Journal for Internship Course 7

Interview Date: September 28th

1. Why did you choose to work in the food trading and food distribution company?

I entered the food trading company because I got inspired by my girlfriend who was working in the biggest Asian e-commerce company at that time. Food is the most popular category with the biggest sales on the e-commerce platform which she was worked for, and food is the essential products for everybody. I found a business opportunity that a lot of Asian people living in the US are craving for their hometown foods.

2. What is the biggest challenge for operating the food trading and distribution company?

The biggest challenge for operating the food trading company is the plenty of regulations on the food import process because it is the consuming products. Additionally, the regulations are changing every day, so it is important for the importers to check the new updates frequently to avoid the problems. Also, there are three government departments are handling the importing and food safety inspection which are Customs, FDA, and USDA. Therefore, it is important to know the regulations from all of three departments.

3. How did the COVID-19 affected the whole industry?

When the Covid-19 just started, our industry had a very big achievement because the demand for the food and grocery shopping had increased due to the shut-down and quarantine. However, our industry had been affected a lot this year, because most of our target customer “International Students” went back to hometown because of the campus closure. Additionally, the ocean freight rate has been increased crazily this year due to the back orders from last year, and the limited labor in the port and related departments.

4. What is your business strategy for the next year?

My business strategy next year is to develop the mainstream market such as Costco, Walmart, and Target, etc. US residents are always the largest target customers in the United States, so we cannot limit our target customers. We are already in the process to open an account with Costco, so the next steps will be opening more account with the mainstream supermarket or cooperate with the local distributors such as KeHe or DPI.