CHRIS PROVES HEADMASTER WRONG

CHRIS ANDERSON was told by his school headmaster that he was a waster and would make nothing out of his life. Four decades on the trail-blazing Scot is president of an Aberdeenshire-based seafood firm projecting a turnover of around £42m. And the former trawlerman is one of a growing band of tartan exporters making the most of Eastern promise. Recently, in Brussels, the Scottish Government confirmed a £240,000 grant to support Scots firms market in the Far East. Mr Anderson, a former pupil at Peterhead Academy, is collaborating with Seafood Scotland as the organisation aims to open doors in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea. It is perceived as a massive market by Scottish fish bosses who plan a number of initiatives to drive the initiative forward in the next 12 months. Mr Anderson can help open doors as he has been trading in Japan since 1984 and currently has an office with two staff in Qingdao in central China. His current company, Peterhead-based Fresh Catch, exports up to 97 per cent of turnover and has 120 full-time staff and over 200 in high season (June to February). And he buys mackerel, herring, white fish, capelin, blue whiting and a new product, brown crab, at markets at home and in Norway. The canny Scot admitted: “It’s been a lot of hard work cracking the markets in the Far East. “I first started exporting there in 1984, and we’ve worked hard at it. It’s the same as in Britain, you have to network and speak to people. Word-of-mouth is important.” It helps if you speak the language. Mr Anderson doesn’t but his son Colin, the company’s IT consultant, does. Colin is also married to a Chinese lady and his marketing development manager, Lisa Gao, in Qingado is Chinese. He added: “Our turnover last year was around £50m but we project it to be between £40m and £42m this year. “We always looking at new products and we started marketing brown crab last year and we did 200 tons in the first month. It is growing all the time. “That’s good news for the shellfish guys and we hope to develop that product further. “Not bad for a guy who was told by the headmaster at Peterhead Academy that I was a waster and would do nothing with my life.” Ironically, Mr Anderson currently lives in the hamlet of Inverugie near Peterhead, opposite the house in which his old headmaster lived, but that’s another story, far removed from the emerging markets in China. Libby Woodhatch, chief executive for Edinburgh-based Seafood Scotland, believes there is huge untapped potential in the Far East. She is aiming at the high-end of the food service sector, basically the importers in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Honk Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. And she admitted that key people in the Far East may know about whisky and salmon – and possibly golf - but don’t know where Scotland is. They also don’t realise the variety of product that Scotland can provide. And Scots producers are batting against the huge promotional budgets of countries like Norway. She said: “Norway are well organised. Their budgets are in telephone numbers. “However, we see a huge untapped market potential in the Far East region. Many buyers are, however, unaware of what or where Scotland is, let alone what it has to offer in terms of seafood. “The money we’re receiving is a drop in the ocean but it will help raise awareness of both Scotland and our top quality fish and shellfish. “We are aiming specifically at the high end food service sector where our products are more likely to be valued. “We’ve done our homework and we’ll be piggy-backing on major events like the Chinese Seafood Show in November. Everybody who is anybody is there. “We’ll also be looking at doing sampling and tasting in the countries. We have to manage resources well. We also have to be clever, well-targeted and flexible.”