Behind the pad thai sauce, rice noodles and sake that can be tasted in some Spanish restaurants and supermarkets is Oriental Market, a company run by Christian Lee, an entrepreneur originally from Taiwan, from Barcelona. It imports food, kitchen utensils, furnishings and original decoration from thirteen Asian countries which it then distributes to manufacturers, restaurateurs, supermarkets and hotels, in addition to the final consumer through its store in the Catalan capital and e-commerce.
The pandemic has been an opportunity for him. Some of the competition did not overcome the severe loss of covid, with restrictions on catering and difficulties to import, and some customers lost distributors. “We were there and we won market share”, explains Lee. All this, linked to a diversification of channels and products, has raised turnover from 8 million euros in 2020 – the year of the pandemic – to 16 million in the last financial year. For this year they hope to be able to approach 20 million in income.
The rise of oriental food in Spain, with a multitude of supermarkets that sell ingredients and prepared food, specialized restaurants and chefs that are committed to fusion with Asia, has helped the business. Before Oriental Market, Lee worked at the family company IberoChina, created by his parents in Madrid. The family arrived in the city in the eighties from Taiwan and ran up to five Chinese restaurants. Over time, they left the hospitality business and focused on importing and distributing food products. In 2016, Lee separated from IberoChina, already with Oriental Market active and focused on the entire oriental market, not just China. This type of restaurant, says Lee, went into decline, while cuisines such as Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese have experienced strong growth.
More than 5,000 product references pass through the logistics plant in Montcada and Reixac. “One of the most complex tasks is to adapt them to European regulations; we work with suppliers and embassies so that food and packaging comply with EU legislation and can be exported better”, he explains.
In addition to distribution, they offer advisory services to customers to better match the ingredients and foods they sell. “A product can become fashionable in another country, or because a prestigious chef uses it, but that doesn’t mean it has to be liked by the general public”, he underlines. Recently, they have also started selling exotic fresh fruit and frozen products, with a fleet of fourteen trucks. They have also just entered cosmetics and manga items.
