Daiwa China steps up counterfeit crackdown at major tackle expos

Daiwa’s Chinese subsidiary is turning up the heat on counterfeit tackle, launching a string of enforcement actions across the country’s biggest fishing expos and signalling a more aggressive stance on intellectual property protection in one of the world’s most competitive angling markets.

The Japanese tackle giant’s China arm has posted a series of notices on its official website detailing recent raids and seizures of infringing products at major domestic trade shows. The most recent action, dated May 11, targeted the 2026 Spring China Fish & Sea-Angling Tackle Industry Expo held between March 6 and 9, where Daiwa said counterfeit goods were identified and confiscated on site. Earlier, in late December, the brand reported separate crackdowns at the 2025 Suzhou Shanghua Fishing Tackle Exhibition (November 14-16) and the 17th Weihai International Fishing Tackle Expo, also known as the CGC Expo Autumn 2025.

The clustering of enforcement actions is drawing attention from international buyers and OEM partners who have long flagged product piracy as one of the most stubborn challenges in China’s tackle manufacturing belt. Weihai in Shandong province and Suzhou in Jiangsu are both anchor clusters for rod, reel and lure production, hosting annual shows that serve as barometers for export trends and product launches heading into the European and North American seasons.

Daiwa’s stepped-up activity comes as several leading Japanese and European brands have shifted their China strategy from pure distribution toward closer collaboration with vetted OEM factories, partly to differentiate genuine supply chains from grey-market lookalikes. Counterfeit reels bearing the Daiwa logo remain a persistent concern in Southeast Asian and African export channels, where pricing pressure makes convincing fakes especially damaging for authorised distributors.

Beyond the show-floor enforcement, Daiwa China also issued a consumer advisory in late January urging buyers to safeguard product authentication codes on packaging. The notice reflects growing investment in track-and-trace technology and serial-number verification systems, tools that premium tackle brands have rolled out across China to help retailers and end consumers distinguish originals from increasingly sophisticated knockoffs.

The broader signal for the industry is that rights holders are willing to invest in legal and logistical resources to police trade shows rather than rely solely on customs enforcement after goods leave Chinese factories. For foreign buyers attending China’s tackle expos, the visible presence of brand protection teams may also serve as an informal quality marker — a sign that the show organisers and exhibiting factories are taking IP standards seriously as the country’s tackle exports continue to climb into new markets across Eastern Europe, South America and the Middle East.

Whether the intensifying crackdown translates into a measurable drop in counterfeit volume remains to be seen, but Daiwa’s public notice strategy suggests the brand wants buyers, dealers and factory partners alike to associate its name with verified authenticity rather than the open secret of unbranded clones that has historically weighed on margins across the sector.

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