Rio gets Chinese mega wholesale supermarket

The first warehouse wholesale supermarket founded and run by Chinese was opened in Rio de Janeiro on March 14.

With red as the main color of its decor, the gigantic supermarket is close to the busy expressway connecting Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, adjacent to the Rio de Janeiro International Airport.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch ChinaTown Atacado, a Chinese-owned mega supermarket outside of Rio de Janeiro with a floor space of 10,000 square meters and a decor based on red. Photos by Xinhua

The supermarket's name reveals the background of its shareholders — ChinaTown Atacado.

With a store floor area of more than 10,000 square meters, ChinaTown Atacado sells electronics, toys, stationery, bags and other accessories. "We have tens of thousands of varieties," said one of its shareholders.

Li Yanjun, deputy consul general of China in Rio de Janeiro, said at the opening ceremony: "I am very happy, very satisfied and very proud to see the opening of ChinaTown Atacado.

"And I'm even more pleased to see that overseas Chinese in Brazil are now able to realize their success by complying with local laws and live in harmony with local people. I hope every overseas Chinese will continue to achieve greater results."

The supermarket is located in Duque de Caxias, a satellite city of Rio de Janeiro, which has ambitious plans to become a logistical base for Rio de Janeiro's hosting of both the 2014 World Cup finals as well as the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Alexandre Cardoso, mayor of Duque de Caxias, said at the opening ceremony that it's "not easy" to open a supermarket of this scale. "I thank you very much for your investment in our city, and also I invite more Chinese people to invest here," Cardoso said.

The mayor also said that nowadays, Chinese goods are no longer synonymous with poor quality and cheap price; more and more goods with scientific and technological components enter into Brazil, and China has made many achievements in scientific research.

"From the preparation to the opening of the supermarket, I saw diligence and pioneering spirit in many of Chinese immigrants here in Duque de Caxias," said Cardoso.

The majority of shareholders in the ChinaTown Atacado belongs to the same family — the Yins — from China's Qing-tian county, in Zhejiang province.

Yin Xiaomin, a Chinese in his 40s, is a major shareholder of the supermarket. He moved to Brazil 27 years ago, and made his fortune in import and export trade between China and Brazil.

Yin said his supermarket combines the functions of a wholesale store, a consulting agency and a logistics and distribution base under one roof. One-stop consulting and agency services will be available to Chinese manufacturers to help them enter the market in Brazil.

With the business boom in recent years, Yin feels his import-export company faces the challenge of restructuring and upgrading. The new supermarket is located where his company's original warehouse used to be. "Turning the warehouse into a supermarket is aiming at a broader customer base," he said.

Yin Xiangcong, Yin Xiaomin's older brother, is also a major shareholder of the supermarket. Arriving in Brazil a few years after his brother, he is also a successful businessman.

He said he hoped such a comprehensive platform would provide more opportunities for Chinese goods to enter the Brazilian market smoothly and avoid all the problems he and his brother met in the past few years.

Chen Weihua is chief correspondent of Xinhua News Agency in Rio de Janeiro. He can be reached at

xinhua2016@gmail.com.