SHANGHAI, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Win-Chain, a global fresh food sourcing platform under e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, teamed up with Norwegian Marine Harvest Group on Thursday to create a more effective salmon supply for the Chinese market.
The partnership aims to meet Chinese consumers' increasing demand for fresh and high-quality salmon. According to Michael Evans, Alibaba's president, the demand for fresh seafood in the country has been rapidly growing.
Data from the Norwegian Seafood Council showed that the Chinese mainland has become the third largest market for Norwegian seafood, with export volume increasing by 2,569 percent over the last two decades.
Win-Chain and Marine Harvest will work closely on optimizing supply chain solutions from farm to end consumers, particularly in the areas of processing and cost-effectiveness, according to a Memorandum of Understanding signed by both sides.
In addition, Win-chain will become Marine Harvest's strategic partner to sell fresh chilled salmon products directly from the latter's processing factory in Shanghai. The plant was launched on the same day and plans to process up to 3,000 tonnes of salmon per year in the future.
"We see that Chinese consumers love salmon, and together with Alibaba and Win-Chain we will bring even more fresh salmon to dinner tables in China," said Ole-Eirik Leroy, Marine Harvest's chairman of the board.
Win-Chain will provide consumer insights to support Marine Harvest's branding and communications activities in addition to new product development and innovation.
Marine Harvest Group is one of the world's largest producers of farmed salmon with a presence in 24 countries and a total of 13,700 employees worldwide.
