A shopper walks to a Woolworths store in Sandton, South Africa,  on Aug 28, 2019. [Photo/Agencies]

SYDNEY -- Australian retail giant Woolworths Group hailed the business opportunities brought by the China International Import Expo and hoped to bring more high-quality products to the Chinese consumers.

Andrew Goudie, general manager of Woolworths International, told Xinhua that the CIIE is a key event that helps generate brand awareness in the Chinese market, and also provides business development and networking opportunities.

"We're delighted to be bringing Woolworths trusted and high quality products back to the CIIE for another year. China is an important market for Woolworths. The Expo provides us with a unique platform to showcase our brands and products to Chinese customers," he said.

"We look forward to inspiring visitors with a range of exciting new products as well as some well-known Australian favorite items."

Woolworths is a diverse group of retail businesses including Australia's biggest supermarket. For the upcoming CIIE, scheduled for Nov 5 to 10 in Shanghai, Goudie said the company would showcase a broad range of new categories from healthy food, high-quality household cleaning and laundry items, baby products, skincare products, as well as pets food.

"At Woolworths, our products reflect the changing needs across many popular grocery categories, where our consumers are looking for not only trusted Australian quality, but healthier options," Goudie said.

"We will be featuring many exciting high-quality healthy products at this year's event including a specific range available to people with special dietary requirements such as gluten, lactose and dairy free."

Goudie told Xinhua Woolworths has been trading into China for over five years, originally via cross-border eCommerce, and has expanded to include traditional offline retail, local e-Commerce and a range of distribution partners in the last few years.

"We will continue to aspire to offer high-quality products to our valued Chinese customers and will aim to identify opportunities to develop new products to meet the ever-changing needs of our Chinese customers."