Ningbo in Zhejiang province has created a large market for traders in Central and Eastern European countries.

Janos Hajdu, general manager of a beef producer in Hungary, will lead a three-person team to the third China-CEEC Expo scheduled to be held from May 16 to 20 in Ningbo. "I'm really looking forward to the trip," he said.

Though it's the first time the beef factory has attended the expo, its beef products have already tapped the market in Ningbo. Last July, Sun Chonglong, executive director of Ningbo Lianbang Changyun International Trade Co, took a chartered business flight to Hungary and placed a $200 million order for Hungarian beef at the factory.

According to Sun, nearly 30 containers of beef are shipped every month from Hungary to Ningbo. Some are transported to wholesalers and processing plants, and others are sold through an online shopping platform launched by the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Commerce.

The Hungarian beef has become the best-selling product on the platform. During the Spring Festival holiday, over 2 metric tons of Hungarian beef was sold on the platform in just a dozen days.

Hajdu was excited about his first trip to Ningbo. "Our partner is expected to reach another 100-million-yuan ($14.46 million) agreement with us at the expo," he said.

As the host city of the China-CEEC Expo, Ningbo has been forging closer connections with CEEC by launching preferential policies and measures covering trade, ports, and customs for many years. In 2022, Ningbo's imports from CEEC reached 11.2 trillion yuan, a more than nine-fold increase from 2016.