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Interview to Pinuccio Melis, who started to import form China in 1982
A Comochi’s production line.
A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to talk with Pinuccio Melis, who started to import from China in 1982, the year I was born.
Pinuccio is the founder of Comochi, a chemical factory based in Sardinia, Italy.
He’ll tell us why he started to import from China and will uncover some import/export mechanism (common to all the world) and a couple of behind-the-scene activities concerning the Canton Fair and the “war” among the importers to get the monopoly of the strategical products.
Importing from China during the 80′s
Pinuccio, thanks for accepting this interview. You have been one of the first Italian businessmen to import from China. What pushed you to start?
There were many reasons. Let’s say that the most important was the feeling to rebel against the big importers from mainland Italy (for who doesn’t know it, Sardinia is an island). I understood that the difference of price between buying from a middle man and a Chinese suppliers wasn’t the 10%. It was the 50 or even the 60%.
What kind of difficulties you had when you began to import from China?
It was quite easy. Think about that. The first time I went to Canton Fair I was alone and I didn’t speak English, let’s forget about Mandarin!
As soon as I arrived I found an interpreter who had worked eight years in Italy.
Everything else was already programmed. At that time all the European and American importers used to stay at big international hotels.
What kind of products you bought the first time?
Mostly polyethylene, the raw material for the detergent’s bottles. It was difficult because the Chinese didn’t have the plants that there were in Europe. You must pay attention with plastic. The one that’s ok for making buckets may not work for bottles!
Hence I stopped to import raw material. Anyway, nowadays Chinese suppliers want to invade the global market and don’t sell raw material anymore. We get it from Dubai.
But at Comochi we also did trade. A Sardinian factory can’t survive without doing trade as Sardinia only has one million and an half people.
Hence, beside the detergents we were producing, we were also selling toilet paper, pieces of cutlery, plates and floor rags.
Pinuccio with the famous Purex floor rag.
The epic of the floor rag
What were the key products in your industry?
As the Comochi mainly produces detergents, one of the most important products for us was the floor rag.
We used to buy them from a Mantova’s importer. His name was Romano Siletti. He was the only one able to import the Chinese’s cotton rags, which are still the most consumed in Italy. One day I told to myself:
“Pinuccio, you must find that rag!”
I tried for five or six years without any chance.
In front of the Canton Fair there was the China Hotel, which had a French restaurant at the top floor.
Once we went to eat over there and, while I was sitting at my table, I touched with my elbow a man that was sitting at another table.
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