The First Fresh 20 (F20) held in Hangzhou

The following is a media release is provided by an outside party.  It is being republished here in full, without editing. The contents do not necessarily reflect Produce Report’s point of view.

(May 11 2018 – Hangzhou, China) Per customer transaction: USD15, annual purchases: 121. The average fresh food consumption of Chinese urban households exceeds 50%... These numbers indicate that China's fresh food market is unleashing its immense potential at an exponential rate. Well aware of the modernization of consumption in China, the world's top players in the field of fresh food are keeping an alert eye on Chinese dining tables. On May 11-12, world's leading fresh food companies - such as Clear Water, Marine Harvest, Cargill, Danish Crown and Camposol - gathered in Hangzhou for China's First Fresh 20. The event was jointly hosted by Alibaba and Win-Chain supply chain to discuss the development of the fresh food industry and the upgrading of China's dinninger tables.

Connect Global Resources, Serve China Channels

A summit of the global fresh food industry, F20 invited CEOs from leading firms in the main categories of fresh food, with the aim of establishing an industry platform, based in the China market, combining sharing of knowledge, discussion of trends, networking, and interfacing of upstream and downstream resources.

During the summit, Alibaba and Win-Chain signed a joint declaration with the other twenty global fresh food giants present. Its aim is discussing new opportunities and new growth points in the fresh food industry, and new models for sustainable development in the industry in China, where both consumption and new retail are moving up in the market.

In 2018, in response to the national strategy, Alibaba initiated the "Grand Import" strategy, and set up a global purchasing center. At F20, Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group, noted that Win-Chain would become the group's global centralized purchasing platform for fresh food, to promote upgrading and standardization. It will become a key approach for Alibaba to build global presence in the field of fresh food.

Win-Chain will provide a one-stop solution for fresh food suppliers, from the farm to the dining table. With omni-channels sales encompassing Yiguo APP, Tmall Fresh, Suning Fresh and Alibaba New Retail, Win-Chain provides upstream fresh food suppliers with a total solution in the China market, including cold chain distribution service, product consumer-branding, and big data support. It is designed to become a fast-track linking upstream and downstream fresh food businesses.

"In the next few years we will focus on safety and hygiene issues, and set industry standards adapted to China's actualities and market characteristics," said Patrick Zhang, Win-Chain Chairman & CEO. "At the same time, we will actively promote interaction between upstream and downstream businesses in China's fresh food industry, and, through data and consumer research, bring global fresh food businesses closer to Chinese consumers."

Zhang noted that through the F20 platform, the company wants to connect to benchmark businesses in the global fresh food industry, and share resources and responsibility, to provide Chinese consumers with higher quality fresh food that is safer and more convenient.

Shared Resources and Complementary Strengths

In fact, global giants of fresh food such as Danish Crown and Camposol are constantly upgrading their strategy in China, and they are putting more capital and technology into the China market. At the summit, Win-Chain forged a strategic business cooperation with Danish Crown and Camposol, to provide a more diversified product range to Chinese consumers.

Danish Crown is the world's second largest pig slaughtering firm, and Europe's No. 1. It is a time-honored European pork producer. All the group's slaughterhouses follow the HACCP system. Danish Crown Group is also the initiator of the Global Red Meat Standard (GRMS), which the company meticulously observes, and which provides the strictest provisions on food safety, animal welfare and traceability.

Under the agreement, Win-Chain supply chain will buy out all the products produced byoperations of Danish Crown's processing factories under construction across China. This will help facilitate the standardization, scale development, branding and specialization of fresh pork in China.

"As the world's largest consumer, China is one of the markets most valued by Danish Crown Group," said Lars Albertsen, senior vice president of the Group. "We are convinced that Win-Chain supply chain's teamwork with Alibaba, which has great strengths in centralized purchasing, will help the group develop omni-channels in China, providing higher-quality pork products to Chinese dining tables."

Camposol is the largest agribusiness and avocado planter in Peru, and also the world's largest blueberry planter. As of 2017, Camposol had agricultural plantation in 6,000 hectares' desert, with annual sales of around 100,000 tons, mainly to retailers in the U.S. and Europe. Camposol also runs 1,200 hectares of prawn farms. In 2017, it exported 12,000 tons of seafood.

Under the agreement, Win-Chain will act as Camposol's main customer in China. From the source, through expansion of online and offline channels, to marketing, the two sides will carry out closer cooperation, involving a wide range of fresh foods from the Camposol range that are popular with Chinese consumers.

According to Patrick Zhang, against the new retail trend, cooperation between Win-Chain and key upstream suppliers will no longer be a simple purchasing-sales relationship; rather, it will involve all-round resource sharing and exploitation of mutual strengths. "Danish Crown started to cooperate with Yiguo in 2009. There is no firm in the China market that understands Danish Crown better than Win-Chain does."

Why does Win-Chain serve Danish Crown best? Win-Chain's supply chain team carefully selects from among thousands of suppliers from around the world, and brings the best-suited firms and products into the China market. It also provides upstream suppliers with more than ten years' worth of insights into the Chinese market and its consumers. The two sides will conduct close cooperation in processing, packaging, cold chain and brand.

Win-Chain is now building an eco-platform for the global fresh food industry in line with international best-practices. These include food safety issues such as product quality traceability, proactive understanding between upstream and downstream businesses, and information transparency. Data will be more accurate, and different retail forms will be able to meet consumer scenarios anytime, anywhere.

As consumption matures in China and the fresh food market develops, global fresh food giants are no longer content to simply provide products to Chinese consumers - rather, they are seeking to enter a dialog. The F20 summit was viewed by industry insiders as an opportunity for Chinese fresh food businesses to get to know the international market and advanced technology, and for international firms to connect with the China market and Chinese consumers.