The company Harun works for is a Kenyan aquatic products facility operated by a subsidiary of Jinzai Food Group, a snack producer based in Central China"s Hunan Province.

　　In June 2023, the first shipment of wild anchovies from a Kenyan processing base linked to Jinzai Food Group arrived in Changsha, marking Kenya"s first export of wild aquatic products to China. In April 2025, additional 50 tons of deep-sea anchovies arrived in Hunan and were displayed at the fourth China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo.

　　In China, the fish are processed into snack products tailored to local tastes and sold through supermarkets, e-commerce platforms and convenience stores. After deeper processing, the products are exported to more than 30 countries and regions, including Japan and France, forming a growing supply chain that runs from African fishing ports to Chinese tables and onward to global markets, Zhou Jinsong, chairman of Jinzai Food Group, told the Global Times.

　　The project goes beyond raw material import, said Zhou. It has involved joint fisheries research with Kenyan authorities, skills training for local fishermen, and the transition of rural workers into skilled industrial roles. By moving quality control upstream, the project has supported local technical capacity building. Since 2022, it has hired more than 100 local workers each year, he said.

　　Reaching Chinese tables

　　

　　Kenyan anchovies are no exception. From Ethiopian coffee and Rwandan chili to honey from Tanzania and nuts from Zambia and Mozambique, African agricultural products are finding more diverse pathways into the Chinese market. The journey of global flavors to Chinese dinner tables has become a clear and defining trend.