Fil-Chinese snack producer continues to make waves in China

Giovanni Hernandez briefed the Philippine delegation about Jiangxi Liwayway Packaging Company in hte People’s Republic of China. Liwayway company is the maker of Oishi products. (PNA photo)

JIANGXI, China–The maker of the all-time favorite snack of the Filipinos continue to grow here despite presence of competitors in the People’s Republic of China.

“We are doing better despite the presence of other competitors,” said Giovanni Hernandez, the senior manager of Jiangxi Liwayway Packaging Company Ltd.

based in De’an Country, Jiujiang City here.

Liwayway, owned by Filipino-Chinese businessman Carlos Chan, is the maker of Oishi snack foods such as Kirei and potato chips in different flavors.

Hernandez, who briefed the 21-delegation of Information Officers and Journalists from the Philippines during the field visit on Thursday, said the market for Oishi products did not change significantly amid competition. Currently, Oishi market share is at 26 percent high among similar products in China.

The delegation’s visit to the Oishi plant was part of the ongoing two-week seminar that seeks to enhance traditional friendship and cooperation between China and other developing countries like the Philippines. The seminar is a two-week program sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China

In an interview at the sidelines of the company visit, Hernandez said Liwayway entered China first in Shanghai in 1993. It expanded its investment to Tianjin, Hebei, Jiangsu and Hubei with 15 total production companies.

In 2003 it started the construction of the Jiangxi Liwayway Food Industry Co. Ltd in Western Bao Ta Industrial Zone in De’an County, Jiujiang City, Jiangxi Province.

The products from Jiangxi production plants are marketed in Jiangxi, Guangdong, Fujian, Hainan, Chongquing, Guizhou, Zhejiang, among others.

In a briefer provided to the delegation by the host Jiujiang City government, Liwayway’s total investment reached RNB 160 million for the construction of its 32,000 square meter production plants. It has seven production lines.

In the past two years, Liwayway invested close to RMB28 million to build two new factory buildings of about 8,000 square meters, improved equipment and expanded production that includes juice drinks.

Liwayway also passed the ISO9001 international quality system certification.

It has 460 employees including 11 Filipino expats holding supervisory positions. Among them are Hernandez; Carl Mervin Liu, the packaging plant manager; Jenny Rose Diaz, the quality control supervisor of one packaging plant with 20 employees; and, Jay Herrera, maintenance supervisor.

Hernandez, 36 years old, has been with the company for nine years. Thirty-three-year-old Diaz from Iloilo was trained at the Cavite main plant before she was posted in China for five years now.

The presence of Liwayway firm in Jiujiang is getting the government’s full support. Xiong Jinxi, the Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in De’an County, said the entry of Filipino entrepreneurs in China has strengthened China-Philippine friendly relations.

The head of the Philippine delegation, lawyer Tristan de Guzman of the Presidential Communications Operations Office, hopes that more Filipino entrepreneurs would put up businesses in China and more Chinese investors would set up companies in the Philippines.

Jiujiang City is an open port and the only port in Jiangxi province open to foreign trade. Jiangxi province is a sister-province of Bohol.