April 26 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said today that the 87th China Export Commodities Fair, which just ended in Guangzhou, set new highs in both the number of participants and business volume.

The number of new business people attending the fair was one- third of all participants, with a particular increase among those from Latin America and Africa.

By yesterday, the number of participants had exceeded 98,000, a 7.45 percent increase from the 86th fair. Participants from Asian countries increased by 7.7 percent, those from Oceania by 21.4 percent, and those from America by 18.3 percent.

There were also 190 multinational corporations at the fair, and total business volume reached of over 13.65 billion US dollars, rising 7.49 percent from that of the last fair.

Among this total, food, medicine, and dairy products took up seven percent, raw material and chemical products 7.7 percent, mechanical equipment 14.9 percent, electrical products 18.4 percent, daily commodities 52 percent.

Mechanical engineering products and textiles products continued to dominate the fair, occupying over 89 percent of the total volume.

Commodities accounting for more than 200 million U.S. dollars in business volume include food, agricultural products, textile raw materials, chemical products, tools, electrical parts, and home electric appliances.

The fair also saw an overall increase in realized business volume with major countries and regions. Business volume with the European Union reached 3.88 billion U.S. dollars, rising 4.8 percent, business volume with the United States reached 1.87 billion U.S. dollars, a decrease of one percent, business volume with Hong Kong and Macao reached 1.18 billion U.S. dollars, rising 5.3 percent, business volume with Southeast Asian countries reached 1.36 billion U.S. dollars, rising 32.4 percent, business volume with Latin America countries reached 830 million U.S. dollars, rising 39.4 percent, and that with Japan reached 830 million U.S. dollars, rising 9.9 percent.

Experts said records were set for number of participants and business volume realized because of the pro-positive financial policy and export-encouraging policies adopted by the country.