TikTok tuna video push spurs Port Lincoln’s Stehr Group’s sales into China

A TikTok marketing push has triggered Port Lincoln tuna sales into China.

A tuna marketing push spearheaded by TikTok videos has exploded sales into China for a Port Lincoln fishing empire, which is hailing a revolution in the lucrative industry.

Sales have multiplied between five and ten times within a fortnight for the Stehr Group, which subsequently has inked a deal to sell southern bluefin tuna worth at least $500,000 per month into China.

The deal, signed on Wednesday with a Chinese fresh food supply chain management company, includes using short video platforms like TikTok for live sales.

Stehr Group managing director Marcus Stehr said exporting fresh fish from aquaculture pens every week of the year, rather than frozen sales over four to five months, would transform tuna farming.

The Chinese firm, Xinjiangyang, in June conducted a live TikTok broadcast in Port Lincoln, during which its marketing arm Jorjel chairman Qin Weiqin was showing and selling tuna directly to Chinese consumers.

Ms Qin Weiqin, founder and chairwoman of Jorjel conducts a TikTok live broadcast from a Stehr Group fishing boat. Picture: Supplied

The Stehr Group first sold tuna into China in 2015 but the internet live sales model using TikTok triggered a sales explosion.

“In just two weeks, the sales of Stehr Group’s bluefin tuna in China increased by five to 10 times, injecting a strong impetus into the Stehr Group’s deep cultivation of the Chinese

market,” a Xinjiangyang statement says.

The “innovative sales model” allows Chinese consumers to “understand the charm of tuna”, and Ms Qin Weiqin used the Port Lincoln live broadcast to introduce “in detail the fishing process, quality characteristics and cooking methods of tuna”.

Ms Qin Weiqin, founder and chairwoman of Jorjel in Port Lincoln. Picture: Supplied

The Chinese firm’s TikTok broadcast room has racked up successes for fishing firms across the world, including selling up to $1.38m worth of fish within little more than 20 hours to a vast market.

One video supplied to The Advertiser explains the process of flying batches of fresh chilled tuna weekly to Shanghai for slicing and vacuum packing, then selling these to consumers for about $20. Another shows whole tuna in China, ready for dispatch around the country.

“Friends who are tired of eating small fish and shrimp, come to my live stream quickly,” the Xinjiangyang worker says.

Inking the deal on Wednesday are: (L-R) Marcus Stehr, managing director, Stehr Group, Ms Qin Weiqin, founder and chairwoman of Jorjel and Hagen Stehr, chairman, Stehr Group. Picture: Supplied

Mr Stehr said the new market allowed tuna harvesting throughout the year, exporting a weekly quantity of no less than 320 fish, worth about $500,000 per month.

“We think we’ve done a long-term, strategic deal that I believe will change the way we’re currently tuna farming Port Lincoln,” he said.

“For me personally, that’s why we’re so excited about this Chinese deal. It’s like the first one of its kind. Nobody in Port Lincoln has ever kept the fish in the water 52 weeks of the year.”

The Stehr Group, founded by Mr Stehr’s father, Hagen, in 1972, employs about 40 people and farms about 700 tonnes of southern bluefin tuna annually – about 45,000 fish.

Federal Trade Minister Don Farrell in June revealed more than $86m in wine had been exported to China by more than 350 businesses - almost all from South Australia - since crippling duties were abolished in March.

At the time, Senator Farrell forecast the imminent removal of SA rock lobster imposts and said $20bn worth of trade with China would soon be restored, after the return of trade of commodities including wine, meat, coal, cotton, barley, timber and stone fruit.