The New Zealand Food Basket consortium comprising 18 food and beverage brands in the country has established a joint venture (JV) with Alibaba’s grocery division Tmall Fresh to open a flagship store.
The New Zealand Country Flagship Store offers a range of food products from the country to Chinese customers.
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Starting this month, the consortium will initially offer products from nine brands, including Babich, Vogel’s, Rockit, Future Cuisine, Pāmu, Zealong, Fiordland Lobster and Oha Honey through the new store.
Chinese customers can use the Tmall mobile homepage to browse and purchase the products.
Alibaba Australia and New Zealand managing director Maggie Zhou said that the company entered discussions with the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise a year ago to open the flagship store on Tmall Fresh.
Zhou said: “Together, we want to help these brands deepen their engagement with the Chinese consumer, so shoppers in China can gain a greater appreciation of the premium high-quality products that New Zealand offers.”
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By GlobalDataZhou added that this collaboration will offer participating New Zealand companies to gain influence over positioning, pricing and distribution of their products in China.
The consortium is also planning to add products from nine more brands such as Zespri, Sanford, Lewis Road Creamery, Kāpiti, Sealord, Alliance, Shott Beverages, Wild Catch, and Cherri to the store in June.
New Zealand Food Basket chairperson Nicola O’Rourke said: “It will significantly improve our reach and shorten the supply chain in a way that each brand couldn’t achieve alone.”
Earlier this month, British luxury fashion house Alexander McQueen soft-launched a virtual store on Tmall Luxury Pavilion to offer items featuring images from the John Daekin Archive in China.
