Chinese businesses have almost quadrupled their presence at one of the UK's biggest gift and homeware events as they seek to build international brands and to raise margins by selling directly to British retailers.

Last year just 65 Chinese businesses exhibited at the Spring Fair, held annually at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. This year 244 companies are showing off their wares, either indoors in the Brands of China section, which officially opened yesterday, or interspersed among the other exhibitors.

It is a logical move. A high proportion of the goods that British distributors and wholesalers offer to retailers at the Spring Fair are made in China anyway so the Chinese are seeking to cut out the middlemen.

However, Chinese government officials are aware of western suspicions of the country's economic expansion. Yesterday in Birmingham, Zhong Shan, vice-minister for trade, lamented the fact “trade relations do not match the position of our two great trading nations”.

UK goods accounted for less than one per cent of Chinese imports, he said. Mr Zhong diplomatically omitted to mention that these were worth only a quarter of what Chinese goods shipped to the UK were, partly thanks to an exchange rate policy that keeps the renminbi artificially low.

A significant proportion of the companies promoting their products at Spring Fair are wholly or partly state-owned. Exhibitors said they had benefited from state subsidies of as much as one third of costs to make the expensive journey to the NEC.

“Mainly we sell to the UK through distributors,” said Renshan Chzen, who was manning a display of colourful paper lanterns, “but I hope to sell directly.” That would enable him to raise margins by 30 per cent, he calculated, although “it is hard for our brands to enter mature markets like the UK”. Wordy Chinese company names could be part of the problem – Mr Chzen represents the Fujian Provincial Jiyang Arts & Crafts Integrated Company.

“We have lots of customers in the UK such as Marks and Spencer,” said Carson Zhou of the snappier-sounding King Deer Cashmere Company, based in Inner Mongolia, “but we don't sell under our own brand here, even though King Deer is famous in China and has 80 shops.” The clothing company, which had 11,000 staff, was contemplating advertising in the west, he said.

To many Britons, Chinese business people appear as exotic as their Japanese counterparts did in the seventies. That will fade as marketing efforts intensify and more Chinese sales people base themselves here. For example, Xiaoya Zhang of umbrella company Susino has operated from Liverpool since 2007. “It is a lot better for our customers,” she said, “They don't have to put up with the time difference and I can keep stock here so they can see samples quickly.”

The specialist traders who pioneered Chinese exports to the west stand to lose out, however. One imports entrepreneur visiting the NEC, who requested anonymity, said: “Now China's doors are open to anyone. So there is no price advantage for me. I don't know if I can survive.”