Mladen Djurovic heard about the CIIE from the Chamber of Commerce in Serbia. The organic fruit seller installed a WeChat app in his phone the first day when he attended the expo.

"I was told Chinese people use WeChat to communicate a lot," said Djurovic, who has been doing business for 35 years, exporting organic food such as berries, apricot, and cherry within the Europe and to the United States and Canada. "The experience I had here gives me a lot of hope. I look in supermarkets here in Shanghai and see there is a room for my products."

Djurovic has met around 20 potential clients in the past week and added them on WeChat to keep in touch.

"This time, I am just testing the water. I came over here to understand how it looks like — and found this is a huge city, a huge expo and huge market," he said.

"I hope next year I will come here with some employees, and we shall be much better prepared, bring samples and arrange meetings beforehand."