BEIJING, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese merchandise firms plan to scale up their imports as Chinese consumers' demand for such products remains robust, an industrial survey showed.

About 9.7 percent of the 945 retail and wholesale enterprise respondents said they would increase consumer product imports in the next year, 2.5 percentage points higher than those planning to decrease their imports, according to a survey by the Ministry of Commerce.

Among the 1,059 surveyed consumers, 24.1 percent planned more purchases of imported products, with strong demand for food, maternal and infant products, cosmetics, watches and glasses, jewelry and passenger vehicles.

Nearly 80 percent of consumer respondents had purchased imported consumer products at least once, which accounted for over 10 percent of the same-category purchases of 41.7 percent of the consumers.

Brand is the top consideration when merchandise firms import consumer products, while safety also matters in food and maternal and infant products, and design in apparel and jewelry, the survey showed.

The survey is part of the ministry's efforts to help organize the second China International Import Expo, which will be held in Shanghai from Nov. 5 to 10 this year.

China's imports totaled 6.72 trillion yuan (about 977 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year, up 1.4 percent year on year. Enditem

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