For the last several years, people have been talking about the growth of the Xiamen Stone Fair, held annually in Xiamen, China, a city known domestically as one of the most livable cities in China. This year, Stone World attended the show for the first time, and it was definitely an eye-opening experience. The show is huge and well attended, and it is much more than a domestic show for the Chinese to showcase their products. This is an international exhibition — make no doubt about it, as westerners from all over the world were in attendance and exhibiting their products to the international audience. There were stone materials from all over the world — from the U.S. to South America and Europe to Asia — as well as equipment, tooling and even digital templating systems from the U.S.
According to show organizers, there were approximately 2,000 exhibitors filling over 1.7 million square feet of exhibit hall space, representing 54 different countries, including national pavilions from Turkey, Brazil, Italy, Egypt, Spain, Portugal, France, Finland, Greece, Pakistan, Mexico, Iran and India. Not surprisingly, the largest groups of international exhibitors came from Italy (over 15%), Brazil (8.5%) and India (6.75%).