"Generally speaking, Chinese consumers are not quite familiar with African products. Actually, there are a lot of goods in Africa that can meet the requirement of consumption upgrade in China, such as some health goods made of moringa seeds. I believe, when the Chinese buyers know more about African products, they will buy more," said Zhan.

Liu, who is at the same time the general manager of Kingnor Company Ltd, agreed with the CEO of the China Center Supermarket. "The potential of the trade volume between China and Kenya and Africa at large is very big," Liu said.

This year marks the second time that businesspeople from Kenya have teamed up as a delegation to participate in the annual Linyi event. Compared to last year, the number of Kenya team members was down by 10 people, but the quantity of the goods they bought increased by 5 percent, which keeps the same momentum with the general intentional trade volume of the three-day trade gala.

According to Li Zongtao, director of the Administrative Committee of Linyi Trade City, which is the main wholesale dealer and one of the organizers of the fair, the general intentional trade volume is 1.74 billion yuan ($253.02 million), which saw a 6.5% increase compared to last year.