Witnessed by visiting Norwegian King Harald V and Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, Win-Chain, Alibaba's aggregated global sourcing platform for fresh food signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Norway's Marine Harvest on October 18, to cooperate on the processing, cold chain logistics and sales of imported salmon.

It was also announced on this occasion that the Norwegian company will open its first salmon processing plant in China in Shanghai. The opening of this plant will shorten the delivery time for Norwegian salmon to Chinese consumers to 72 hours.

Norway is the world's leading producer of Atlantic salmon, while Marine Harvest is the the world's largest producer of farmed salmon and trout, with production and farming facilities in Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Chile and Faroe Islands.

According to this MoU, Win-Chain will become an important strategic domestic partner of Marine Harvest's new plant in Shanghai, as well as a strategic partner of the company’s offline salmon retail business, offering services ranging from online sales operations to cold chain logistics and delivery.

Besides, as the importer of Marine Harvest's salmon in China, Win-Chain undertakes to sell via both online and offline channels imported whole salmons. After the establishment of the new plant in Shanghai, Marine Harvest will also provide customized processing services to Win-Chain.

"Chinese consumers have a growing appetite for premium seafood and Marine Harvest is a renowned business in this field. With Alibaba's strong consumer reach, technological capabilities and logistics support, the two parties are expected to bring more best-in-class fresh seafood to Chinese diners." said Michael Evans, President of Alibaba.