With temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere stubbornly hovering at sticky levels, pet cooling products made in East China's Zhejiang province are selling like hot cakes.
A recent video that went viral on social media shows the owner of a golden retriever in the United States giving her furry friend a cooling pad, where the dog could lie down and just chill. "Let your pet be cool" has become a trending topic on social media.
Kylene Rae, the owner of the pooch, said: "My dog loves staying on the cooling pad after our walk outside in 32 C temperature. It is actually so cool."
She bought the cooling pad from a store on Amazon, and the product is produced by a Zhejiang company. Inside the workshop of Zeze in Wenling workers are busy assembling pet cooling products.
The brand has already broken away from the traditional square ice pad model, with a constant stream of circular, ring-shaped and slipper-fashioned products. Product varieties and materials are also continuously updated.
Wang Litian, brand operation officer at Zeze, said: "In the first half of the year, our overall export value reached 28 million yuan ($4 million), an increase of over 40 percent year-on-year. The products are exported to markets such as Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea. At the same time, we are accelerating brand expansion overseas, and the first overseas offline store in Indonesia has been opened."
Inside the factory of Huamao Handicraft Article Co in Taizhou workers complete the cutting, sewing and quality inspection processes on the assembly line one by one. Pet ice pads and cat climbing frames are packed one by one, waiting for inspection before being sent to a nearby port.
Wang Huajun, general manager of the manufacturing department of Huamao, said the volume of foreign trade orders for pet cooling products has significantly increased in the past two months.
The ice pads produced by the enterprise can be used without additional freezing and have been exported to several countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Japan and the US.
Since the launch of the brand's overseas business in June last year, the export scale of the company's pet supplies has steadily expanded. This year, it has already completed approximately 28 million yuan in orders, an increase of 50 percent compared with the same period last year.
Hangzhou Customs said that from January to May, the export value of various pet supplies such as pet cleaning products, sleeping mats and pet apparel from Zhejiang province exceeded 1.5 billion yuan.
At present, the variety of pet cooling products exported from Zhejiang continues to expand, from cooling products to cleaning and care goods, becoming a new growth direction for summertime exports.
zhengyiran@chinadaily.com.cn
