☕️ Good morning, friends,

kicking off the week with good news for consumers, bad news for Lidl, Aldi & Co.: Temu is launching its attack on the European grocery market.

You can already buy some delicacies, like a 3.5-meter “Krakow-style sausage” wrapped around a cable reel ($15) or salami cigars in a “premium wooden gift box” ($15).

We’re curious to see what the future holds…

🚀 Benchmarks

🔢 Facts & Figures

1.4 billion USD

This is how much Mozambique owes China, and it is now considering a debt restructuring or even debt forgiveness after unrest brought its economy to its knees.

690 Million USD

This is how much Japanese taxes foreign investors have saved over the past two years by routing profits through Singapore-based firms.

548,000 barrels

This is the amount of oil that eight OPEC+ countries plan to pump additionally per day starting in August.

Top Bit: 🌏 BRICS Seeks Unity in Rio – Xi Stays Away

Details

🇧🇷 Host Lula: Opens the meeting, warning that higher NATO military spending (5% of GDP) “more easily leads to war than to peace.”

🇮🇳 Modi in the spotlight: With Xi and Putin absent, India’s PM uses the stage to expand South-South trade.

🛡️ Tariff criticism: Final declaration condemns Trump’s new punitive tariffs, which threaten global supply chains.

🛢️ Iran & Gaza: Iran’s foreign minister condemns US/Israeli strikes; BRICS speaks of a “serious humanitarian situation” without clear attribution of blame.

💳 Light de-dollarization: Instead of a joint BRICS currency, countries call for more trade in national currencies and faster alternatives to SWIFT.

📉 Lacking weight: Two heavyweights absent, Egypt’s Sisi cancels – raising doubts about the unity of the expanded 11-member club.

Why it matters

• BRICS scale: Now represents nearly half of the world’s population and aims to be a counterweight to the G7 and NATO.
  

• Tariff pressure: Trump’s 100% tariff threat makes finding new payment systems and supply chains a survival issue for emerging markets.
  

• Strategic challenge: Without Xi and Putin, it becomes clear how difficult it is for a diverse large group to act strategically.

Background

BRICS began in 2009 with five members. In 2024, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE joined.

But instead of growing clout, the many interests create friction: while Beijing and Moscow push for “de-westernization,” Brazil, as an export nation, fears retaliatory tariffs – and is deliberately focusing on harmless topics such as health and AI cooperation for 2025.

📊 All Details & Data: CNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera

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Head Of The Day

🇯🇵 Shunsaku Sagami

🤝 AI matchmaker for business acquisitions: In 2018, he founded the M&A Research Institute, transforming Japan’s SME succession market.
His self-developed matching software finds the right buyer in seconds, the digital workflow platform halves transaction times, and with a “no-deal-no-fee” model, sellers only pay upon a successful sale.

This is essentially the same platform Michael helped build in Germany.

👉 Lesson learned: First, solve your own problems—those who ease bureaucracy, fee frustration, and succession concerns win customers (and investors) almost automatically.

The motivation to start asiabits was exactly the same: we wanted a way out of the information flood toward innovations and business in Asia. This newsletter is just the beginning. More to come.

Market Bit: 🛒 Temu Targets Bread and Butter Next

Details

🍪 Moving beyond the bargain bin: Temu is building a dedicated “Food & FMCG” team and courting European makers of snacks and frozen pizza.

📦 Local-to-local instead of cheap parcels: With the EU duty-free threshold scrapped, Temu relies on stock in EU warehouses, promises 48-hour delivery, and avoids import fees.

🥨 Early trials: Bavarian party sausages and Swiss chocolate bars are already live; Temu is scouting additional producers.

🔍 Trust gap: Mid-sized suppliers fear copycats, NGOs warn of weak controls on food safety, sustainability, and labor standards—Temu touts an “EU compliance audit” but has shared no details.

💶 Amazon-style terms—only tougher: Insiders report double-digit discount demands, express logistics at sellers’ expense, and aggressive cross-sell bundles inside the app.

Why it matters

• Price shock for supermarkets: If Temu offers local goods at 30 % below shelf prices, Aldi, Lidl & Co. could be dragged into a fresh deep-discount war.
  

• Regulation effect: The planned EU duty makes the “cheap-from-Far-East” model unsustainable—platforms now have to create value inside the bloc.
  

• Quality battleground: Whether Temu can shed its “everything cheap, no matter how” image and become a trusted food supplier will determine the confidence of both brands and consumers.

👉🏻 Full Story: Swiss Info, CNBC

Top Reads

🤖 China & Brazil connect farms: At the BRICS summit in Rio, Premier Li Qiang and President Lula agreed to create a joint AI center that will deliver cutting-edge data analytics and smarter machinery to small farms in arid regions. Lula also asked Beijing to support his global forest-protection initiative. Full story.

🎓 Hong Kong schools prepare kids for an AI future: Instead of drilling pure coding, top schools now foster creativity, empathy, and communication—skills no bot can replace. AI tools serve as tutors and inclusion aids, while teachers curate content so students learn to treat machines as instruments, not competitors. Full story.

🍗 Yum China bets on AI assistants: The KFC and Pizza Hut operator is rolling out “Q-Smart” nationwide—an AI tool that optimizes staff scheduling, inventory ordering, and food prep. The result: less waste, lower costs, and more time for the service team. Already, 90 % of orders come through the app used by 540 million members. Full story.

Optional Reads

Taiwan: Nearly 3,000 people were evacuated as Typhoon “Danas,” with gusts up to 137 km/h (85 mph), swept across the island. More on this.

Vietnam: GDP expanded 7.96 % in the second quarter. More on this.

Malaysia: Raises anti-dumping duties on galvanized iron and steel imports from China, South Korea, and Vietnam to as high as 57.90 %. More on this.

🥠 Fortune Cookie

Today’s fortune cookie comes from our asiabits reader Alexander Lohberg:

“Here in northern Shenzhen, in Hongshan—where the low-altitude economy with ‘call-a-heli’ and Meituan drone drink delivery is already everyday life—I spotted this drone-rental kiosk for a bit of fun on the side. In the 6979 Mall you can grab a drone on the spot—just as easily as a power bank or a bicycle—for kids’ entertainment or new selfie angles. ;)”

Thanks for the submission, Alexander!

See you tomorrow,

Thomas, Michael & the Team of asiabits.

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