Alibaba joins hands with embassies to feed buyers' appetite

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said it will sell more imported items after introducing 20 overseas governments to its product quality on Wednesday.

Alibaba, which owns the dominant online retail platforms in China, signed agreements with 20 embassies in China to establish a collaborative mechanism so that "more overseas startups and large enterprises can sell products on Alibaba's platforms", said Zhang Jianfeng, head of the company's online marketplaces.

The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia were among the 20 nations to join Alibaba's initiative.

"The increasing amount of middle-class in China and the shopping population will help the e-commerce sector to maintain a 50 percent annual growth in the coming years," Zhang said. "Also the growing appetite for foreign-made products will provide a unique opportunity for overseas firms."

Most of the products available on the company's retail sites, juhuasuan.com and Tmall.com, will be food.

Li Xing, who sells Australian beef and dairy products on the sites, said the demand for imported meat has been surging in recent years and raised retail prices.

"It is a good business; my partners in Australia are showing more interest in the Chinese market because of soaring demand," he said.

Alibaba is attempting to develop the imported products business as the market for high-quality products has grown in recent years. Introducing more imported items to China has become a strategy for the company for this year.