There is probably no one who hasn’t eaten Qiaqia sunflower seeds.

As a national brand that has accompanied several generations growing up, Qiaqia sunflower seeds have already reached market saturation domestically. Despite its commitment to diversified development and innovation, with an increasingly rich product line, it has successively launched new bean products "Guai U Wei", new potato chips "Ka Zhi Cui", as well as jelly foods.

But as the industry leader, it is not easy for Qiaqia to gain a larger market share.

Therefore, in 2018, after the company proposed the slogan “Towards a globally leading nut enterprise”, Qiaqia Food Co., Ltd. officially began its globalization layout.

To date, Qiaqia’s products have been sold in more than 50 countries and regions, with production bases in premium nut regions in Asia, Australia, and the Americas, and have shone brightly on the international stage.

But here’s the strange part.

Sunflower seeds are different from other nuts; only people in five countries worldwide can skillfully crack and eat sunflower seeds. So how did Qiaqia make this product, which has a strong national characteristic, popular overseas and achieve 600 million yuan in revenue?

01｜Qiaqia Sunflower Seeds’ Internationalization Journey

In fact, Qiaqia Food began its internationalization journey quite early. In 2008, after experiencing the global financial crisis, Qiaqia Food set up its first overseas office in Vietnam, but at that time, Qiaqia did not focus much on overseas development. “Bringing the delicious taste of Chinese sunflower seeds to every corner of the world” was just a vision of founder Chen Xianbao.

But later, with the development of the times, Qiaqia achieved significant success in the international market. Especially since 2015, its overseas market revenue has maintained at least 20% annual growth, and in 2016, its annual growth rate reached an astonishing 48.58%.

Only then did Qiaqia begin to shift its focus to overseas markets, leading to the 2018 slogan “Towards a globally leading nut enterprise.”

However, previous overseas business growth was mainly due to cooperation with distributors, and Qiaqia did not take the lead. Now, expanding sales channels beyond Chinese communities and supermarkets where distributors stock products is not simple. If necessary, some unconventional methods may be needed.

And this unconventional method is teaching foreigners how to eat sunflower seeds.

In many countries without a traditional sunflower seed-eating culture, people don’t even know how to properly eat sunflower seeds with shells.

To solve this problem, Qiaqia provides detailed instructions on the packaging,“Hold the sunflower seed in your hand, point the sharp end up, put it in your mouth, gently bite with your teeth, the kernel will come out, then spit out the shell.”and educates consumers directly in supermarkets through videos and demonstrations.

At the same time, Qiaqia also targeted the student population, making sunflower seeds appear in classrooms; it held New Year’s goods festivals in places like New York and Houston, allowing foreigners to subconsciously accept “sunflower seed culture.”

In addition, Qiaqia also used students studying abroad and cultural festivals to promote the culture of eating sunflower seeds, making it a bridge for cross-cultural communication.

Of course, relying on these alone is far from enough for widespread promotion.

Qiaqia also made full use of the power of social media marketing, collaborating with influencers on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, etc., spreading videos of influencers eating sunflower seeds online to attract consumers and expand overseas brand awareness.

02｜Qiaqia’s Localization Strategy

Due to differences in regional cultures, different countries have different requirements for food flavors. To better adapt to different markets, in addition to conventional advertising and promotional activities, Qiaqia pays special attention to integrating with local culture.

It has launched a variety of localized product flavors. For example, in Thailand, Qiaqia not only retains the traditional five-spice and walnut flavors, but also specially launched coconut, coffee, and red date flavors to cater to local consumer preferences. These innovative flavors quickly gained market recognition and helped Qiaqia establish a foothold in the local market.

In addition,Qiaqia also pays great attention to localization in advertising and marketing.

Because it has a production base in Thailand, in 2022, Qiaqia hired the famous Thai actorSunny Suwanmethanontas its brand ambassador, successfully associating the brand image with a popular local public figure, greatly enhancing brand awareness and market acceptance.

In October 2023, Qiaqia Food revealed its international business situation and future expansion strategy during an institutional survey. The company pointed out that the Southeast Asian market, especially Vietnam, showed outstanding growth, while the US market also demonstrated some recovery. Looking ahead, Qiaqia plans to actively expand its market share in new regions such as Indonesia and the Middle East.

Currently, Qiaqia’s overseas market revenue accounts for about 10% of the company’s total revenue, and this proportion is growing slightly faster than the domestic offline market.

In the future, the company plans to continue to deepen existing overseas channels and seek new growth opportunities. In addition to further expanding its influence in the sunflower seed market, Qiaqia also aims to develop and promote a second category of nut products to enrich its product line and meet broader consumer needs.

03｜Insights from Qiaqia’s Overseas Expansion

The overseas story of Qiaqia sunflower seeds is a typical case of Chinese brands “going global.”

By deeply understanding the culture and consumption habits of target markets and adopting effective localization strategies and promotional methods, Qiaqia has not only achieved commercial success in overseas markets but also promoted traditional Chinese food culture.

With the continuous deepening of globalization, it is foreseeable that Qiaqia will continue to win the hearts of more consumers around the world, growing from a local Chinese brand into an internationally renowned food brand.

Through Qiaqia Food’s overseas story, we can actually see some common methods used by Chinese companies to go global.

For example, localization strategies, social media marketing and promotion, including supermarket advertising, ground promotion, and even a series of strategies and methods that B-end enterprises may need to face, such as building local factories and finding distributors.

It is the combination of these successes that has led to the rise of Qiaqia’s overseas business and its current glory abroad. It can be said that every step taken along the way has been crucial.

Hopefully, companies that also want to Tuke can truly learn something from Qiaqia Food’s overseas layout over the years.