Alexander Lopatnikov’s fresh scallops never fail to pull in Chinese tourists and businessmen in Vladivostok, a port city on Russia’s Pacific coast geographically closer to Beijing than Moscow.
Visitors love the local delicacy and, backed by Chinese investors, the Russian businessman exports scallops to the US, Japan and South Korea as well as China.
Last month during a visit to Beijing, Russian president Vladimir Putin told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that co-operation between the regional neighbours had “reached an unprecedentedly high level and has become an example of how relations between states should be built in the present-day world”, noting that bilateral trade rose 24.5 per cent in 2018 to a record high of $108bn.