Chinese caviar producer Hangzhou Qiandaohu Xunlong Co., which owns the Kaluga Queen brand, is expecting to more than triple the percentage of its sales in China’s domestic market in 2020.
Hangzhou Qiandaohu Xunlong CEO Wang Bin told China Central TV’s popular “Consumer Show” recently that he expects domestic sales to account for 19.6 percent of total sales in 2020, up from five percent in 2020. Speaking on a recent edition of “Consumer Show,” which airs on state TV’s business channel, Wang said he had targeted profits of CNY 100 million (USD 15 million, EUR 13 million) in 2020.
“But the market collapsed in March because we supply restaurants and hotels and these closed,” Wang said. “We were getting cancellations [of export orders] every day.”
The firm saw a 70 percent year-on-year fall in exporter orders in the March-to-May period. In May, however, sales to the domestic market grew 100 percent year-on-year in value terms and 128 percent in volume terms, hitting CNY 7 million (USD 1.05 million, EUR 910,000).
The company has invested in a studio in which to record live and broadcast to online customers, according to company e-commerce manager Xiao Ming. Xiao told SeafoodSource the company was boosted by the “6.18 Mid-Year Shopping Festival” promotion day run by e-commerce giant Alibaba, an annual promotion to drive summertime sales on the firm’s key online shopping portals Tmall and Taobao.
A sales broadcast for the October National Day holiday featured a duo of sprightly, fast-talking sales presenters teaching viewers how to eat caviar, while also stressing the Chinese attributes of the Kaluga product, with references to Qiandao Lake, where the company’s sturgeon is farmed.
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