1.1 Motivation
The Taiwan seafood and fish market first caught my attention from consumer’s perspective.
Having a huge variety of seafood and fish delicacies on the market it was missing one of the key and the most luxurious product – caviar. It was quite strange for me because as a person born and raised in Russia, I used to see caviar as a common appetizer for any kind of celebration and sometimes as a part of my daily meal plans. This made me aware of the fact that with all seafood diversity which is introduced in the country, there are products not available in Taiwan.
Convinced that these products would be welcomed in the market, and that an ongoing business concern could be founded on such product as caviar, I chose to research the opportunity in greater detail.
Another motivation force which led me to choose this topic was the great interest towards gourmet food consumption in general and particularly in Taiwan. Living abroad for almost a decade I have always been interested in local and overseas culinary trends. It has been amazing for me how does the food preferences of some countries are being viewed in different parts of the world.
Caviar is an iconic national product of Russia and well known worldwide. It is the most luxurious gourmet food in the world. The interest towards luxury segment and how is it flourishing in Asia came from the book of Erwan Raomburg “The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Just Begun” and was another inspiration for me to study deeply on luxury consumption in Asia.
Caviar refers to the salted eggs (roe) of the fish species, sturgeon. Given its high price in the West, caviar is associated with luxury and wealth in Europe, however, it is not very well- explored in Asia, particularly in Taiwan yet.
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There is a certain number of caviar producers in the world. However, in my thesis I would like to analyze the market entry strategies for Russian GC “RUSSIAN CAVIAR HOUSE”, the biggest caviar producer in Russia.
1.2 Why Taiwan?
There are several factors which make Taiwan an attractive place to enter for the business, which specializes on gourmet food. First of all Taiwanese luxury goods market represented about 5,5 billion dollars in 2012, which made it the fifth biggest luxury market in Asia after Japan, China, South Korea, and Hong Kong, says Euromonitor International1. Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) states that the economic output of Taiwan’s food service sector, excluding institutional food service, is estimated at US$13.2 billion in 2012, a 7.7 percent increase from the previous year.
Secondly, considering Russia’s shift of the global economic and strategic balance eastwards, a traditionally Europe-oriented Russia has begun to realize its Asian dimension and economic potential. There is an external reason for the Russian food companies to look for the opportunities on the East: due to the past political events which happened between Russia and Ukraine and which caused economic sanctions towards Russia.
The Group of Companies Russian Caviar House has already opened representative offices in Hong Kong, and Singapore. They successfully introduced iconic Russian product to the market and are looking for the opportunities to extend their business to other countries in South East Asia. This is the reason, why Taiwan is one of the key destinations to enter.
Although Taiwan is a small island with a population of only 23 million people, Taiwan has developed into one of the world's largest economic and trading entities. With a nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $473.7 billion in 2012, Taiwan is the world's 24th largest economy, as well as the 6th largest economy in Asia. In 2012, Taiwan had an estimated per capita GDP of US$20,378 (US$38,486 when calculated in terms of Purchasing Power Parity).2
Taiwanese people love to eat. Feasting is a beloved practice, an integral component of the Taiwanese way of daily living, socializing, celebrating occasions, and making a conspicuous
1 http://www.euromonitor.com/business-environment
2 http://www.tradingeconomics.com/taiwan/gdp-growth
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display. Sharing meals considers both a significant private ritual and a special element of Taiwanese socio-economic habits.
All these factors make Taiwan an attractive destination for distribution of such a unique and exclusive product as black caviar.
1.3.Purposes of the Research
In this paper I would like to study the ways the new gourmet product enter the market. Even though Taiwanese market is small, as it was said previously, it has a lot of advantages and possibilities, especially in the food sector. The Taiwan foodservice industry expanded 7.7% to U.S. $13.2 billion in 20123. The rise of Taiwan’s tourism market continued to play a critical role in the growth of this sector, especially with the continued increase of Chinese tourists.
These factors make Taiwanese market very attractive for entering. However, as it is going to be completely new for the product, the purpose of this research is to investigate the existing barriers and challenges to the food distribution and acceptance for the new product on the market. Question which is going to be answered in my paper is How can a new gourmet product enter the market? How the consumer can be educated in Gourmet field?To answer this questions we have to discuss the ways of how to build a strong marketing and educational base for black caviar distribution in Taiwan.
Conducting the study on caviar production in Russia and distribution of this product abroad will help to investigate the new angles on trade between Taiwan and Russia. Ultimately, this thesis might be the foundation of a new company capable of profitably creating, marketing and distribution unique products of high quality to Taiwan’s the most discerning gourmet lovers whose needs are not currently being met.
3 The Report on The Taiwan foodservice industry by MOFA, 2014
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