When Santa arrived in China this year with his reindeer to buy gifts, he
found it hard to afford them, said a manager of a small Chinese company that
exports Christmas products.
The global financial crisis, it seems, has even shrunk Santa's purse.
"Americans' consumption of Christmas products fell this year," said Fang
Jianping, sales manager of the Zhongxing Company, which exports Christmas
products to the United States from Meixian County, Guangdong Province.
"The new orders aren't too profitable. We'll only make ends meet," Fang said.
Zhongxing met its orders in October and sold all of the "reindeers" and
"snowmen" for 220,000 U.S. dollars, but there were no orders for artificial
trees or lights to decorate them. Overseas buyers told the small company that
this year, Americans were dragging their old trees out of the basement and
cleaning them up, rather than buying new ones.
And after the production season ended, Fang virtually eliminated his staff,
cutting the payroll from 100 workers to two.
