A strategic collaboration agreement signed between Austrade and Alibaba’s local operation Alibaba (Australia) Company, will expand the variety of Australian products sold to some of Alibaba’s hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers through Alibaba’s ecommerce platforms.
According to the parties, the goal is to broaden Alibaba’s existing partnership with Austrade by providing dedicated services for Australian products and leveraging digital content to build brand Australia abroad.
The business to be explored by Alibaba and Austrade under the strategic collaboration are wide-ranging but a key highlight is the introduction of an annual “Australian Fresh Food Week” sales promotion and education event on Tmall Fresh, Tmall’s fresh food channel, advancing the interests of Australian companies that export dairy, meat, seafood, fruit and other fresh produce.
Alibaba Group also plans on establishing a channel on Youku.com, a leading provider of video and streaming services in China with over 500 million monthly active users, to further promote fresh Australian produce and advance the perception of Australian products in the eyes of Chinese consumers.
Michael Clifton, Senior Trade Commissioner of Austrade, said, “Austrade’s collaboration with Alibaba will allow more Chinese consumers to enjoy easy online access to a wider variety of Australia’s premium products and fresh produce. Online delivery of imported fresh food in China is becoming increasingly viable as a result of improvements in last-mile cold chain logistics.”
In addition to supporting Australian companies already succeeding in China, a key focus of the partnership will be targeting first time exporters, particularly SMEs, and facilitating access to Alibaba's assistance in commercialising new digital technology and services in China.
