How can traditional agricultural enterprises get on the internet express train to seek development

Not tall in stature and dark-skinned, Xu Jinyong gained a romantic nickname last year——“Rose Prince”. He was 6th in last year's China Youth Agricultural Industry Entrepreneurship and Wealth Creation Competition, and he also owns over a hundred mu of rose plantation. This year, as an outstanding representative of agricultural entrepreneurship, the Communist Youth League Yancheng Municipal Committee invited him to present an outstanding entrepreneurship project.

“A rose for you, free of charge.” Visitors were rather curious about the roses, and the boss Xu Jinyong patiently explained the basic knowledge of roses. In one day, he gave away several hundred roses.

This year, this unremarkable “Rose Prince” was invited to various “showing off wealth” events, and he also became a local entrepreneurship mentor. Local young people also kept contacting him, asking him how to achieve “internet + agriculture.”

“My rose sales are mainly offline; a franchise business model is enough. The method of selling roses directly through the internet may not work.” Xu Jinyong said helplessly.

When everyone is chasing the trend of “internet +”, his view is somewhat unconventional, and he does not believe that “internet +” is all-powerful in the field of agricultural entrepreneurship.

In fact, in the process of starting businesses in the agricultural field, many new farmers encounter new confusion: should they focus on agricultural products like their parents' generation of farmers? Or should they pursue the trend of “internet + agriculture”?

Crossing the river by feeling the stones——copying offline agricultural products online

Unlike many young people who go to work, Peng Yan, a college student village official in Jiafu Village, Dagang Town, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, rides an electric bike from the town to the village studio every day to work. The studio is a small red wooden house, located next to a persimmon grove, with a somewhat comic style, and several clusters of fresh flowers are planted beside it, making people feel romantic.

Do not underestimate this studio in the fields. Inside the office there are 4 large-screen computers, as well as modern-style agricultural product display racks, holding dozens of agricultural products. The first thing Peng Yan does every day when she arrives at the studio is turn on the computer and check whether there were any new orders the night before.

“Our Jiafu Village has 10 farms, and we are responsible for selling things online.” Peng Yan said with a smile. Together with her in promoting agricultural products are 3 other local young people.

Jiafu Village is an agricultural village and has no industrial projects. Previously, everyone sold agricultural products mainly by wholesale, and each fought alone, always feeling that the grade of agricultural products could not rise, which made Ding Yunluan, secretary of the Party General Branch of Jiafu Village, somewhat troubled. This village party secretary with a strong northern Jiangsu accent is very farsighted and registered the “Jinxiu Jiafu” trademark several years ago.

“We finally found a starting point. We were also thinking about how to encourage college student village officials to start businesses.” said Cao Hu, secretary of the Youth League Committee of Dagang Town, where Jiafu Village is located. This coincided with his own ideas.

In February this year, the “Green Field Youth” Jiafu e-commerce platform was established. For this, the town allocated more than 400,000 yuan specifically to build this small wooden house and equip it with pesticide residue testing equipment, while Jiafu Village provided office supplies such as computers, desks, chairs and display racks, giving young people an entrepreneurship studio. The village party secretary gave the 4 young people autonomy, letting them operate the “Jinxiu Jiafu” trademark themselves.

Peng Yan put the agricultural products available in the village on a self-built website and Taobao for sale. “If we sell peaches in the traditional offline way, we can only sell them for 6 yuan per jin, while online sales bring about 8 yuan.” She did the math for the reporter.

“The difficulty of express delivery in selling agricultural products online is a long-standing problem, so we adjusted our strategy and sell leafy vegetables and fresh fruits on our self-built website, mainly supplying local wholesalers, canteens and restaurants in Yancheng.” Peng Yan said that with online orders, the team is responsible for organizing supply at various farms and achieving offline delivery.

“We cross the river by feeling the stones, trying to gradually move offline sales online and cut out the intermediate links in sales.” introduced Guo Chun, a young member of the team. He is a young person who has just returned home to start a business, so he is relatively steady in the process of entrepreneurship.

Of course, the core competitiveness of this team is “service.” Every morning, they must test each batch of supply for pesticide residues and also keep samples and records.

“We must ensure that our agricultural products give people peace of mind.” Peng Yan said.

At present, this team has also developed a batch of ready-to-eat products. Products such as dried fruit and buffalo meat are sold on Taobao. These things are more convenient to send by express delivery, and this is also their strategy for achieving layered and diversified operations.

“We are planning rural tourism.” Peng Yan said with a smile. We initially have the idea of combining e-commerce with agritainment to expand visibility.

Empty the cage for a new bird——pesticide manufacturing enterprises transform to provide pesticide solutions

Wearing a black top, wearing suit trousers, and with a gentle smile on his face, when meeting Wu Chengwei for the first time, it is hard to connect him with the internet. He looks more like a civil servant within the system. Unexpectedly, in recent years he has been busy doing “internet + agriculture.”

“I think there is much to be done in modern agricultural services.” Wu Chengwei said.

His father started a pesticide enterprise in 1992. That year was exactly the year Deng Xiaoping's Southern Tour talks were published, and also a year when many private economies moved onto the right track. In 2004, the enterprise obtained the first well-known trademark in China's pesticide industry. At that time, only two in Yancheng City had this trademark.

In fact, after graduating from university, Wu Chengwei passed the examination to become a selected graduate recruit of Jiangsu Province and worked in a provincial capital government agency. Because he was the only son in the family, after working for four or five years, he chose to return home to help his father manage the business.

“The effective rate of pesticides in China is about 35%, while the effective rate of pesticides in Japan is about 60%.” This made Wu Chengwei, who himself was in the pesticide business, somewhat frustrated. He felt that the pesticides produced were not being used in the right place.