One-Week Best Aquaculture Practices Seafood Promotion on JD.com a Success
Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) has just wrapped up a successful one-week promotion with e-commerce giant JD.com that resulted in $60,000 dollars in sales of BAP seafood.
The promotion stems from an agreement that the Global Aquaculture Alliance, which administers the BAP third-party aquaculture certification program, inked with JD.com in March 2017 in which the two parties pledged to work together to raise awareness of responsible aquaculture and food safety amongst Chinese consumers.
The promotion, which kicked off on July 9, featured a special webpage on JD.com that spotlighted 15 seafood products originating from BAP-certified facilities, which can include processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills. The products included salmon from Chile and Canada, pangasius from Vietnam, black tiger shrimp from Thailand, and pompano, tilapia and Pacific white shrimp from China. Titled “The seafood choices of safety, assurances and quality,” the page offered a brief introduction of BAP as well as ¥20 RMB (about $3) off a ¥119 RMB (about $18) purchase. The page was also featured on the JD.com app.
The page drew more than 47,000 visitors and generated 75,000 clicks, in addition to bringing in $60,000 dollars in sales of BAP seafood.
“We are so excited to continue to work with our strong partner in China, JD.com,” said Steve Hart, GAA’s VP and head of BAP’s China market development team. “They have shown a true commitment to responsible seafood sourcing, and the efforts they are taking to promote that to Chinese consumers just proves their leadership role in China. As the largest seafood market in the world, it’s critical that the Chinese adopt sustainable sourcing policies, and we are proud to work with JD.com to lead these efforts.”
The promotion was also a great opportunity to educate Chinese consumers on the value of BAP certification. BAP is the world’s most comprehensive third-party aquaculture certification program, with standards encompassing environmental responsibility, social responsibility, animal heath and welfare, food safety and traceability.
Through the first half of 2018, there were 2,079 BAP-certified processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills in 34 countries and six continents. That’s up from 1,819 at the end of 2017.
The JD.com promotion is part of a larger effort by BAP’s market development team to continue to make inroads in the Chinese market through its retail and foodservice partners. Currently, the team is working on subway advertising campaign featuring BAP seafood.
About BAP
A division of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, Best Aquaculture Practices is an international certification program based on achievable, science-based and continuously improved performance standards for the entire aquaculture supply chain — farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills — that assure healthful foods produced through environmentally and socially responsible means. BAP certification is based on independent audits that evaluate compliance with the BAP standards developed by the Global Aquaculture Alliance.
