A Chinese seafood processing hub staffed with North Korean workers has been seeking out new customers at the ongoing seafood fair in Qingdao, luring clients with the slogan “Come to Hunchun to Fullfill Your Dreams.”
Government officials and processing executives drummed up business at the prominent booth of the Hunchun International Co-operation Demonstration park at the China Seafood fair in Qingdao city this week, seeking new customers for companies in the park such as Qi Fan Food Processing Co. and Guang Yang Co. “We want more international customers,” explained Song Cai Qi, general manager of the Wan Shi Da Co, one of the Hunchun processors at the fair.
Part of an ethnic-Korean territory in China that neighbours North Korea and Russia, Hunchun featured prominently in recent media reports of its use of North Korean labor. Several key Chinese processing firms have opened factories in Hunchun, which benefits from its proximity to North Korean labor and to ports in both North Korea and Russia. Hunchun is a two hour drive from Rajin port (in North Korea), which enables access to key markets like South Korea, Japan and Russia.
Seafood processors promoting the zone include squid-processing specialist Hunchun East Yang Industrial Co and Hunchun Honghao Food Industry & Trade Co, which ships shrimp, squid and cuttlefish. Meanwhile Yantai Da Cheng has supplemented its main base on the coast with a newer plant in Hunchun with 12,000 ton annual capacity focused on the European processed squid market.
