SEAFOODNEWS.COM  [CAPMA] Translated by Amy Zhong – August 19, 2016

Jingdong Mall has inked cooperation agreement with several foreign countries to diversify its fresh food business. On August 16, Jingdong signed a cooperation agreement with more than ten foreign embassies in order to implement its global sourcing strategy for its fresh food business.

After the agreement signing, consumers will be able to buy fresh food from such countries as France, Canada and Spain on the online platform of Jingdong.

In the beginning of this year Jingdong has established a specific department for fresh food, including seafood. And this August it has launched a campaign of sourcing fresh food worldwide.

It has sent buyers to various places of origin to inspect fresh food and ensure the supply of the selected ones from their origins. And thanks to the cooperation agreement with foreign countries, consumers can get commodities like Chilean salmon on Jingdong platform.

During the past two years, there are an increasingly great number of e-commerce platforms which are specialized in the business of fresh food. As the statistics show, there are more than four thousand e-commerce platforms in China. However, only 1% of them are earning money, 4% can only cover their cost and 88% are at losses, while the remaining 7% are suffering from great losses.

And the deficiencies of the supply chain are one of the main factors that hinder the development of this industry. According to Richard Liu, the founder of Jingdong, the company intends to invest 10 billion yuan in the building of a refrigerated warehouse distribution system for fresh food within three years.