Chinese markets a boon to residents

Chinese supermarkets have been booming in Argentina, where Chinese nationals are well assimilated into the local society.

More than 130,000 Chinese live in Argentina and have contributed to building this country of immigrants, said Mario Enrique Quinteros, Argentina's deputy consul general in Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

"There is strong integration" of Chinese into the local communities, Quinteros told China Daily.

About 3,000 supermarkets are run by Chinese in the South American country, which retail about 30 percent of supermarket products in the country, Quinteros said, citing Chamber of Chinese Supermarkets in Argentina.

Most of the Chinese supermarkets are in residential areas, selling mainly locally produced food and daily necessities. These businesses have become part of the residents' daily lives and contributed to the local economy.

Yan Xiudeng, the owner of a Chinese supermarket in a suburb of Buenos Aires, worried before the store opened in 2000 that it would lose business from competition with local grocery stores and supermarkets.

"Over the more than 10 years since we opened, the cleanliness of our store, cheap prices and good service have created a stable customer base for my supermarket," Yan told Xinhua News Agency.

Yan's other secret of success is to make friends with residents and policemen and to help the poor from time to time.

In Argentina's 2001 economic crisis, many stores were broken into, but Yan's market was unscathed with robbers passing it by, possibly because of the help they used to receive from Yan.

"The Chinese supermarkets provide job opportunities to local people and can help poor local customers," according to a statement on the website of the Chamber of Convenience Stores and Supermarkets Owned by Chinese Residents in the greater Buenos Aires area.

Li Wenfang in Guangzhou contributed to this story.