Taste of Galicia in China

The Galicia Food Cluster is a non-profit association that provides support services to food and beverage companies from Galicia in Spain. In September 2013, the Cluster successfully established itself as a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE) in Shanghai in order to better serve a growing number of Galician SMEs interested in the food and beverage market in China.

The move to establish a WFOE in Shanghai was not a snap decision for the Cluster; instead, it involved over one year’s comprehensive market research and strategic business planning. As a crucial first step, the Cluster carefully compared the pros and cons of different legal entity options available for foreign organisations in China, such as a WFOE, a Foreign Invested Commercial Enterprise (FICE) and a Representative Office (RO). The Centre’s legal team helped the Cluster evaluate the feasibilities of each legal entity option, and revealed the difficulties for a foreign association to register a WFOE in China. As a part of the solution, the Centre’s legal advisor suggested the Cluster to register a company in Spain and then have this new company register a WFOE in China.

As to its future plan, the Cluster aims to expand its network in China step by step and develop more partnerships between Galician food and beverage SMEs and their Chinese counterparts.