Agriculture & Food

Mr. Xu of Liaocheng, Shandong, runs a monosodium glutamate factory. Due to the fierce competition in the domestic condiment market, he chose to develop the international trade market first, and then look for a breakthrough in the domestic market. In just one year, his net profit from foreign trade has exceeded 10 million yuan, and he has also opened up a new business of custom packaging MSG in domestic high-end western restaurants. Let's take a look at his wealth creation story!

With the continuous progress of transportation and logistics, the yearning for delicious food has inspired the unremitting pursuit of various condiments by people all over the world, which has led to the continuous vigorous development of the import and export business of international trade of condiments and the continuous increase of the market volume. my country is a big country of seasonings, with a wide variety of seasonings and many exports. Among them, the import value of Chinese condiments in 2021 will be 240 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 38.7%; the export value will be 2.08 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 32.2%.

Judging from the market size and output of condiments, as well as the import and export situation, the demand side is increasing and the consumption frequency and amount are also increasing. In recent years, the global epidemic has shifted catering consumption from eating out to home cooking scenarios, increasing the demand for condiments. Condiments, as just-needed livelihood products, continue to grow in demand in the post-epidemic era.

Avoid fierce domestic competition and open up international trade market

Mr. Xu's factory is in Liaocheng, Shandong, and it mainly produces monosodium glutamate. At present, the market competition in the domestic condiment industry is fierce, the main categories are crowded, the production capacity is relatively saturated, and the centralized improvement continues. The domestic condiment market is basically dominated by big brands such as Haitian, Lee Kum Kee, Xinhe, and Totole. The development space of small brands is severely squeezed, making it difficult to expand the company.

Faced with this dilemma, Mr. Xu thought of developing the international trade market first, building the brand, and then going back to compete for the domestic condiment market share.

Mr. Xu decided to start a foreign trade business, but he has no relevant experience. He learned from friends who are doing foreign trade around him that professional software can help newcomers in foreign trade take the crucial first step of developing customers. So he screened several well-known customer acquisition platforms, contacted the staff of Watson & Band, and after a detailed understanding, reached a cooperation with Watson & Band.

The first order has twists and turns, and the product is iteratively upgraded

It took Mr. Xu less than half a month from the beginning of finding a client to negotiating the first order. This customer is from Sri Lanka. Since it is the first time to cooperate, he first placed an order of 30,000 US dollars to test the water. The profit of this order is 173% higher than that of domestic orders, which makes Mr. Xu very happy.

However, after the order was made, the customer received MSG, was not very satisfied with the quality of the product, and pointed out the problem. Mr. Xu did not expect that the requirements of foreign customers were so high. If the product fails to meet the customer's requirements, it will either give up the orders and customers it has received, or rise to the challenge and upgrade and improve the product.

At first, he complained to the after-sales that foreign customers were difficult to serve. With the encouragement of the after-sales, he regained his confidence and chose to face the difficulties. If you want to become a big brand and make money, you need to jump out of the comfort zone, meet the needs of foreign customers more accurately and effectively, polish the products, and enhance the core competitiveness of the products, otherwise they will only be gradually eliminated by the market.

Mr. Xu spent more than three months before and after, constantly adjusting the raw materials and debugging the equipment. This process was extremely difficult. There is no wasted effort in the world. In the end, the monosodium glutamate produced by the factory meets the requirements of customers in terms of transparency and integrity.

The smooth delivery of the newly upgraded products has not only been recognized by Sri Lankan customers, but also won the trust of customers. The customer immediately placed a large order of more than 500,000 US dollars, and then placed regular orders every month, establishing a long-term cooperative relationship with Mr. Xu.

Great success in foreign trade, feeding back new domestic business

Doing foreign trade forces the factory to transform and upgrade, which is a good thing for the factory. The substantial improvement of product quality has greatly broadened the sales channels and is also of great help to the building of the brand.

In addition to the order from Sri Lanka, Mr. Xu also received an order of 200 tons of MSG from Nigeria, an order of US$120,000 from South Korea, and an order of US$30,000 from Peru. After one year, the net profit of the foreign trade business alone is close to 10 million.

With the great success of export sales, Mr. Xu began to intensify his efforts in the domestic market. On the basis of maintaining the original sales channels, he opened up new businesses and provided custom-packaged monosodium glutamate to high-end western restaurants. It is precisely because of the successful experience accumulated in developing the international trade market that he can quickly develop a new business of customizing condiments for high-end western restaurants.

If it were the previous situation, Mr. Xu would definitely not be able to imagine being able to directly connect with high-end western restaurants and achieve customized condiment cooperation. Today, he has opened up overseas markets with high-quality products, and has many cooperation cases with western restaurants, and he can also occupy a place in the fierce domestic market competition.