ust two years after entering the market, Marine Harvest Scotland’s sales of farmed salmon to China have reached GBP 25 million (USD 37.7 million, EUR 28.7 million).Direct sales to China opened up for the first time at the beginning of 2011 after an agreement was signed between the Scottish and Chinese governments. Marine Harvest’s farmed salmon saw sales of GBP 9 million (USD 13.6 million, EUR 10.3 million) in the first year.
Marine Harvest developed a new brand for the Chinese market after market research showed consumers associated the words good, beauty and dignity with salmon. These have been combined into a recognizable Chinese character that is pronounced in the same way as “delicious” and holds connotations of freshness, health and beauty.
The new branding is used consistently across all marketing and communications and has proved enormously successfully.
“Traditionally Chinese consumers have not placed a great deal of value on the origin of their fish and a Made in Scotland label was simply not going to be enough,” said Georgina Wright, Marine Harvest Scotland head of sales. “We had to find another way of attracting them to our product as we knew once they had experienced it they would return and appreciate the consistent high quality of the product.
“We are delighted with the response to our brand and the inroads we have made into this new market. To have reached the GBP 25 million milestone in such a short period is an outstanding achievement for our sales team and with a population of 1.35 billion we still have opportunity for growth.”
