As Tom Sundher, president of Surrey-based Coast Clear Wood, watched purchase orders from the U.S. fall off the map throughout last year, he massaged newer accounts in India.

Buyers in Hyderabad, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chandigarh reprocess his kiln-dried, cut-to-spec B.C. lumber into mouldings, windows, spindles and stair parts for use in high-rise condos and high-tech offices.

It was a tap into that oft-lauded demographic in India: The young and upwardly mobile, with their cellphones, cappuccinos and credit cards. "Our [end-user] is exactly that rising, very middle-class consumer," said Sundher.

Orders to India held steady all last fall, even as the economic downturn hammered other markets. But now he is seeing a sudden, big drop in those orders, to the tune of 50 per cent. Sales get locked in at the beginning of each quarter, and this is his first sign that things have changed.

"I have been calling clients there to see what they will need for the next few months. Their requirements are down. They are saying that a lot of buildings have stopped, a lot of activity has stopped," said Sundher. "I moved offshore to be less dependent on the U.S. Now, [India too] is slowing down."

Those who want to diversify away from American customers or move beyond just manufacturing in India or China might heed the experiences of B.C. entrepreneurs who have for some time been targeting middle-class consumers there. There are still opportunities, but the froth is definitely off.

Burnaby resident Michael Yu is one of four Metro Vancouver backers of a Shanghai-based website that sells electronics to customers in China. Originally, Yu thought that Baiyangcity.com would source computers, cellphones and stereos in China, and sell them in Canada. But following in the footsteps of much bigger U.S-based online purveyors, he and his partners decided instead to go after young, tech-savvy consumers in China itself.

"It's a much bigger market," said Yu.

He is still optimistic about the future of selling directly to online customers in China — the company recently started including ice wine and baby food products like milk powder from Canada. But he admits that he doesn't know how a slowdown will impact his customers.

"We sell to customers who are teenagers to people under 35," said Yu. "They still have money, or are spending money from their parents."

Yu last week grimly noted the announcement from China's computer giant, Lenovo, that it would cut about 2,500 jobs, or about 11 per cent of its worldwide workforce. The company, which is the world's fourth-largest PC maker, cited losses because of the global economic situation, but, in particular, pointed to sagging demand in China, historically its major market.

John McLennan, a former Vancouver resident, owns Hong Kong-based Indigo Living, which provides interior design services for large developments in India and China, and operates high-end, home design stores in both markets. He has been dealing with a slowdown in China going back "for more then eight months. The money supply dried up. Local and foreign companies shut down the property market. It's been so good for so long that there is a shock period [now] . . . . But it's not different than anywhere else in the world. If the economy is bad, people don't spend."

In India, some of the country's largest property groups booked Indigo to "furnish this, furnish that," but the "glacial" pace of doing business in general really drags out the process, said McLennan. Now, this is actually offering a small buffer. Some companies are currently treading on a backlog of work, he said.

Vancouver-based Frenny Bawa, who heads BlackBerry maker Research-In-Motion's expansion into India, is also focused on the positive even thought consultancy firm KPMG says that sales of cars, cellphones, stereos and iPods in India are down by as much as 15 per cent since August. Bawa said that "there is no question that consumers there are very price sensitive, but they are also very, very resilient."