H&T Seafood of Bell, Calif., USA, has signed a comprehensive joint-marketing agreement for seafood products shipped into the U.S. market from Baiyang Group in China.
Initially, the agreement will focus on tilapia products produced in two of Baiyang’s processing plants: Beihai Qinguo Frozen Foods Co., Ltd. and Guangxi Baijia Foods Co., Ltd.
“This joint marketing agreement will allow us to have better control over our supply chain and provide highly competitive pricing,” said Howard Lapides, executive VP at H&T. “It will be as close as possible to direct factory sourcing, for the benefit of our customers.”
“H&T’s marketing experience and long-term customer relationships combined with our extensive production capacity, creates an ideal collaboration,” added Charles Sun, general manager of Baiyang Group. “Today’s announcement serves as our next major step into the U.S. market and demonstrates our commitment to providing our superior products to H&T Seafood’s customer base.”
The agreement will bring together both companies' complementary strengths. H&T Seafood imports, processes and distributes a full line of food products with a strong emphasis on frozen seafood, both for branded and private label sales. The privately owned company has 20 operating companies employing nearly 2,000 workers. It markets shrimp under the Double Blue brand.
Baiyang Group, one of China’s top tilapia producers, has a closed loop industrial supply chain, including aquatic R&D, aquatic fry breeding, feed production, fish farming and processing. It is listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, under the trading symbol “Baiyang Stock” and with the stock code 002696.
