About us

Independent sourcing agents on the ground in China, for Canton Fair vendors.You pick who works for you. Suppliers pay them no commission on your order.

We run a catalogue of Canton Fair exhibitors and a bench of independent sourcing agents in Guangzhou, for buyers in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and India. You find a product, say what you need, and agents quote for the job. You pick one. They check the supplier is who they say they are, get a real quote, haggle in Chinese, go and look at the factory, check the goods, and stay on the order until it ships. We approve every agent before they can bid, read every report before it reaches you, and refund the fee in full if it is not what you paid for.

480,000
Products in the catalogue: 20,000
Canton Fair exhibitors: $0
Supplier commission on your order

Why we existEveryone between you and the factory is paid by the factory.

The hard part of buying from China isn’t the distance. It’s that every channel you have to a supplier is paid for by the supplier.

The rep is on commission

The person answering your messages earns a cut of your order. Every answer is shaped by that.

The badge was bought

Gold, verified, premium. On a marketplace these are advertising products the supplier paid for.

The photos may not be theirs

A trading company can rent a showroom, borrow a factory tour and call itself a manufacturer.

So you spend a week in chat threads and then wire a deposit on a hunch. We built this so that can’t happen to our buyers. Your agent’s fee comes from you and nobody else, which means they can write down what they actually found, including the parts the supplier would rather they left out.

Why we exist

Everyone between you and the factory is paid by the factory.

The hard part of buying from China isn’t the distance. It’s that every channel you have to a supplier is paid for by the supplier.

The rep is on commission

The person answering your messages earns a cut of your order. Every answer is shaped by that.

The badge was bought

Gold, verified, premium. On a marketplace these are advertising products the supplier paid for.

The photos may not be theirs

A trading company can rent a showroom, borrow a factory tour and call itself a manufacturer.

What you getOne report, written for you, before you pay anyone.

This is what comes back from a Verify request: two suppliers, the same checks, the same columns, and a clear recommendation.

Desk report · sample

4-slot stainless toaster · 2 suppliers verified

For a buyer in Texas · back in 3 business days

Independent

Supplier A · Zhongshan

Manufacturer · 10 of 10 fairs

Licensed line answered; registry matches
Video walk: 3 assembly lines, UL parts in stock
$8.40 @ 1,000 · MOQ 500 · 35 days · 30/70 T/T

Recommended · est. $11.20 landed

Supplier B · Yiwu

Listed as “factory” · 2 of 10 fairs

Licence names a trading company
Wants 100% T/T to a personal account
$7.90 @ 1,000 · MOQ 1,000 · 45 days

Not recommended · 2 red flags

This one is made up to show the format. Real reports are written by the named agent you pick, and the supplier doesn’t see it before you do.

Compared with a free marketplace chat

Messaging is free because the supplier pays for the platform. That affects the answers you get.

Is it really a factory?

You get a logo, a badge and some photos. The photos might be of someone else’s building.

We phone the number on the business licence, check the licence against the registry, and get them to walk the floor on a video call.

Is that price real?

Five chat threads, prices written five different ways, and a rep who says yes to everything.

One quote sheet, same columns for every supplier, with what it costs to get the goods to your port.

Who tells you when something is off?

Nobody. You find out about the personal bank account after you’ve paid the deposit.

We do, in the report, before you have paid anyone.

What you get

One report, written for you, before you pay anyone.

This is what comes back from a Verify request: two suppliers, the same checks, the same columns, and a clear recommendation.

Desk report · sample

4-slot stainless toaster · 2 suppliers verified

For a buyer in Texas · back in 3 business days

Independent

Supplier A · Zhongshan

Manufacturer · 10 of 10 fairs

Licensed line answered; registry matches
Video walk: 3 assembly lines, UL parts in stock
$8.40 @ 1,000 · MOQ 500 · 35 days · 30/70 T/T

Recommended · est. $11.20 landed

Supplier B · Yiwu

Listed as “factory” · 2 of 10 fairs

Licence names a trading company
Wants 100% T/T to a personal account
$7.90 @ 1,000 · MOQ 1,000 · 45 days

Not recommended · 2 red flags

This one is made up to show the format. Real reports are written by the named agent you pick, and the supplier doesn’t see it before you do.

Compared with a free marketplace chat

Messaging is free because the supplier pays for the platform. That affects the answers you get.

Is it really a factory?

You get a logo, a badge and some photos. The photos might be of someone else’s building.

We phone the number on the business licence, check the licence against the registry, and get them to walk the floor on a video call.

Is that price real?

Five chat threads, prices written five different ways, and a rep who says yes to everything.

One quote sheet, same columns for every supplier, with what it costs to get the goods to your port.

Who tells you when something is off?

Nobody. You find out about the personal bank account after you’ve paid the deposit.

We do, in the report, before you have paid anyone.

How it worksFour steps. One agent the whole way.

No queue, no ticket number. The person who quotes for your job is the person who does it and writes the report.

1
Find something
Search about 480,000 products from 20,000 Canton Fair exhibitors. Compare a few side by side with the landed cost at your quantity. No account needed.
2
Say what you need
Describe the job and post it. It costs nothing, and you give no card details. Approved agents in Guangzhou see it within minutes.
3
Agents quote for it
Each one sends a price, a timeline and how they would go about it. You pick on the plan and the person, not just the number — and you know their name before you pay a cent.
4
They do the legwork in Chinese
Licence checks, phone calls, video calls, factory visits. On price, they negotiate with the other quotes in front of them. We read the report before you do.
5
You decide
You get one report and one quote sheet, with anything that worried them written down. Order when you want to. The supplier’s details are yours to keep.

What you can ask an agent for

Start with Verify. Add Inspect when you’re close to ordering. Use Managed when you’d rather not run the order yourself.

Verify

$29 / supplier

Find out whether the supplier is real and what the order would actually cost you.

We call the company on the number from their business licence
Live video walkthrough of the factory floor
Business licence, registry and export record checked

Inspect

$99 / factory

We go to the factory in person before you place an order.

In-person factory visit with 30-point audit
We look at the production lines, capacity, QC process and certificates ourselves
Photo and video report

Managed

2.5% of order

We run the whole order for you, from purchase order to delivery.

Everything in Inspect
Purchase order, deposit and payment-term negotiation
Production monitoring and in-line quality checks

Verify a supplier See all services and prices

How it works

Four steps. One agent the whole way.

No queue, no ticket number. The person who quotes for your job is the person who does it and writes the report.

1
Find something
Search about 480,000 products from 20,000 Canton Fair exhibitors. Compare a few side by side with the landed cost at your quantity. No account needed.
2
Say what you need
Describe the job and post it. It costs nothing, and you give no card details. Approved agents in Guangzhou see it within minutes.
3
Agents quote for it
Each one sends a price, a timeline and how they would go about it. You pick on the plan and the person, not just the number — and you know their name before you pay a cent.
4
They do the legwork in Chinese
Licence checks, phone calls, video calls, factory visits. On price, they negotiate with the other quotes in front of them. We read the report before you do.
5
You decide
You get one report and one quote sheet, with anything that worried them written down. Order when you want to. The supplier’s details are yours to keep.

What you can ask an agent for

Start with Verify. Add Inspect when you’re close to ordering. Use Managed when you’d rather not run the order yourself.

Verify

$29 / supplier

Find out whether the supplier is real and what the order would actually cost you.

We call the company on the number from their business licence
Live video walkthrough of the factory floor
Business licence, registry and export record checked

Inspect

$99 / factory

We go to the factory in person before you place an order.

In-person factory visit with 30-point audit
We look at the production lines, capacity, QC process and certificates ourselves
Photo and video report

Managed

2.5% of order

We run the whole order for you, from purchase order to delivery.

Everything in Inspect
Purchase order, deposit and payment-term negotiation
Production monitoring and in-line quality checks

Verify a supplier See all services and prices

Our standardWhat has to happen before we call a supplier verified.

Everyone uses the word. These five things happen before we do.

1
We call the licensed number
The phone number printed on the business licence, not the WeChat number the sales rep gave us. Someone at the company has to pick up.
2
We match the licence to the registry
We pull the record from the national company registry and compare it with the paperwork: same name, same legal representative, same registered capital, same scope of business.
3
We check that they export
Canton Fair attendance is a good sign. A customs registration is better, when we can get it.
4
We watch them walk the floor
A live video call where they show us around. We note what we saw: production lines, a warehouse, or just an office with samples on a shelf.
5
We write down what bothered us
Wanting the whole payment up front. A personal bank account. A licence in a different name from the quote. No export history. Dodging questions.

On an Inspect, one of us goes to the factory and works through a 30-point checklist in person. On a Managed order we also check during production and again before it ships. The supplier doesn’t see the report before you do, and they can’t change it.

Our standard

What has to happen before we call a supplier verified.

Everyone uses the word. These five things happen before we do.

1
We call the licensed number
The phone number printed on the business licence, not the WeChat number the sales rep gave us. Someone at the company has to pick up.
2
We match the licence to the registry
We pull the record from the national company registry and compare it with the paperwork: same name, same legal representative, same registered capital, same scope of business.
3
We check that they export
Canton Fair attendance is a good sign. A customs registration is better, when we can get it.
4
We watch them walk the floor
A live video call where they show us around. We note what we saw: production lines, a warehouse, or just an office with samples on a shelf.
5
We write down what bothered us
Wanting the whole payment up front. A personal bank account. A licence in a different name from the quote. No export history. Dodging questions.

Our catalogueWhy we only list Canton Fair exhibitors.

A booth at the fair isn’t cheap, and you need an export licence to get one.

They’re licensed exporters

Only companies with an export licence can exhibit. That rules out a lot of middlemen before we start.

They have money on the line

A supplier who has shown up ten fairs in a row has paid for ten booths. That’s a better signal than a badge anyone can buy.

We show the history

Every supplier page shows how many of the last ten fairs they exhibited at. Then we add our own checks on top.

Our catalogue

Why we only list Canton Fair exhibitors.

A booth at the fair isn’t cheap, and you need an export licence to get one.

They’re licensed exporters

Only companies with an export licence can exhibit. That rules out a lot of middlemen before we start.

They have money on the line

A supplier who has shown up ten fairs in a row has paid for ten booths. That’s a better signal than a badge anyone can buy.

We show the history

Every supplier page shows how many of the last ten fairs they exhibited at. Then we add our own checks on top.

Our commitmentsThings we hold ourselves to.

Short, so you can hold us to them too.

Your agent is paid by you. Suppliers pay no commission on your order.: Nothing a supplier pays us changes what you see. Listing is free. A supplier can pay a small subscription to manage their own listing, and every change is reviewed before it shows. No supplier can pay to rank higher, to be recommended, or to have a report go easy on them, and we don’t sell ads.
Estimates say so.: The landed cost on a product page comes from category averages and the tariff rates on the date shown. A real quote uses the real carton size, the real freight and the actual HTS code.
100% refund if not satisfied.: If the work is not what you paid for, tell us within 7 days of the report and we refund the fee in full. You deal with us, not with the agent, and we settle it either way.
The supplier is yours.: Once your request is confirmed, you get their contact details. We aren’t going to hide them so you have to keep coming back to us.
We don’t make numbers up.: If a supplier hasn’t published a price, the page says so. It doesn’t guess.
We don’t hold your money.: Unless you’re on a Managed order, and then only under terms we’ve both signed.

Our commitments

Things we hold ourselves to.

Short, so you can hold us to them too.

Your agent is paid by you. Suppliers pay no commission on your order.: Nothing a supplier pays us changes what you see. Listing is free. A supplier can pay a small subscription to manage their own listing, and every change is reviewed before it shows. No supplier can pay to rank higher, to be recommended, or to have a report go easy on them, and we don’t sell ads.
Estimates say so.: The landed cost on a product page comes from category averages and the tariff rates on the date shown. A real quote uses the real carton size, the real freight and the actual HTS code.
100% refund if not satisfied.: If the work is not what you paid for, tell us within 7 days of the report and we refund the fee in full. You deal with us, not with the agent, and we settle it either way.
The supplier is yours.: Once your request is confirmed, you get their contact details. We aren’t going to hide them so you have to keep coming back to us.
We don’t make numbers up.: If a supplier hasn’t published a price, the page says so. It doesn’t guess.
We don’t hold your money.: Unless you’re on a Managed order, and then only under terms we’ve both signed.

The fine printWhere the listings come from, and what we won’t do.

The listings

Product and supplier listings are refreshed from the public exhibitor pages of the Canton Fair. We tidy them up and add the landed cost. We have no connection to the China Foreign Trade Centre or to the fair itself, and they don’t endorse us. The verification notes, the quotes and the reports are our own work.

What we won’t do

Take a cut from a supplier, or a free sample, or a gift.
Promise how a supplier behaves next year. A report says what we found on the day we looked, and we stand by that.
Hold your money, unless you’re on a Managed order and we’ve both signed the terms.

The fine print

Where the listings come from, and what we won’t do.

The listings

What we won’t do

Take a cut from a supplier, or a free sample, or a gift.
Promise how a supplier behaves next year. A report says what we found on the day we looked, and we stand by that.
Hold your money, unless you’re on a Managed order and we’ve both signed the terms.

Want to talk first?

Write to desk@cantonfairsourcing.com. A person reads it. Or just send a request and we’ll get going.

Verify a supplier for $29