- Dates
- 31 October to 4 November 2026 (9:30 to 18:00)
- Official theme
- “Better Life”
- Product groups
- Toys, children and baby, maternity, fashion (clothing, underwear, sportswear, shoes, bags, accessories), textiles and home textiles, stationery and office, medicines and medical devices, health, personal care, sports and recreation, pet products, food
- Halls
- All four areas (A, B, C and D)
- Next Phase 3
- 1 to 5 May 2027 (141st session)
What is on the floor, area by area
The layout is from the 139th session (spring 2026) and usually repeats with small changes. Confirm on the floor plan in the official app the week before.
| Area | Metro | Sections |
|---|---|---|
| Area A (Halls 1 to 8) | Xingangdong, Line 8 | Men’s and women’s clothing, children’s wear, sports and casual wear, underwear, shoes, fashion accessories and fittings, carpets and tapestries, traditional Chinese specialities. |
| Area B (Halls 9 to 13) | Pazhou, Lines 8 and 11 | Medicines, health products and medical devices, personal care and toiletries, sports, travel and recreation products, pet products, food, office supplies and stationery, part of the International Pavilion. |
| Area C (Halls 14 to 16) | Pazhou, Exit C, then 300 m west | Home textiles, textile raw materials and fabrics, part of the International Pavilion. |
| Area D (Halls 17 to 20) | Xingangdong, then walk west | Toys, children’s products, baby and maternity, cases and bags. |
Who comes to Phase 3
Toys come from Shantou’s Chenghai district (plastic and electronic toys, the largest toy-making cluster anywhere), Dongguan and Shenzhen (higher-end, licensed and electronic), and Yiwu and Ningbo (plush, wooden, educational). Garments and shoes come from Guangdong, Fujian (Jinjiang for sportswear and shoes), Zhejiang and Jiangsu; home textiles largely from Nantong and Shaoxing. Stationery is Ningbo, Wenzhou and Shantou. Medical and health products are the most geographically mixed section of the whole fair.
The buyer crowd is thinner than in Phase 2 and more specialised: toy importers, apparel buyers with tech packs, hospital and pharmacy chains, school-supply distributors. It is the phase where a small buyer gets the most attention per booth.
How to plan the five days
- Day 1: your main section. Toy buyers start in Area D and stay there. Apparel buyers start in Area A with a tech pack in hand; a factory can tell you in five minutes whether a spec is within reach.
- Day 2: the adjacent section. Baby and maternity sits next to toys and shares factories; home textiles in Area C pairs with children’s wear for anyone in nursery products.
- Day 3: stationery, bags, health. Area B is a mixed bag and worth a slow half day even if none of it is your core category. Promotional and school-supply buyers find their best suppliers here.
- Day 4: second visits, documents, factory arrangements. Ask for test reports on the exact items you shortlisted. This is where toy and children’s suppliers separate quickly into the ones who can supply to your market and the ones who cannot.
- Day 5: samples. Garment and toy samples are cheap and plentiful on the last afternoon. Photograph the care label or the marking on each one before it goes into your bag.
Toys and children’s products: the compliance conversation
No category at the fair has a bigger gap between “we can make it” and “we can sell it to you”. Toys entering the US need testing to ASTM F963 and a Children’s Product Certificate backed by a CPSC-accepted lab; the EU needs EN 71 and the CE marking with a Declaration of Conformity; the UK now needs UKCA; Australia has its own mandatory standards for some toy types; India requires BIS certification for toys, which many Chinese factories have obtained since 2021 and many have not. Ask which markets they currently ship to and for the test reports for the specific item. A factory that exports to the US and EU will have a folder ready. A factory that answers “we can do any certificate you need” is telling you the cost will land on your invoice.
The same is true for baby products (feeding, nursery, car seats) and for anything with a battery or a magnet, which carry their own tests. Budget two to eight weeks and a four-figure sum for testing on a new toy if the factory has not already done it.
Apparel, textiles and the MOQ problem
A garment factory at the fair is usually a real factory with several hundred machines, and its minimum reflects that: often 500 to 1,000 pieces per style, sometimes per colour. Prices are quoted per piece FOB with fabric specified by composition and weight (for example 100% cotton, 180 gsm). The negotiable parts are the colour split, the packaging and the payment terms, not the fabric price, which the mill sets.
Home textiles (bedding, towels, curtains) are more flexible on minimums because they are often woven to stock widths and cut to order. Ask for thread count and grams per square metre in writing and for a lab dip before bulk. The difference between a 300 and a 400 thread-count sheet set is not visible at the booth.
If your quantities are small, the fair is still useful for finding the factory; the order may then go through an agent who consolidates several buyers, or through a trading company that holds stock. Our desk does this for a per-supplier fee rather than a margin on the goods, which keeps the factory price visible to you.
Browse Phase 3 exhibitors before you go
Our catalogue lists Canton Fair exhibitors by the fair’s own sections. The Phase 3 sections are:
- Toys, children, baby and maternity
- Fashion (clothing, underwear, sportswear, shoes, cases and bags, accessories)
- Home textiles
- Stationery
- Health and recreation (medical, personal care, sports, pet, food)
Questions we get asked
Is Phase 3 smaller than the other two?
A little, and it feels much calmer. By the third week a share of overseas buyers has gone home, and the apparel and textile halls are wide and easy to walk. For toys and children’s products it is still the biggest room in the world.
Are the toy factories at the Canton Fair or at the Hong Kong toy fair?
Both, but they are different companies. The Hong Kong Toys and Games Fair in January is where the branded and licensed toy trade meets. The Canton Fair in Phase 3 is where the factories of Shantou (Chenghai), Dongguan and Shenzhen show what they make to order. For private-label and unbranded toys, Phase 3.
Can I buy clothing in small quantities at the fair?
Rarely from the exhibitors themselves; a garment factory at the fair wants 500 to 1,000 pieces per style and colour. For small runs, the wholesale markets around Guangzhou’s Shisanhang and Baima, or an agent who consolidates, are the realistic route.
Is food really at the Canton Fair?
Yes, a food section sits in Area B in Phase 3: snacks, canned goods, tea, condiments, frozen products. Importing food needs registrations on your side (FDA facility registration in the US, for example), so it is a specialist section, but it is there.