Chinese New Year, falling on 16 February this year, is an annual peak season for seafood gift sales in China. But as the selling season reaches its peak, some unscrupulous retailers are taking liberties with their labeling.
For example, in a gift box selling for CNY 988 (USD 157 , EUR 128) - along with products from Canada, Iceland, and Russia - Irish brown crabs are being marketed as British.
The gift box, from premium seafood distributor Yuding Xian, is being marketed on e-retailer portals including Suning.com and JD.com.
The labeling of Irish crab as British is symptomatic of a marketing problem for smaller countries, which have long struggled to make their name in China. Irish oysters are frequently marketed as French in China, in part due to the consolidation of air shipments out of Paris. And products from countries like Chile are often labeled as being from America due to the bigger name recognition.
