Alibaba Health inks deal with Thai firm as part of food safety push

Alibaba Health Information Technology has launched a food tracking service as the Hong Kong-listed health care flagship of Alibaba Group taps into consumer safety to revive its business after setbacks brought about by sudden regulatory changes.

Alibaba Health inked a deal with Thailand’s CP Group on Wednesday, launching a service that lets Chinese consumers track the origin and authenticity of eggs produced by the group’s China operation by using smartphones to scan quick response codes on egg cartons.

The deal is a major step towards diversifying Alibaba Health’s business after the central government decided in February 2016 to end mandatory use by drug trading enterprises of its medicine identification, authentication and tracking system on the mainland, a service that accounted for the majority of the company’s revenue.

Alibaba Health adapted technology it used in June last year to launch a commercial tracking system to track the origins of medicine and nutritional supplements, but has now expanded to food and farm produce.

Alibaba Health vice president Wang Peiyu told the South China Morning Post that the company sees strong demand from food producers, consumers and the government for a solution to tackle food safety issues.

“And strong demand usually equals a big commercial market,” he said, without elaborating on the specific size of the food tracking market.