Zuo Weizhu, general manager of Yuheng Trading Company in Shunde District, Foshan City, recently told China Economic Network that the monthly wages of Cambodian factory workers are about 764 yuan, and the salary of clerks with university diplomas and very good English is about 1,019 yuan. Labor costs are really not expensive, but their work efficiency is not high. In the context of the epidemic, we have cooperated with the cross-border e-commerce platform LAZADA since last year.
Zuo Weizhu handed over the details of the customer's office furniture customization project to the business assistant in the Cambodia factory office, 2018. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
Zuo Weizhu has three factories, one in Foshan, Guangdong Province, and two in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. "Cambodia's labor costs are indeed low, the wages of production workers are about 764 yuan / month, delivery and installation workers are about 510 yuan / month, and the English of the university diploma clerks is also very good, and the salary is about 1019 yuan / month." Labor costs are really not expensive, but their work efficiency is not high, and they are not willing to work overtime. Cambodian factory managers are 12 Chinese, whether plumbers or factory managers, are not used to the local work habits at first, work slowly, and by Friday afternoon some are reluctant to do too much. Zuo Weizhu said of opening a factory in Cambodia.
"The Cambodian factory mainly does entrepot trade, business orders mainly come from there, like some small single quantity, we will produce in the Phnom Penh factory; for large-scale orders, we will sample the sample, and then send it back to the factory in Foshan for a large-scale production, and then load the goods after production into containers for export." The largest export volume is the office chair, the second is the mattress, and then the third is the single-piece sofa. ”
Office chair a single item, why can it go in such a large amount? Zuo Weizhu explained: "The design and patent have taken a lot of manpower and material resources. At least 500,000 sets of molds are required to make an office chair from design to mold to make a finished product. The accessories circulating in the market, we call conventional products can also be bought, but the quality of this accessory is uncontrollable, and the good office chairs have their own independent patents. ”
Regarding the impact of the epidemic on foreign trade, Zuo Weizhu said: "Customers can not come in, in fact, it is a hard injury of the company, our factory is still based on foreign trade orders, the business volume has been reduced by more than 50%, and the feedback collection of product use has also been hindered, which affects the improvement and updating of our new products." The several domestic furniture fairs attended this year were not very ideal, and the sales volume did not meet expectations. ”
Zoe Oversees European Customers' Purchase of Furniture Merchandise Exports at the Li Ka Shing and Huang Logistics Centre in Hong Kong, 2019. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
"We may have to break through online, get out of the traditional form of foreign trade, re-split a runway, and promote it in the form of e-commerce online, including social media promotion such as Facebook." Since last year, we have partnered with Alibaba's LAZADA to sign sales areas in 5 countries, including Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. (Planned by Song Gaoyuan, China Economic Network)