Canton Fair Phases Explained: Which Phase Should You Attend?

What are the Canton Fair phases?

The Canton Fair is not one event. It is three separate five-day events, run back to back in the same venue, with different exhibitors in every hall each time. Phase One packs up completely before Phase Two loads in. If your supplier exhibits in Phase Three and you fly in for Phase One, you will not meet them. You will not even see their booth.

The 140th Canton Fair runs at the China Import and Export Fair Complex in Pazhou, Guangzhou. Around 1.55 million square metres of floor space. Over 30,000 exhibiting companies across the three phases, including roughly 2,800 brand exhibitors. Halls open 9.30am to 6pm daily.

One buyer badge covers all three phases. The badge is not the constraint. Your flights, your hotel and your time are.

Canton Fair 2026 dates: Phase 1, 2 and 3

The autumn 2026 session runs across three weeks:

• Phase One: 15 to 19 October 2026. Official theme, Advanced Manufacturing.
• Phase Two: 23 to 27 October 2026. Official theme, Quality Home Life.
• Phase Three: 31 October to 4 November 2026. Official theme, Better Life.

Note the gaps. Three clear days between Phase One and Phase Two, 20 to 22 October. Three clear days between Phase Two and Phase Three, 28 to 30 October. Those gap days are the halls being stripped and rebuilt. Nothing is open to buyers.

End to end, attending all three phases is a 21-day trip. Almost nobody needs that.

Which Canton Fair phase should I attend?

Find your finished product in this list. That is your phase.

Phase One (15 to 19 October). Electronics and consumer electronics. Home appliances, anything with a plug or a battery. Machinery and industrial automation. Hardware and tools. Lighting. Building materials. Chemical products. Vehicles, EVs and spare parts. Service robots and new energy.

Phase Two (23 to 27 October). Housewares and kitchenware that does not plug in. Ceramics and glassware. Furniture. Home decorations and gifts. Fashion jewellery. Garden products. Festive and seasonal decoration.

Phase Three (31 October to 4 November). Textiles and apparel. Shoes. Bags and cases. Toys and children's products. Baby and nursery goods. Personal care. Office supplies and stationery. Food. Medicines, medical devices and health products. Sports and recreation.

The dividing line that catches people out most often is electrical versus non-electrical. A kettle is Phase One. A teapot is Phase Two. A ceramic mug is Phase Two. A mug warmer is Phase One. Same shelf in a retail store, nine days apart in Guangzhou.

What if my product spans two phases?

This is common and it is worth planning for properly, because it is the single most expensive mistake in the calendar.

Smart jewellery is the clearest example. The jewellery itself is Phase Two. The electronic module inside it is Phase One. Those two supplier conversations sit eight days apart. We have written about how to find a manufacturer for a wearable tech product when it is also jewellery, and phase timing is a real part of why that job is hard.

Other common splits:

• A skincare brand: the formulation and finished goods sit in Phase Three, but rigid packaging and closures often sit elsewhere.
• A homewares brand with a cordless base: the ceramic in Phase Two, the electrical component in Phase One.
• A soft toy with a sound chip: the toy in Phase Three, the chip in Phase One.

If your product genuinely spans phases, do not try to solve both at the fair on the same trip. Pick the phase that holds the harder sourcing problem, go deep there, and handle the second component through introductions and factory visits instead. Component suppliers are much easier to reach off the fair floor than finished-goods factories are.

What the wrong phase actually costs

Run the numbers before you book. These are illustrative Australian figures for planning, not quotes.

• Return airfare, Sydney to Guangzhou, booked into fair season: roughly $1,200 to $2,000.
• Hotel near Pazhou during a fair week: roughly $250 to $450 a night. Rates in that district lift sharply for fair weeks and the good rooms go early.
• Six nights, plus visa, transfers, interpreter and meals: call it $5,000 to $7,000 all in.

That is the cost of one trip. Booking the wrong phase does not cost you half of it. It costs you all of it, plus six months, because the next session is in April. Getting the phase right is the cheapest decision in the entire trip.

If you are still working out whether the trip fits your overall launch budget at all, the decision side of that sits on Kristy's site: how much it costs to launch a product in Australia.

Should you do one phase or two?

One phase is right for most buyers. Five days is enough to work a category properly if you have prepared, and the marginal value of a sixth day in the same halls drops fast.

Two phases makes sense in three situations. When your range genuinely spans two category groups and both are core to the business, not a side line. When you are sourcing packaging alongside product. And when you are already flying 9,000 kilometres and the second phase adds three unproductive gap days but opens a whole second supplier base.

Phase Two and Phase Three back to back is the most common pairing for consumer brands, because home and gift sits next to fashion, bags and personal care. That pairing runs 23 October to 4 November this year.

Three phases is almost never the answer. Twenty-one days away, two dead gaps and a supplier list too long to follow up properly is not a sourcing strategy.

How to check your phase before you book flights

Do not rely on a phase list from a blog, including this one, as your final check. Category boundaries move slightly between sessions.

1. Search the official Canton Fair exhibitor directory for three or four suppliers you already know make your product type.
2. Note which phase and which hall each one is listed in.
3. If they cluster in one phase, that is your phase. If they split, your product spans phases and you need to choose which problem to solve on the floor.
4. Only then book flights. Book the hotel the same day.
5. Pre-register for your buyer badge and apply for the invitation letter early if you need it for the visa.

The pre-booking checklist

• Finished product category confirmed against the official directory, not a summary.
• Phase dates locked, with arrival at least one day before the phase opens.
• Hotel booked in or near Pazhou, not central Guangzhou, unless you enjoy traffic.
• Visa lodged with enough lead time for the invitation letter to arrive.
• A one-page product brief, in English and Chinese, ready to hand over.
• A shortlist of 20 to 30 target booths with hall and stand numbers.
• WeChat installed and working before you land.
• A plan for what happens after. The fair produces candidates, not suppliers.

That last point is the one people skip. A booth conversation is a lead. Turning it into a supplier means vetting the factory before you pay a deposit, agreeing terms, and working out your real landed cost per unit before anyone talks about a purchase order. If you have not been to the fair before, our Canton Fair guide for first-time buyers covers how to work the halls once you are in the right one.

If China is not the answer

Phase choice assumes China is the right country. For some products it is not, and the honest comparison between the two main options is here: China vs India, which country should you manufacture in. Our India trip for September is fully booked. China in October covers Canton Fair Phases Two and Three.