South American wants to be another Jack Ma
As the founder and CEO of Pampa Corp, Juan Uriburu is planning to move Argentine agricultural products through an e-commerce platform much like Jack Ma’s Alibaba.
Ma is the kind of successful businessman Uriburu wants to emulate.
“When I thought of what I could sell in China that can be bought by 1 percent of the population, I realized it’s food. If I can reach 1 percent of Chinese with food, I would be big like Jack Ma,” said the ambitious Argentine entrepreneur. Pampa has been selling agricultural goods to China since 2008. In 2017, it sold $80 million worth of various products there.
With the coming of the new Argentine administration, Pampa has already started to import goods from China.
“We mostly import energy-efficient products such as LED lights, solar water boilers, solar panels and anything to do with energy efficiency,” Uriburu said.
Now, Uriburu wants Pampa to be the biggest Argentine e-supermarket in China.
“We have been planning this for more than two years. We have selected Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Yiwu as the first four cities to open our distribution centers,” he said.
Pampa plans to ship Argentine agricultural goods directly to its distribution centers in China. Chinese consumers can go to the online platform and order from the list. Within 24 hours, the food items will be delivered to their doorstep.
“Right now Chinese consumers are buying good Argentine products at high prices because the foods go from producers to trading companies, then exporters and finally to storage. It’s a long chain with many costs added,” he said.
“We go to producers directly. We export the goods to our distribution centers in China, and the Chinese can buy them and get them in 24 hours. We want to sell good Argentine products for a lower price.”
The model is also useful for smaller Chinese retail outlets to buy wholesale Argentine products.
The products will include quality beef, wines, olive oil, shrimp, calamari, poultry products, honey and more.
Uriburu first went to China in 2008, and since then he has been visiting there about three times a year. He opened an office in China in 2012.
“China has made the change from being the factory of the world to opening factories outside of China. It’s constantly changing for the good of the Chinese people,” he said.
Uriburu has been focusing his business efforts on China over the last decade, and he thinks that his country should do the same.
“The economies of China and Argentina are of a complementary and not competitive nature. We have all the agricultural products to feed the Chinese population, and China can teach Argentina so much about developing technology and adding value to our raw materials,” he said.
Uriburu would like to see China move some of its factories to Argentina to create job opportunities in the country. From his perspective, China could use Argentina as a starting point to expand to the rest of Latin America.
Uriburu will soon travel to China to finalize details on distribution centers for Pampa’s esupermarket. Meanwhile, he’s also working with different Chinese partners on other projects.