Jack Ma goes into agribusiness

Jack Ma sparked speculation about his next endeavors after the billionaire seeded a small company to process and sell farming produce, in his latest venture since retreating from the spotlight at the height of a government-led industry crackdown.

The co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. set up “Hangzhou Ma’s Kitchen Food” last week with an initial registered capital of 10 million yuan ($1.4 million), according to corporate database Tianyancha. The business involves the sale of packaged agricultural products, according to information on China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.

Ma’s whereabouts and activities have been the topic of intense discussion since 2020, when he stepped away from the limelight after Beijing clamped down on his twin companies — Alibaba and Ant Group Co. — as part of a broader campaign to contain an increasingly powerful private sector.

Ma, whose comments about China’s outmoded financial system helped trigger the crackdown, has since largely devoted his time to agricultural pursuits though his foundation. He joins a spate of well-known entrepreneurs from the likes of Tencent Holdings Ltd. to Meituan who’ve devoted major sums toward the Communist Party’s “common prosperity” initiative. Xi Jinping’s administration has in recent years made elevating backward rural areas one of the cornerstones of Party efforts.

In March, Ma visited a school in Hangzhou in a carefully arranged public visit regarded as a sign he was beginning to resume public activities. He’s mostly focused on projects in agriculture and education, another of his passions.

Few other details have emerged about his latest venture. Senior officials of his foundation hold top posts at the newly created firm, according to the South China Morning Post. An Alibaba representative directed Bloomberg’s request for comment to the Jack Ma Foundation, which didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Tags: China, agricultural sector, Alibaba Group