Marine Harvest signs Alibaba deal

MARINE Harvest signed a ground-breaking agreement with China’s Alibaba, the world’s largest internet trading company.
Described as a memorandum of understanding, the agreement is with Win-Chain, the fresh food supply chain owned by the Alibaba Group, which dwarfs the likes of US giants like Amazon when it comes to internet trading.
The aim is to bring more salmon to China from Marine Harvest, which is the world’s largest producer of farmed salmon.
The two businesses plan to co-operate on issues such as improving the supply chain from the point of production all the way to the consumer.
The memorandum was signed in Shanghai last week at a ceremony attended by Norway’s King Harald and Queen Sonja, the Norwegian trade minister Torbjørn Røe Isaksen, Alibaba founder and group executive chairman Jack Ma and group president Michael Evans.
It came as Marine Harvest opened a new plant in Shanghai, the first seafood factory in China by a Norwegian company.
Marine Harvest chairman Ole-Eirik Lerøy said: ‘We look forward to the many opportunities ahead to deepen our collaboration with Alibaba as we now ramp up our presence in China, for example through our new processing factory in Shanghai.’
Alibaba’s Michael Evans said: ‘The demand for fresh seafood in China is rapidly growing, and Marine Harvest is one of the most trusted and world’s leading producers.
‘By partnering with Marine Harvest and leveraging the consumer reach, technology capabilities and logistics support of the Alibaba ecosystem, we will be able to deliver the best-in-class offering of fresh seafood products to consumers across China.’
Win-Chain will also provide consumer information to assist Marine Harvest with branding and communication issues and to promote new product development.
In March this year, Marine Harvest announced plans to open up to 2,000 Supreme Salmon branded restaurants throughout China and Taiwan.
Picture: Marine Harvest chairman Ole-Eirik Lerøy