JD.com commits to buying more than $2bn of US goods over next three years

China’s JD.com has signed agreements to buy in excess of $1.2bn of beef from The Montana Stock Growers Association (MSGA) and pork from Smithfield Foods over the next three years – and these are part of an overall commitment by the retailer to purchase $2bn of US goods across a wide range of categories.

In a statement issued today (8 November), JD.com said that meat products are a fast-growing category. In the first half of 2017, volume from direct sales of meat on JD increased more than 780% year-over-year, with imported meat accounting for more than 30% of those sales. Online orders for fresh and frozen meat come chiefly from first and second-tier cities, leaving huge potential for growth in online sales from the rest of the country.

“These groundbreaking agreements bring together two of America’s most trusted and in-demand meat suppliers with China’s leading e-commerce platform, to the benefit of both U.S. producers and Chinese consumers,” said Richard Liu, JD.com Chairman and CEO, who participated in the signing ceremony.

According to JD.com: “The beef and pork will be cold-chain transported from the United States and stored in JD’s own warehouses in China. From there, JD can deliver it to customers in more than 100 cities across the country within 48 hours – and to many in as little as six hours. With its complete cold chain solution, JD can monitor the temperature and humidity of products from warehouse to delivery. JD’s cold chain logistics network currently includes 12 cold chain warehouses in China, enabling the delivery of fresh products to customers in 300 cities.”