“It took me so long to call you, but I have already missed several calls asking for prices.” A manufacturer in China’s Hebei Province told reporters on the phone.
The product produced by this manufacturer is body bags. This kind of product, which he usually considers to be a “very niche” product, has recently made him very busy. With the outbreak of the global epidemic, he found that international orders for funeral supplies increased sharply, especially for body bags, which usually have “always been very stable” demand. “I actually saw an order of 10 million, which I had never imagined before. I dare not think about it,” he said.
The reporter learned from Alibaba International Station that since the epidemic, the number of orders for funeral supplies on the platform in March increased by 487% compared with February; between March 20 and April 20, body bags The number of inquiries increased by 22,100% month-on-month; the top three places for funeral supplies traffic were the United States, Mexico and Italy.
The so-called “inquiry” is a necessary link in international trade. It refers to the buyer or seller asking the other party for relevant transaction conditions in order to purchase or sell goods. , usually mainly asking about the price. The Paper interviewed three companies that have been engaged in the foreign trade export business of body bags for more than ten years. They all agreed that overseas inquiries have indeed appeared recently.
Many friends who are engaged in foreign trade know that in the past month, export orders for body bags have grown faster than masks.
“Some friends received orders for a large number of body bags half a month ago, and they also need EU CE certification. ”
In the traditional context, nothing is more taboo than doing the funeral business. The problem of the coffin shop owner marrying his daughter once became a public issue. industry secrets. But now it has changed from its fringe image in the past, and people can be seen conducting similar transactions in many places.
The person in charge of a trading company in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province told reporters that since the epidemic, the number of overseas order inquiries they have received is 10 times the usual number, and the company’s actual export volume has increased 3 to 5 times.
The company previously only engaged in trade, that is, purchasing body bags from China and selling them overseas. Recently, faced with a sudden and huge order, they urgently transferred goods from Guangdong, Shandong, Sichuan and other places, but still could not meet needs. So the company’s shareholders decided to have one of their hotel supplies factories urgently switch to the production of funeral supplies.
“Our own factory just started production last week, with a daily output of about 800 pieces, but it still cannot keep up with the order demand. The most recent order was 100,000 pieces.” The person in charge said.
He said that this industry has been relatively stable for more than ten years. Because the mortality rate has been stable, there will be no huge fluctuations in orders. Recent sudden increases in orders are rare. “So far during the epidemic, we have exported about 200,000 to 300,000 body bags overseas, including acquisitions and self-production. They are mainly sent to Europe and the United States, and Europe is mainly Italy and Spain.”
Spring Asian textiles, Oxford cloth, non-woven fabrics…funeral concept fabrics have once again exploded through the shroud
Some people regard the body bag as the end-of-life care for dignity of human civilization, and some people regard it as Seen as the hottest business at the moment.
But for medical staff around the world, who have always been on the front lines and are increasingly dealing with death, at this time, body bags are more like their last line of defense.
In this report, Alibaba’s data showed that the number of export orders for funeral supplies in March increased by 487% compared with February. From March 20 to April 20, the number of inquiries for body bags An increase of 221 times, with the top three being the United States, Mexico and Italy.
After most customers gave it five-star praise, some people predicted that it would become another hit item after masks and forehead thermometers.
Although it can almost only be transported by air, customs inspections are strict, qualifications are difficult to obtain and certificates are required, the export volume of this industry still set a new record in history.
With the global consumption of medical resources accelerating, the demand for body bags has been rising. The U.S. government confirmed on April 1 that it had purchased 100,000 body bags to prepare for the upcoming situation.
Screenshot from Bloomberg
A temporary worker at the New York morgue, Erik, once told the British “Mirror” , because they ran out of body bags, the staff at his morgue had to transport as many as 80 patient bodies on bed sheets to trailers. NHS supplier Barber Medical purchased a batch of body bags from China and took six weeks to ship them back to the UK. When they started researching how to make body bags themselves, they found that there was no place to buy them.��Materials.
The mortuary supplies company Mortuary Equipment Direct also hired a team of people to sew 150 to 200 body bags every day, but the price of these bags was 57.5 pounds, which was 9 pounds more expensive than shipping them from China. .
As demand grows day by day, it is inevitable that some dealers will join in this urgent need transaction that fully respects the market economy. Body bags have also changed from a shipping tool to a new way of making money in the eyes of some scalpers, and some people have begun to explore funeral concept stocks.
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