US meat industry teams up with Alibaba to sell its pork online in China

BEIJING - The US Meat Export Federation, a trade association committed to developing international markets for US beef, pork and lamb, has begun working with Alibaba Group to sell US pork on Alibaba’s group-buying website Juhuasuan to Chinese consumers.

Alibaba spokesperson, Lu Jianing, was quoted by China Daily as saying a total of 4,000 packages of pork shoulder and pork chops, weighing about 10,000kg, were on sale from April 26-28. Nearly 3,000 packages of pork, along with 170,000 bags of spices, were sold during a three-day sale that attracted 300,000 shoppers.

 Most of the buyers in their comments said they felt the prices were reasonable and that they were satisfied with the 24-hour delivery, the China Daily said.

Lu spoke of China’s recent shortage of pork, and subsequent rising prices. The average pork price in the week ending April 29 was RMB 26.24 per kg, up from RMB 17.88 the year before, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. “Rising prices and imports of pork have been under the spotlight lately. The prices of US imported pork are lower than domestic prices,” he said. “We think it’s a good opportunity to promote our service.

USMEF senior vice-president for Asia-Pacific, Joel Haggard, sees China’s pork shortage – which is a result of decreasing hog counts and production – as a chance for the US pork industry to increase its sales to the Chinese market, which consumes about half of the world’s pork.

“The US red meat industry is encouraged by the growth in its pork exports to China so far this year,” he said. “To the extent that rising Chinese pork prices make US and other countries’ products more competitive, we can benefit.”  www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).