How Chinese caviar producer Kaluga Queen won customers around the world
- The caviar producer, based in Hangzhou, made its international breakthrough when, after nine years of trying, it was chosen to be sole supplier to Lufthansa
- Today the company accounts for one-third of global caviar sales and supplies many of France’s top restaurants, but its biggest potential market is at home
The road to worldwide success and recognition for Chinese caviar brand Kaluga Queen (KQ) has been a long and winding one.
Set up in 1998 in Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, KQ, which today accounts for one-third of global caviar production, had to overcome doubts about its products coming from a country more associated with food scandals than haute cuisine.
After two decades of overseas promotion, the breakthrough came in 2018 when Lufthansa struck a deal with KQ to be its sole caviar supplier for its first-class cabins.
KQ’s co-founder, Xia Yongtao, says it took nearly a decade to win over the German national airline.
“We put in our first tender way back in 2009 when we attended the Brussels seafood expo,” he says. “Lufthansa people thought it was a joke for Chinese to produce caviar, as China never had a caviar consumption culture.”