How a Spanish sea food importer reduced its supply chain risk in Asia
1. CASE STUDY
How a Spanish seafood
importer reduced
its supply chain risk in Asia
Safety at the Source with Silliker
2. Challenge
A Spanish seafood specialist trading company from Madrid faced major issues
with the quality of the imported seafood from Asian suppliers. Customers in Spain
were frequently complaining about the incoming seafood. Persisting issues had
put the trading company’s credibility at stake and risked losing its major Europe-
an retailer customers.
The company asked AsiaFoodInspection to guide them in implementing a de-
tailed process of inspecting and monitoring their suppliers in remote regions of
China and Vietnam. The objective was to have a greater control over the supply
chain sourcing, but remotely from Spain.
Problem Assessment
Normally seafood is coated with layer of ice referred as ‘glazing’, to keep it fresh. A
trick used by some of the Asian suppliers involves adding more ice than required in
order to increase the seafood’s gross weight and have relatively less fish substance
in the final product. Consequently, the retailers end up charging for the water, and
shoppers pay more money for less fish, thus leading to customer’s dissatisfaction.
Implementation
With our expertise in sea food inspection and lab testing, we helped the client setup
a thorough inspection process at their suppliers’ factory in Dalian (China). Within a
week we replicated the process at all their China and Vietnam suppliers. AsiaFoo-
dInspection, with its large network of inspectors helped the client reach remotest
corner of Asia just within 48 hours of order booking.
We designed industry standard inspection protocols based on “NOAA-Seafood
Inspection Program” requirements for fish inspection (that includes seafood sam-
pling plan, boil-in smell tests, temperature checks, workmanship and dimensions
checks). We further customized the inspection process as per customer’s busi-
ness requirements. Specific focus is placed on our specialized glazing tests to
ensure that weight of the fish before and after glazing is within permissible limits.
Industry
Seafood
Customer
Is a seafood trader from Madrid,
Spain who caters to major
European retailers and imports
more than 10 million kilos of frozen
pro-ducts every year.
Sourcing region
China, Vietnam
3. Impact
“Now that I have increased control over my entire sourcing network I can track
merchandise at every stage of the supply chain using AsiaFoodInspection’s cus-
tomized online system. The reports are transparent and help me take decisions
before importing food. The inspection process certainly makes my suppliers more
vigilant and has restored my peace of mind. I anticipate continued partnership with
Asiafoodinspection in the future” says the director of the Spanish trading company.
With comprehensive quality check systems in the customer’s supply chain, 100%
of its seafood merchandise leaving Asia for Europe is safe to consume and ad-
heres to all quality regulations. We ensure this by systematically controlling each
container in the factory and testing the contents in AsiaFoodInspection specialty
labs powered by Silliker.
On an average of 15% of the importable lot gets rejected at the source (factory in
Asia) itself, but it allows a safer, smoother, and cost effective supply chain.
“Now I have increased control
over my entire sourcing net-
work as I can track merchan-
dise at each level using Asi-
aFoodInspection’s customized
online system. The reports are
transparent and help me take
decisions even before import-
ing the food. I anticipate con-
tinued partnership with Asi-
aFoodInspection in future”
Director of the Spanish trading company
