CASE STUDY

How a Spanish seafood importer reducedits supply chain risk in Asia

Safety at the Source with Silliker

ChallengeA 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 AssessmentNormally 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.

ImplementationWith 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.

IndustrySeafood

CustomerIs 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 regionChina, Vietnam

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

www.AsiaFoodInspection.comsales@asiafoodinspection.com © AsiaFoodInspection, 2014.

About AsiaFoodInspectionAsiaFoodInspection is a leading food quality control provider powered by

• Silliker inc, a leading international network of accredited food testing and consulting laboratories

• AsiaInspection, provider for quality control in Asia, with 80,000 controls performed yearly

Our solutions• Food inspections• GHP Good Handling Practice Audit• GMP Good Manufacturing Practice Audit• HACCP Hazard Analysis and Critical

Control Points• Certified audits• Various lab testing against AOAC, FDA,

ISO, local (Chinese) GB standards• SA 8000 or Sedex (SMETA) standards

for social and ethical compliance