East China’s Jiangsu province reported surging online business in the first quarter of this year with residents buying vegetables at e-stores and livestreaming marketing by farm owners so that the province was able to beat the impact from the sudden outbreak of novel coronavirus disease or COVID-19.
Zhao Qingyi, head of a professional fruit and vegetable cooperative in Lishui district, Nanjing, has developed a very prosperous vegetable business in the past two years, with the surrounding enterprises and schools becoming his major customers.
Judging from the past experiences, Zhao should have been free from worry about the sales of mature fruits and vegetables on his farm. But the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 in February forced many enterprises to suspend work and production, which caused Lao Zhao’s vegetable sales to plummet.
Zhao Qingyi, head of a professional fruit and vegetable cooperative in Lishui district
Our sales channels are blocked because of the stagnant sales and no one is interested in the vegetables.
Under the guidance of the local government, Zhao Qingyi contacted several residential communities in Nanjing through Wechat groups so that his vegetables made inroads into the urban households.
Zhao Qingyi, head of a professional fruit and vegetable cooperative in Lishui district
This year, I have greatly improved my sales performance probably selling 30% to 40% more than last yearand the profit margin has also increased.
Order online and fresh vegetables are delivered to your home. The ultra-high cost-effective shopping method not only solves Lao Zhao's difficulty in selling vegetables, but also gradually taps into greater market demand.
Jingqiao town of Lishui District, Nanjing is launching a trial operation of a regional trading platform for agricultural products in order to allow more agricultural operators to ride the rollercoaster of the Internet.
Qin Wenqing, deputy mayor of Jingqiao town of Lishui District, Nanjing
Fresh fruits and vegetables specialty river crabs, green prawns, and rice have all benefited from online sales. In the next step, we will increase capital investment in smart agriculture, cold chain, cold storage and sorting by increasing the subsidies for e-commerce sales.
Since the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, Jiangsu has carried out the "Internet +" action to help farmers tide over difficulties by establishing a multi-channel production and marketing bridge to ensure that the "slow sale" of agricultural products has been changed to "direct sales", opening a green channel for the sale of agricultural products such as canned yellow peach in Siyang, potted landscape in Rugao and black-legged chicken in Peixian.
Novel online marketing methods such as WeChat group buy, community buy and live streaming marketing become the driving force and new impetus for the sales growth of specialty agricultural products.
Statistics show that in the first quarter of this year, Jiangsu registered 18.8 billion yuan of online sales of agricultural products, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%.
The online sales of agricultural products plummeted in February due to the impact of the epidemic, but the resumption of work and production has boosted the online sales in March with the online sales of agricultural products increasing by more than 30% year-on-year.
Wu Hao, Deputy Director of Jiangsu Internet Agriculture Development Center
Some market players that focus on selling agricultural products through traditional channels have opted for online-offline integration so as to seek greater development. In the second half of the year, we will take more measures to organize the agricultural operators to develop agricultural e-commerce, strengthen the skills and capabilities of the online sales of agricultural products to ensure that we will fulfill the annual tasks.
