Norway’s salmon sector is getting a boost from an ambitious chain of stores dedicated to selling salmon in China’s wealthiest region but also tapping into online sales channels.
The Guangzhou Xin Bao Salmon Chain Stores Co - a subsidiary of the Guangzhou Jun Hui Export-Import Co (also known as Guangzhou Convergency Trade Co) - has expanded to ten stores across southern China, with shops in Guangzhou but also as far inland as Changsha, the populous capital of Hunan province.
And now the company is making a big push on cod sales for Chinese New Year, tempting consumers to order gift boxes for family, with a promotion strap line: “Healthy, nutritious, easy to prepare, delicious and high end.” Crucially, as well as chain stores Xin Bao also sells through online platforms like Dianping and Meituan, which offer home delivery services.
As well as selling through its own outlets the firm distributes imported fish through the Guang Bai and Sheng Jia supermarket chains in southern China. “The goal is to expand the market for Norwegian arctic cod in southern China…we are presenting this as the freshest and safest seafood product for Chinese consumers,” according a company spokesman reached on the company’s sales line told SeafoodSource.
Seeking to expand the range of its products, Xin Bao recently signed a cooperation deal with the Qingdao Ai Yuan Food Co. (which operates the Ai Yu brand), a large processor which has been seeking to move away from contract processing for reexport while expanding its exposure to higher-yield products and imports. Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) representatives joined the two firms for dinner at the Xin Bao restaurant recently. Ai Yuan will tailor process Norwegian cod to Chinese consumer tastes, general manager Meng Xinghua was one of several speakers at a November conference on Norwegian cod organised by the NSC.
Xin Bao and Ai Yuan executives also together visited also operating through the He Yuan Wanlong Cross-border Online Trade Pilot Zone, an initiative in the southern city of Heyuan that allows
Mainland China’s consumption of salmon is growing by 30 percent a year - indeed at that rate the country may well be the world’s number one salmon market within the decade, believes Sigmund Bjorgo, who heads up the NSC’s office in China. He says Norway expects to sell between 2,000 and 3,000 tons of cod this year in China but wants to hit 20,000 tons within five years.
