Agricultural e-commerce wins support from three ministries, plans to cultivate influential brands
Agricultural e-commerce has received a series of favorable developments.
Recently, the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Commerce jointly issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Development of Agricultural E-Commerce" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), in order to promote the rapid and healthy development of agricultural e-commerce centered on agricultural products and agricultural production materials. The "Plan" clearly defines the overall goals for the next 3 years: by 2018, the infrastructure conditions for agricultural e-commerce will be significantly improved, the institutional system and policy environment will be basically sound, and a number of agricultural e-commerce enterprises and brands with important influence will be cultivated.
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Daily Economic News reporter that China's conventional circulation channels for agricultural products involve many links and high transaction costs, often bringing many difficulties such as excessive volatility in the agricultural product market and the inability to guarantee the interests of producers and consumers.
Clear goals for the next 3 years
In fact, the "Plan" is an extension of the earlier State Council "Opinions on Vigorously Developing E-Commerce and Accelerating the Cultivation of New Economic Momentum."
According to the "Plan," by 2018, the infrastructure conditions for agricultural e-commerce will be significantly improved, the institutional system and policy environment will be basically sound, a number of agricultural e-commerce enterprises and brands with important influence will be cultivated, the proportion of e-commerce in the circulation of agricultural products and agricultural production materials will rise noticeably, and its role in improving the market circulation system for agricultural products and agricultural production materials, raising consumer demand, and prospering the urban and rural economy will be significantly enhanced.
In the first half of this year, the growth rate of traditional e-commerce business showed signs of slowing. In order to seek new development, industrial capital and e-commerce enterprises have turned their attention to the more promising field of agricultural e-commerce.
"The reason agricultural product e-commerce is developing rapidly is related to the prominent problems in China's existing conventional circulation channels for agricultural products." Li Guoxiang said that China's conventional circulation channels for agricultural products generally go through multiple links such as purchase by rural brokers, trading by transporters in wholesale markets, and then agricultural trade markets and supermarkets. Transaction costs are high, often bringing many difficulties such as excessive volatility in the agricultural product market and the inability to guarantee the interests of producers and consumers.
Jiao Yue, CEO of the fresh food e-commerce company Yimixian, told the Daily Economic News reporter that fruit directly procured from the place of origin can be traced back to the grower and the plot of land where it was produced. After determining the specific picking plot, the fruit is picked at the appropriate time and packed directly into boxes in the field; after 24 hours of pre-cooling, it is transported by cold-chain vehicle from the place of origin directly to the large warehouse in the city where it is located, then packed according to orders and shipped to various sub-warehouses, and finally delivered to users by delivery personnel.
Key tasks arranged in 5 aspects
Data from the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute show that in 2010 the value of agricultural products circulating in China totaled 224 million yuan, of which online sales accounted for less than 1%. In 2014, China's rural population was 940 million, of which internet users were 178 million, accounting for 23.7%. In the future, with the further popularization of smartphones and broadband, the number of rural residents using the internet will continue to grow, and agricultural e-commerce will continue to develop rapidly. The "Plan" points out that key tasks will be arranged in 5 aspects, and 20 specific action plans have been formulated. The content covers cultivating market entities for agricultural e-commerce, building a public service platform for agricultural e-commerce, vigorously clearing agricultural e-commerce channels, increasing technological innovation in agricultural e-commerce and the intensity of its application, and accelerating the improvement of the agricultural e-commerce policy system.
Analysts at the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute believe that the following development trends are expected to appear in agricultural e-commerce in the future: under the influence of the internet, the circulation speed of agricultural products will increase, agricultural sales models will expand, and farmers' incomes will rise somewhat; agricultural production has the characteristics of regionality, seasonality, a low degree of product standardization, and relatively low producer quality, so promoting large-scale production by farmers and improving product quality will be a major focus of future rural e-commerce; the construction of rural logistics outlets will accelerate, logistics technology will continue to mature, cold-chain logistics will develop somewhat, and will be applied on a large scale in the field of rural e-commerce.
Mo Qingfeng, secretary-general of the China Fruit Marketing Association, believes that compared with other standardized goods, the procurement requirements for fresh agricultural products are extremely high, and they are greatly affected by factors such as weather, fruit maturity, and transportation and distribution conditions. If fresh food O2O platforms want to win in this wave, having a professional procurement and sales team is key.