A journey to Hong Kong

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”, so the Chinese saying goes. This is a philosophy that every entrepreneur will be familiar with and is one that felt very personal as I embarked on a journey to Hong Kong to showcase Mungo Murphy’s Seaweed Co. products to Chinese and Hong Kong based buyers interested in our seaweed and seafood products.

The journey was certainly daunting, as I had read much about the cultural formalities of doing business in China, but in hindsight, my concerns about committing any major cultural faux pas were mostly unfounded, the only cultural practice attributed to doing business in China that I observed to be true, was the practice of presenting business cards using two hands with your name facing upwards. Other than that, basic manners and respect goes a long way. If I was forced to give one word of advice to anyone venturing into China it would be, ‘eat the food!’.

The hospitality I experienced was very generous and while I won’t be ordering chicken feet or fish balls ever again, appreciation of the food and local gastronomy is well received and the least you can do is eat what is served.

During my visit, I explored a number of different high-end supermarkets to learn more about the market tastes and trends. I learned that packaging is a big deal. This was disappointing as a producer trying to reduce the amount of packaging we use, but I did pick up some interesting ideas for premium products, with minimal packaging along the way. I was also struck by the absence of Irish produce on the shelves. Japanese and Korean produce dominated the high-end supermarkets with Canadian, British and Danish foods edging their way up the ladder. I only saw Kerrygold in one supermarket and not one ounce of Irish beef. Goat milk was the dominant dairy product in the dairy section. It is clear that more work needs to be done to put Ireland and Irish food on the Hong Kong supermarket/consumer radar.

I would also add that more work needs to be done to produce products that the Hong Kong and Chinese market actually wants; if Ireland Inc. were to focus as much attention on the aquaculture of high value marine produce as it does on beef and dairy farming, then I believe the country would benefit from increased exports of high value produce, while significantly reducing our national carbon footprint, attributed to the farming of livestock. But I’ll proceed along this journey alone for now.