People visit the booth of Sinar Mas Group - Asia Pulp & Paper (APP), a nine-year attendee of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), at the exhibition area of Consumer Goods during the ninth CIIE in east China's Shanghai, Nov. 7, 2026. (Xinhua/Wang Nuo)

The 9th China International Import Expo (CIIE) closed on Tuesday in Shanghai, recording intended deals worth $85.45 billion on a one-year basis, up 2.3 percent from the previous session and reaching a record high.

The exhibition, a key window on China's opening-up and domestic market, set a string of records: the number of exhibiting companies reached 4,142, and the total exhibition area exceeded 440,000 square meters for the first time, including 370,000 square meters of corporate exhibition space.

More than 300 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry-leading firms took part, and 485 representative exhibits made their global, Asian or Chinese debuts, according to official data.

Attending for the ninth consecutive year, German firm Bayer brought nearly 30 debut exhibits in healthcare and modern agriculture. The company said that it held and took part in 60 signing ceremonies and signed more than 10 partnership agreements.

The CIIE is not only a window into the latest innovations, but also an important bridge connecting global opportunities with China's development, bringing partners together and turning innovative ideas into real-world impact, Zhou Xiaolan, executive vice president of the Pharmaceuticals Division at Bayer AG, told the Global Times.

China has been and remains a major growth, innovation and value creation engine for Louis Dreyfus Co. It is central to global agri-food trade flows, with increasingly sophisticated customers, and offers an exceptional combination of market scale, manufacturing depth and scientific talent.

"We remain confident in the resilience and long-term fundamentals of the Chinese market," Michael Gelchie, CEO of Louis Dreyfus Co, told the Global Times.

First-time attendees were just as positive as those who participated for the ninth time.

Miriam Blythe, export manager at Western Meat Exporters Pty Ltd from Australia, attended the CIIE with her company's products for the first time.

"The CIIE is an excellent venue for us to meet new buyers. It helps us connect with the right customers who genuinely want our products," Blythe told the Global Times.

The sentiment of global business leaders was borne out by the numbers.

Within the corporate exhibition space, firms from the US, Germany, the UK and France led in terms of booked area. US companies took more than 50,000 square meters — first for the eighth consecutive edition, and 1,500 square meters more than last year. Canadian and New Zealand companies booked their largest space in the expo's history, while Australian firms expanded theirs by 25 percent year-on-year, according to Vice Minister of Commerce Yan Dong.

"What foreign firms are buying into is not a single expo but a market of more than 1.4 billion people with a middle-income group of more than 400 million, and one where demand is still moving up the value chain," Hu Qimu, professor at the Maritime Silk Road Institute of Huaqiao University, told the Global Times.

For many multinationals, China has shifted from being the "world's factory" to being one of the most important markets, which is why exhibitors keep enlarging their footprint, and China's vast market continues to open up new growth space for global firms, Hu said.

Highlighting the expo's success and growing popularity, planning for the 10th CIIE is already underway, with 143 companies and organizations, including Bayer, having signed on for more than 100,000 square meters of exhibition space.