Ding Dong Maicai rolls out its own seafood certification system, files for IPO

Leading Chinese food delivery app has teamed up with Shanghai Ocean University to develop new seafood traceability standards.

A leading Chinese fresh food delivery app has teamed up with Shanghai Ocean University to develop new seafood traceability standards.

Shanghai-based Ding Dong Maicai has launched its own seafood certification program, under which it will itself certify seafood sold on its platform on issues like water quality, feed input, and antibiotic residue contamination. The company made the announcement of the creation of Ding Dong Seafood G.A.P. in a newly-released green paper outlining its efforts to track its seafood products from farms to consumers’ doors.

It is not clear if the new standard being considered by Ding Dong is related to the Global G.A.P., a sustainability standard covering all aquaculture production systems for finfish, crustaceans and molluscs, covering legal compliance, food safety, workers’ occupational health and safety, animal welfare, and environmental and ecological care. SeafoodSource did not receive a response to emails sent requesting more information from Global G.A.P. or Ding Dong Maicai.

Ding Dong Maicai, which sells up to 10 tons of carp and perch and 10 tons of shrimp per day through its e-store and chain of offline stores, sources from 99 aquaculture suppliers in the Yangtze River delta, encompassing Shanghai and other prosperous cities like Hangzhou. Through the new program, its customers will now be able to access information on farm sources and feed inputs, Ding DongMaicai Head of Quality Control Lao Ai Jun said at the company’s official launch event for the program. Luo said the program, backed by assistance from researchers at Shanghai Ocean University, will specifically target the elimination of traces of chemicals like malachite green, chloramphenicol, and cadmium in the seafood sold through the company’s sales channels in order to give consumers confidence in food safety.

Ding Dong Maicai has raised USD 1 billion (EUR 820 million) to help it expand its network into northern China. It has experienced higher sales as Chinese consumers have turned to online food purchasing in greater numbers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It announced on 9 June it is aiming for an initial public offering of stock in the U.S. this year in hopes of raising an additional USD 500 million (EUR 410.7 million), according to Reuters. Investors in Ding Dong include Sequoia Capital China and Tiger Global Management.

Ding Dong Maicai’s main competitors are Tencent-backed MissFresh, which also filed for a U.S. IPO on Tuesday, 8 June, and Meituan, which has raised USD 10 billion (EUR 8.2 billion) for expansion in the past year.

Photo courtesy of Andy Feng/Shutterstock

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