Danish Crown has signed a five year supply deal with Alibaba’s Win-Chain worth approximately €300m, which will see Danish Crown supply an additional 250 tonnes of Danish pork a week to the Chinese market.
The pork will be produced at Danish Crown’s new processing plant near Shanghai, which will be Danish Crown’s first production facility in the country, and the entire output of the plant will be used to supply Win-Chain.
Win-Chain is Alibaba’s data-driven global sourcing platform for perishable food, and Danish Crown says that the move will help to meet changing consumer demands and represents a vital step towards achieving its growth targets in Asia.
Jais Valeur, Danish Crown group CEO said: “It is fantastic for Danish Crown to land such a big contract with Win-Chain and the Alibaba Group. At one fell swoop, our products will be made available on Win-Chain’s digital platforms and also in the Alibaba-owned supermarket chains throughout the Shanghai region.
“The Chinese market is evolving very rapidly at the moment, and there are actually three things happening all at once.
“First, e-commerce is exploding, with consumers buying the products they want online and having them delivered to their front door only a few hours later. In my view, Shanghai now has the world’s most advanced market for e-commerce.
“Next, instead of buying fresh meat at the so-called ‘wet markets’, consumers have started purchasing retail-packed products in the supermarkets, in exactly the same way that we shop in Denmark.
“Finally, a growing number of Chinese are eating out, similar to the trend we are seeing in the US and Europe. We are now moving further up in the value chain in China, and I see significant potential in this.”
Richard Wang, managing director fresh meat at Win-Chain added: “Danish produce enjoys an excellent reputation and Danish Crown products already have a large and loyal customer base in China.
“Danish Crown’s integrated farm-to-fork production ensures produce of a uniformly high quality, and Chinese consumers are also attracted by the strong focus on innovation and sustainability.
“We look forward to working closely together to bring quality Danish meat products to the over 600 million annual active consumers on Alibaba’s platforms.”
Earlier this year, Danish Crown enhanced its operations in China, as its DAT-Schaub subsidiary acquired a majority stake in the Shanghai Natural Casing Company for an undisclosed fee.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024