In fact, some insightful exporters from Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province, have already started to make their presence felt in the African markets.

As the world's largest center of small commodities trade, companies in Yiwu have been stretching out to the African market in a large scale as early as 2011.

Wu Bocheng, chairman of Yiwu China Commodities City, says the company, together with some large companies in Yiwu, have been establishing international logistics centers in Africa to better serve their expansion in the African market.

"Unlike Western clients, who pay more attention on standards and qualities of the products, African purchasers attach more importance to price. Good products with relatively low prices are exactly where our advantages lie in," Wu says.

Long Quan, sales manager of Zhejiang Shilei Socks Co in Yiwu, says the company has started to make inroads in the South African market since July, 2012.

"During the first half of last year, we realized that our export focus on the Japanese market would be a total failure for the full year prospects. Since the European market was also in a bad shape, we decided to concentrate on the African market, and it has paid off," Long says.

In 2011, 80 percent of Shilei Socks' sales revenue came from exports to Japan. Because of shrinking demand from the Japanese market, Long says the company's revenue dropped nearly 30 percent to 70 million yuan ($11 million).

In November, Long and some sales representatives, visited Cape Town in South Africa to attend an international textile fair

"At first, we did not go there with the hope of getting orders directly from the fair. However, the result was encouraging. Many local clients showed their interest in our products and some of them even signed deals with us," Long says.

He says the company is planning to set up a representative office in Johannesburg by the end of June to expand the African market.

Right: John Ross, former adviser of ex-London mayor Ken Livingstone and visiting professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Far right: Wei Jianguo, secretary-general of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

Global role

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Although Chinese trade prospects faced a tough time in 2012, its trade performance is still far better than most of the other major economies.

From January to November of 2012, Japan's foreign trade growth rate was only 1.1 percent year-on-year. For the EU, foreign trade dropped 2.1 percent from January to October. The US foreign trade growth was 4.2 percent for the same period.

"China is the best trade performer among the world's major economies, though it failed to accomplish the 10 percent growth target," said Zheng from the General Administration of Customs.

According to a report from the Associated Press, China had become the largest trading partner of 124 economies by 2011, rising from 70 in 2006. The figure made China the largest trading partner of most nations in the world.

The US used to be the biggest trading partner for most nations. It was the largest trading partner with 127 regions five years ago. However, the number has dropped to 76 by 2011.

He Weiwen, co-director of the China-US-EU Study Center of the China Association of International Trade, says that despite a sharp slowdown in global activity, China's foreign trade has continued to prosper.

"China's positive economic influence has been surging in surrounding countries over the past five years," he says.

Therefore, China's trade performance this year will be important not only to Chinese businessmen, but also to its 124 trading partners.