One of China’s leading real estate developers has piled into the seafood trade by opening a chain of supermarkets that targets residents of its high-end buildings with fresh produce, including seafood.
V24 Fresh Choices, opened by developer Vanke Co., is the newest in a wave of entrants to what’s become a very competitive sector. Argentinean shrimp and Norwegian salmon feature in the cold sections of the supermarkets, alongside filets of domestically-sourced fish, including yellow croaker and sea bass.
Vanke is one of China's leading real estate developers with a focus on its home base, the southerly province of Guangdong. Vanke has also established subsidiaries in Europe and North America.
Its V24 chain will focus on what the Chinese government terms the Greater Bay Area – a high-income urban sprawl encompassing Hong Kong, Macau, and the adjacent mainland cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai.
This highly integrated region, which represents China’s largest regional economy, has also become a focus for another upstart retailer, 7Fresh, established by leading online retailer Jingdong Co. 7Fresh has teamed up with Da Yang Shi Jia (Ocean Family), a leading fishing firm, importer, and processor, which has its own booths in outlets of the new chain store selling its fresh and chilled seafood.
