Chinese New Year Holiday: What Importers Should Know
While the rest of the world celebrates the new year on the first day of January and moves on with their lives, it is obvious, the Chinese people take it a lot more seriously. For years, they have shown the world that the Chinese New Year (often abbreviated as CNY) celebration is a big deal. Since China is the biggest manufacturer of global products (according to the United Nations Statistics Division, China produces 28.7% of the world’s products), these celebrations affect businesses all over the world, especially the importation industry.
The Chinese New Year is the most important festival because it has both cultural and historical relevance. The celebration also marks the beginning of the Chinese lunar calendar.
As a matter of fact, China is not the only country that celebrates the new year. Other Asian countries such as Indonesia, North Korea, South Korea, Malaysia also join in the celebration. For some reason, this year’s celebration is 11 days earlier than it was in 2021.
Not only will this disrupt the regular business transactions, many shops will close down. The backstory to this is that the celebration is always 21–51 days behind the corresponding Gregorian (international) calendar date and importers all over the world need to observe these dates mentally because it is remarkable to the business period of the Chinese suppliers.
What importers need to know
There’s no doubt that the Chinese New Year will affect importers all over the world. However, importers who buy products from China need to be aware of this and the best way is to plan ahead.
Most importantly, noting the Chinese calendar is a key thing to do when planning your business activities.
For this year (2022), the Chinese New Year starts February 1,2022 and it goes on for 15 days i.e till February 15th, 2022. One important thing to note is that the holidays start before the actual celebration. The New Year eve starts towards the end of January between 30th and 31st, 2022.
Important dates to notes
January 15- Suppliers begin to stop production
January 20th-30th- Factory workers start leaving for the holiday
January 30-31st, 2022- New year’s eve
February 1,2022- New year celebration
February 15, 2022- The lantern festival (where dragons and tigers dance and there is a lot of parade and fireworks)
February 20,2022- Factories are reopening and workers are resuming.
February 28,2022– Operations are back to normal.
Employees are expected to take the holidays off for 7 days or more between January 30th and February 6. Nobody knows for sure but based on the record, the celebration may last more than that. This means that importers should be aware that factories may shut down for weeks which means no buying and importing from China until around late February or early March,2022.
By the time the holiday is over, factories will be overwhelmed by the number of transactions and production requests. This means that importers will have to deal with:
- Delayed response from suppliers due to being overwhelmed with demands.
- Risk of getting substandard goods or low product quality- When factories reopen for business after the holiday, not all workers resume or come back. This means, there might be a shortage of staff and the factory may try to get new workers who may not learn the ropes of production yet and this may affect production quality.
- Shipping delays- Because the factories will be overwhelmed by requests, they have to handle one transaction at a time based on production and this means that if your supply list is not much in terms of quantity, they may favor an importer who has a large quantity over you. Also, an overload of shipment may also be a challenge plus the fact that the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron policies may affect shipping processes.
What actions importers can take now
Since you are now aware of the dates of the Chinese New Year holiday, it is important that you plan early with your suppliers if you plan to buy goods for your business. By not later than January 15th, importers are expected to discuss with their suppliers. Infact, you can ask them for their specific time table for the holiday to know the possibility of getting your supplies on time or if you have to wait until when the holiday is over.