top of page

The HALVA story - From 0 to 100 in the Chinese market

This is how we took an anonymous and unfamiliar product in China and made it a successful brand

In our field of work, there is nothing more inspiring than a success story and this time; we decided to share with our followers, a particular one we are proud off, especially because this project almost failed along the way!

About a year ago I had lectured in a conference of young entrepreneurs. Right after the lecture, two young businessmen approached me and asked what I think about selling “HALVA” and “Tahini” products in the Chinese market. As far as I knew, this product hadn’t even existed in China at that time, so obviously I was intrigued by there proposal.

For those of you who don’t know, Halva is a Middle Eastern desert, usually made of sesame and considered to be a delight. It is dairy-free, and except the sugar, it has valuable nutritional benefits. Tahini is a kind of superfood which is grinded sesame paste made of 100% sesame.

After a short conversation, the two businessmen told me about the stores they own, in which they sell one of Israel’s best Halva Tahini brand. They explained that this brand is already becoming very popular in the USA and that they wish to expand, by selling the foreign delight in China.

I liked the idea and especially the ambition of these two entrepreneurs, and therefore, I asked our team in China, to start researching the market and find out what is the potential of this product. Our findings showed that this was a high-end premium product which has a high probability of interest for the Chinese consumers.

We decided that opening T-mall brand flag-shop will be the right strategy and began working. Just when we thought everything is going smoothly, we bumped into Chinese regulation. Apperently, there was one ingredient in Halva product, which wasn’t registered in the Chinese ministry of health.

Now, you need to understand how it works in China; they don’t have a list of forbidden materials, they only have a list of allowed materials, and if you have an ingredient which doesn’t appear on that list, your product can’t go in, even if this ingredient is completely natural and harmless like in our case.

You can imagine how frustrated that was for us. We had everything prepared, we successfully registered the store and had people waiting for samples. However, at that time, it looked like we cannot fight Chinese regulation and going to have to give up this project. Eventually, with hard work and determination, our team managed to overcome this barrier and import Halva to China.

The first two months of testing went great, and we sold the amount we expected, and after that, it just kept rising and getting bigger, gaining popularity. We managed to bring this foreign product to Chinese consumers’ awareness and now,

Halva brand is the most successful in China!

The two young entrepreneurs who already became my friends, were satisfied with the results and the rising income which eventually, only from the Chinese market, surpassed their former revenue.

Halva products on T-mall, Chinese leading online marketplace

This story demonstrates precisely what we aspire to do in ICBB GROUP- that is to take a product which doesn’t necessarily even exists in the Chinese market, analyze its potential, make a plan for it, create the right “BUZZ” around it, lunch the project and curve the way for the brand’s success. Challenges are expected to come, but we believe that working together with our costumers as though they were our partners and be determined to break through, is the right way for allowing a brand to get possession in the Chinese market

Tamir Nahmias is an International Business Development Manager and Co-Founder of ICBB group.

Featured Posts
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
No tags yet.
Follow Us
  • Facebook Basic Square
  • Twitter Basic Square
  • Google+ Basic Square
bottom of page