China's e-commerce platform Hema Fresh inks goods trade deals worth 1 bln USD with overseas partners

Wang Longchi checks inventory information at the online order service area in a Hema Fresh store in Pudong of east China's Shanghai, Nov. 10, 2020.

China's e-commerce platform Hema Fresh, also the fresh-food chain under Alibaba Group, signed goods trade cooperation agreements worth 1 billion U.S. dollars with partners from six countries, including Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cyprus, Russia, and Italy. The signing of the agreements means Thailand's durian, Vietnam's dragon fruit, Cambodia's rice, Cyprus' juice, Italy's olive oil, etc., can be delivered to Chinese consumers via Hema Fresh.

The deals were inked at an e-commerce carnival held in Shanghai from May 10 to 20 to bring more featured goods, food, tourism products, and local culture of countries involving in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) into the Chinese market.

Since the beginning of this year, Hema Fresh has moved faster to introduce goods from overseas markets, and seen its sales value of imported goods more than double compared to the same period of last year, according to the company.

Hema Fresh said it has cooperated with enterprises from 20-odd countries that have established bilateral e-commerce cooperation mechanisms with China, with business covering approximately 200 types of goods.

In addition to further strengthening cooperation with countries along the "Belt and Road" in the fields of commodity trade, service trade and modern agriculture, Hema has also carefully organized a number of national-themed cooperation activities this year to stimulate the vitality of the consumer market through the launch of new products and hot product promotions.

According to Hema, among the 29 "Belt and Road E-commerce" partner countries that have established bilateral e-commerce cooperation mechanisms, Hema has business contacts with related companies in 20 countries. There are about 200 product categories involved in these 20 countries, including beef, lobster, durian, red wine, ice cream, etc., which are popular among Chinese consumers. Since the beginning of this year, Hema has accelerated the introduction of global imported goods. The sales of imported goods have more than doubled compared with the same period last year. Food and beverages such as refrigerated dairy products, zero sugar, zero fat, and zero additives have increased by more than 300%. Spain’s NFC juice, Japan’s pure black coffee, Thailand’s Coconut water is especially popular.

Source:<https://eng.yidaiyilu.gov.cn/qwyw/rdxw/317955.htm>

<https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1765496576898480522&wfr=spider&for=pc>

Edited and translated by Li Wei