Fresh food investment set to soar

Win Chan signs $1.9b of deals with world's leading meat producers at import exposition

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has inked deals worth $1.9 billion with two of the largest meat producers in the world at the ongoing China International Import Expo in Shanghai, as the e-commerce giant stepped up its push to make its Win Chan platform the biggest in the world for fresh produce.

"Our plan is to connect 100 globally-renowned top-class food suppliers from 40 countries and regions to 600 million consumers in China over the next five years," said Jin Guanglei, chairman of Win Chan.

The platform has signed a $1.5 billion deal with Brazilian food manufacturer JBS and a $400 million deal with Danish Crown, Europe's largest pork producer.

"Today we think of China more as a home market than an export market," said Jais Valeur, CEO of Danish Crown.

It is expected that all of the meat supplied to the platform will be processed by a 17,000-square-meter facility invested by Danish Crown earlier this year near Shanghai.