the Olympic order period,” Ye Demo, director of trophy and medal maker Yiwu Jinzun Sports Goods, told Yicai. “From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, we received an endless stream of orders for the Olympics. There were quite a few orders from Paris, and we started shipping there several months ago."

Jinzun, which exports around 70 percent of its products, logged a between 20 percent and 30 percent jump in orders in the first quarter from a year earlier, Ye said. Some of the orders came from online channels, others from brick-and-mortar stores. The firm gained some new customers through word-of-mouth.

"Many of our long-standing overseas clients no longer place orders in person at our stores, but instead, they send us their clothing requirements online," said Cui Xiao, who has run an apparel and event merchandise firm for 10 years. "Typically, we produce a wide range of products related to the national holidays of various countries. Since the beginning of this year, sales of goods featuring French elements have seen a year-on-year increase."

Yiwu products are in high demand, not only because of their diversity and high cost-performance ratio, but also thanks to the city’s well developed export logistics, which comprises sea, land, air, and rail transportation. The China-Europe freight train service runs 20 routes that connect Yiwu with over 50 countries in Europe and Asia.

Through the e-retail platform Chinagoods, merchants in Yiwu can connect in real-time with their suppliers and clients to discuss issues such as design, logistics and financial credit through all stages of production.

There are now six Chinagoods stations around the world, including in Spain, Columbia, Tanzania and Saudi Arabia, that showcase 700,000 products from 32,000 companies to foreign buyers, according to the Yiwu Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

Yiwu’s foreign trade surged 22 percent in the first five months from a year earlier to CNY264.5 billion (USD36.4 billion), according to Yiwu Customs data. Of this, exports soared 22 percent to CNY234 billion. In May, exports jumped 29 percent year on year to CNY57.6 billion (USD7.9 billion), accounting for 2.7 percent of the country’s total export value.

Editor: Kim Taylor