St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada-based Ocean Choice International has teamed with a retail conglomerate and a seafood distributor and processor in eastern China for a major promotion of Canadian shrimp and fish products.
The Canadian firm has teamed up with Qingdao-based Mei Chu Foodstuffs Co, which operates the Shen Hai Ri Ji or Ocean Diary brand, and the Shandong Yin Zuo Group, which operates the InZone brand, a major operator of retail space in the country’s east coast. As part of the promotion, Ocean Choice and its Chinese partners are running a Canadian Seafood Festival in Yin Zuo properties this month, with an emphasis on coldwater shrimp and salmon and major media promotion as well as in-store cooking demonstrations.
The choice of partners and marketing strategy is an interesting one from Ocean Choice, giving it exposure in a key seafood processing region and a potential springboard to the first-tier cities of Qingdao and Shanghai. The promotion’s timing may be fortuitous for the company, as the growing trade war between China and the United States has resulted in new tariffs on U.S. seafood entering China.
