Zhejiang Ocean Family (also known as Da Yang Shijia) has opened a “tuna lifestyle store” in Bei Lun Fu Bang Tower in Ningbo Beilun.
In addition to East Pacific, tuna enthusiasts can also buy or eat in-store Argentine red shrimp, north Pacific saury and scallops from Hokkaido.
Formerly a processor and canner of seafood, Ocean Family has in the past decade sought to become a distributor. It now operates 10 of its Shi Ji Da Hui-brand seafood stores and a series of 25 seafood counters in major supermarkets around China, offering a wide assortment of sashimi and sushi-type seafood in both. The firm has also sought to develop relationships with convenience stores located near subway stations in major Chinese cities.
Tuna has traditionally been canned in Ningbo for an export market, with a limited domestic sales scope in Chinese retail outlets. That now appears to be changing as Chinese consumers embrace Japanese cuisine, in particular at the higher end of the hospitality market.
Zhejiang Ocean Family last year announced a “strategic partnership” with Womai.com, one of China’s leading e-commerce sites and part of the state-owned COFCO conglomerate. Ocean Family founder and CEO Yue Xiang told journalists that his firm would do packaging and processing of imported seafood for Womai. Now it appears the processor and cannery firm wants to move up the value chain to retailing of premium seafood product.
