Every country has its diplomatic presence in China, but how can it serve foreign businesses and what do the commercial diplomats actually work on while in China?

Welcome to the China Business Cast, I am your host Simon de Raadt and today I happy to introduce a new co-host at CBC - Lina Bartusevičiūtė – who actually was my first guest, featured on Episode 97 in 2019. Lina is a founder of LITAO – a company operating since 2015 in Shanghai, that builds and executes China Market Entry and facilitates B2B sales. 

Lina has lived in China since 2009, and started her career as a business negotiator and interpreter. Since then, she has helped foreigners lead more than 1000 negotiations and business meetings, and she joined us to help our listeners get more acquainted with China behind the scenes.

For this episode, we spoke with Agnese Stūrmane – a commercial representative of Latvia – about how foreign companies can benefit from commercial diplomats in China and what functions they perform in their day-to-day job. Let’s hear more about why she chose this career and what you could gain by contacting your own country representative when preparing to work in China.

Ep. 112: Being a Commercial Diplomat in China with Agnese Stūrmane

China Business Cast is a podcast featuring experienced entrepreneurs and business people making things happen in China.  If you want to learn from on the ground accounts of how business actually gets done in China, this is the program for you.

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When Lina heard that M on the Bund - a landmark restaurant in Shanghai - is closing after 23 years, she couldn't miss a chance to interview the owner Michelle Garnaut and learn from her experiences of bringing world-class fine-dining culture to Chinese consumers.

The demand for Western quality in China, has inspired numerous entrepreneurs to travel to China and start a business. However, recently expats say it has become more difficult to work in cross-cultural businesses as the borders remain closed. How can they stay relevant? And how do you pivot and make an exit?

Michelle says in 30+ years of her career, she had only a few bad years, so she remains positive and optimistic. This episode is a conversation between two expat women running businesses with a legacy  – it will be inspiring and useful to anyone in business particularly in F&B looking to understand how to prepare and adapt to the changing market forces in order to tap into the opportunities in China.

Ep. 129: M on the Bund closes after 23 years - my last afternoon tea with Michelle Garnaut

On December 8 EU SME centre held their webinar on new major regulations that require all overseas F&B manufacturers exporting to China to have a new registration code printed on the labels of all their F&B products to clear customs since January 1, 2022. The webinar was hosted by Mr. Alessio Petino who invited key China experts Lina Bartuseviciute from LITAO Consultancy Group, Raymond NG with Lavinia Yao from Accestra Consulting, and the China Customs Officer to discuss what will change for SMEs exporting to China.

Lina was nominated to start the discussion by sharing opportunities new regulations bring to EU F&B brands and set the stage for regulatory compliance consultants and China Customs Officer who was the main creator of these regulations. She also explained the context why regulations will come to an effect as soon as next month. There is an urgency for businesses to comply with F&B safety standards following recent media coverage on how COVID break-outs in China were attributed to imported foods and more local counterfeit goods promote false country of origin deceiving the public.

During the event, the regulatory experts from Accestra Consulting clarified the requirements and showed step-by-step guidance for self-registration on GAC’s platform. The speakers together with China Customs Agent addressed questions raised by over 100 participants, including, F&B producers, exporters, business organizations and government bodies such as ministries and embassies from Europe and neighbouring countries. This episode will be particularly useful to understand what will change for SMEs and how to register on the GAC platform for free before the deadline of January 1st 2022.

Ep. 128: Webinar: Mandatory GACC Registration for all F&B exporters

Numerous imported COVID-19 cases in China were associated with improper cold chain management. Some warehouses were shut down, and the goods were sometimes seized and disposed of by the customs. What can the exporters do to improve their cold-chain management and mitigate the risks? How can you make sure your customers trust your brand?

Lina reached out to an old friend Bjorn van der Veen – a Managing Director at Arctic Solutions – to understand how it affected his ice-cream sales and what were his techniques to keep the Chinese consumers buying imported frozen foods. This episode is a friendly conversation between two people who work with imported foods every day for over 6 years. So it will be quite practical and particularly useful to anyone in F&B business looking to understand what opportunities are available for them in China market.

Ep. 127: Selling imported ice cream online during COVID-19 with Bjorn van der Veen

Today we are sharing the content originally prepared for the corporate training session of a 150-year-old Japanese company. They realized that if they want to be in business for another 150 years, they need to learn from China. Their teams need to see China as a partner and they need to develop the required skills to work without cultural conflicts. 

The topic of this training is 'China Business Leadership' and we chose Athena Zhu as she is one of our favorite examples of how to be a truly cross-cultural professional. She is an experienced multicultural, commercial leader with a demonstrated history of working in consumer goods and consulting. 

Born and raised up in New Zealand, Athena began her career working with BCG in Australia-Asian, Asia-Pacific group. She moved to China in 2014 to work on Heineken’s M&A and later joined her sister in building a plant-based food brand. The mission of Athena and her sister’s company is to bring functional delicious and nutritious plant-based dairy alternatives and beverages to the Chinese consumers. 

After moving to China, she found that many things including economy and culture in China are thought-provoking, vibrant and dynamic. And the results turn out to be very surprising and promising, which made her think about what is good leadership, what is the modern way of working, what is effectiveness, etc.

Ep. 126: Navigating Business Leadership Styles of China & the West with Athena Zhu

Today we are sharing the content originally prepared for the corporate training session of a 150-year-old Japanese company. They realized that if they want to be in business for another 150 years, they need to learn from China. Their teams need to see China as a partner and they need to develop the required skills to work without cultural conflicts. 

The topic of this training is 'China Business Leadership' and we chose Helen as the first female business leader to interview, as she built up a business selling professional consulting services and has been in the market for over 15 years consistently expanding in new industries, preserving the core of her business and the quality.

Helen Ye is the co-founder of Accestra - a company based in Hangzhou, which mainly specializes in helping overseas companies enter the China market and provides technical consulting services to consumer goods companies and pharmaceuticals. Helen is  personally responsible for helping over 4000 products reach Chinese consumers. She has over 15 years of experience in China’s regulatory compliance.

Ep. 112: Being a Commercial Diplomat in China with Agnese Stūrmane

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