Beyond Meat is coming to Alibaba’s grocery stores in China

The plant-based protein maker unveiled a new partnership on Wednesday with Chinese tech giant Alibaba (BABA), which will bring Beyond Burgers to supermarket shelves in mainland China for the first time.

Alibaba is kicking off the deal by rolling out the products in 50 of its Freshippo stores in Shanghai, the company’s futuristic supermarkets where customers use an app to order food and buy groceries. The tie-up marks Beyond Meat’s first placement in supermarkets in mainland China, where it first launched in April with a big Starbucks tie-up. Prior to that, the company’s goods were available in Hong Kong.

Beyond also has a new deal with a local food distributor, Sinodis, which will help the company supply restaurants and caterers in China, according to Brown.

Alibaba, for its part, wants to cash in on the growing phenomenon. “We have seen a growing interest in plant-based meat among our shoppers and look forward to offering more Beyond Meat products in the future,” Jiayu Zhao, senior director and head of merchandising at Freshippo, the Alibaba unit that oversees new retail initiatives, said in a statement.

In addition to stocking Beyond patties in stores, Alibaba will start offering them on its app, so that anyone who wants to order some from home can get them delivered.

The companies plan to expand their partnership in the fall, and will get burgers to dozens more stores in Beijing and Hangzhou starting in September, they said.