EXPLORING THE OBSTACLES OF LATVIAN FOOD COMPANIES EXPORT TO CHINA

Abstract

As we know, China is the biggest trader in the world. European Commission has revealed that China has become the European Union (EU)`s second largest trading partner behind the United States, and EU is China`s biggest trading partner. This situation just proves the necessity of making good partnership with China, which is especially needed for such a small country as Latvia. The main export fields for Latvia are wood, metal, electrical devices and minerals. As the population of China is growing very fast, leading to more than one billion people in 2016 (increased for more than 41 million in last six years), the food market is in need of more and more products. Of course, Chinese market may seem a golden ticket to each food producer, but there are some obstacles that doesn`t allow European companies export to China right away. In this paper, based on the statistics from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia as well as sample food market research report of Latvian export to China, the author introduces some of the legal and cultural obstacles (differences) that may stop food producers from entering Chinese market, and give some ideas to assist Latvian food small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to export to China and establish, develop, and maintain commercial activities in Chinese market. Meanwhile, the authors do some specific researches of marketing barriers, such as Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) protection issues, infrastructure and logistics, and food labelling to analyze the marketing strategy of opening the food market in China. At last, the authors provide some information and advices to Latvian and EU`s food producers to discover China market.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.10.14637