Importing Textiles from China: Regions, MOQ, Labelling, Inspection

Chinese apparel production is organised into specialised hubs, and each hub has its own trades. A shirt is born from fabric bought at the market, a cutting workshop, embroidery, washing: the factory that signs the proforma most often coordinates several specialised workshops. This density shortens lead times between cutting, printing and washing, but it makes production follow-up more important: the weak link rarely hides at the main supplier. Choosing a region therefore means choosing a network of subcontractors, not a single factory.

To find a garment manufacturer in China, start with Phase 3 of the Canton Fair, which brings textiles and clothing together in one place: a few days are enough to meet dozens of factories and spot the ones that master your category, before any visit or order.

In apparel, the minimum order first stems from the material. Fabric bought by the roll on the market can be cut in small runs; fabric woven or knitted to order, and especially yarn dyed to order, requires much larger quantities. Hence MOQs ranging from a hundred pieces for cut-and-sew on stock fabric to several thousand when the material is developed for your brand.

The minimum then multiplies by colour and by size: an MOQ of a few hundred pieces is often understood per colourway, not for the whole reference, and five colourways multiply the quantity to commit to. Fabric consumption also matters: how the pieces are laid out on the roll fixes the material needed, and a poorly designed size grading increases waste, hence the price. Before negotiating with a Chinese factory, ask for the MOQ per colourway and per size, and the fabric consumption per piece: that is the basis for a comparable quote.

A garment is driven by its tech pack: base pattern, size grading, measurement chart by size, fabric consumption, trim list, print and embroidery placement, colourways. Without this document, each factory reinterprets the product and quotes become incomparable. A realistic fabric consumption is worth more than an optimistic price: it is what makes the cost price vary from one colourway to another.

A decisive question: who holds the pattern? If the factory develops it, it stays with them and can be reused for another client. Supply your own pattern, or set out by contract the ownership of the one they develop. Between the proto sample and the pre-production run, check the drape on a real size range, not only on the median size; the approved sample becomes the reference against which every batch will be measured.

For the EU market, the composition of textile products is governed by Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011: percentages by mass, standardised names, a durable label available at the point of sale. The required language is that of the Member State where the product is placed on the market, French for France. Textiles carry no CE marking: no logo proves compliance.

Other particulars are handled case by case. Care symbols are not harmonised at EU level. Origin is not subject to a general EU obligation for clothing, but your customers and sales platforms often require it, and a misleading statement remains punishable. On substances, the REACH Regulation (EC) No 1907/2006 governs what articles may contain: banned azo dyes, capped nickel on buttons and fasteners, chromium VI on leather. Require recent test reports, established on the exact article, not a generic certificate. Validate labels before affixing them, on the pre-production run: redoing them urgently costs far more than fixing them upfront.

A garment rarely fails on the material and often fails on execution: shrinkage after washing, colour fastness, measurements that drift from one size to another, seams that show, oil stains on light-coloured pieces, labels attached upside down or in the wrong language. These defects show up in production, not on the approved sample.

The setup rests on three points. A measurement chart by size, with written tolerances, attached to the tech pack. A reference wash on the pre-production run, to measure shrinkage before finalising the patterns. A pre-shipment inspection on boxes ready to leave, drawn at random and assessed against the AQL levels of ISO 2859-1. Usual levels in apparel run around 2.5 for major defects and 4.0 for minor ones. The inspection is carried out on the finished, packed garment, label included: this is the last moment when a labelling error can still be caught.

Sorva is a brokerage and sourcing house. Our Chinese-speaking team in Guangzhou identifies workshops in the hubs matching your category, works through your tech pack line by line, has the MOQ priced per colourway and per size and checks samples before any order. We follow production, frame labelling with the factory and organize the pre-shipment inspection; twice a year, the Canton Fair lets us meet in person the manufacturers considered for your brand.

In most cases, you pay no fees: you open a file with us, we negotiate the goods for you, and we take a commission on their ex-factory value.