Is it really necessary to let the whole world know when agricultural products are unsalable?

Unsalable-product information drastically lowers price expectations. Most consumers don't care at all whether you've selected the best or not, whether there's any differentiation. When they hear that unsalable products are going for such a low price, and you're selling yours so high, not only will they not buy, they'll call you crazy. This is indeed a fact.

Zhihong's lychee factory was originally supposed to keep operating until the end of this month, but it has been shut down for the past two days. Why? Out-of-town buyers all think Fujian lychees are already unsalable, and without distinguishing good from bad, they drive the price down very, very low. Even high-quality lychees like his have lost their profit margin, so he simply shut down.

With these outbound channels gone, do you think Fujian's lychee farmers can sell better, or is it adding frost to snow?

About unsalable agricultural products: the media means well but does harm

A week ago, my social media feed was flooded with headlines like "Lychees in a certain place are severely unsalable; even at 5 mao per jin at the field, they can't be sold." I read one of the reports from a mainstream media outlet in Fujian, and it had over 100,000 reads. Well-meaning people, seeing such news and motivated by public spirit, would help forward it too, but it seems 99.99% of people are just spectators enjoying the excitement; apart from voicing support, they actually can't help.

I believe the media means well, and the public means well too, but because the internet has accelerated information transparency, such information explodes rapidly——the result is that everyone knows the unsalable information, everyone lowers their expectations for lychee prices, and everyone develops a defensive mentality toward the price of lychees at fruit stands. I walked past the fruit shop at my doorstep and saw a sign reading ten yuan for two jin, placed in a pile of dark-looking lychees. Although the price was low, I still wasn't willing to buy: "Aren't they 5 mao at the field?"

Consumers don't want to buy, sellers can't make money, and unsalable agricultural products become even more unsalable!

About unsalable agricultural products: will charity sales become mainstream?

I deliberately observed charity sales online. Because of the reports, many warm-hearted people took action, and some even offered 20 jin for 58 yuan in charity sales. I deliberately bought one, and because the other party sent it by ordinary express delivery, the first package had already gone rotten on the way and was thrown away. As I write this article, the second package is still on the way.——I reckon this guy is going to lose money; it's only a question of how much.

Previously I bought a package of unsalable nectarines from Shaanxi, 19.9 yuan/5 jin. I saw the shop's total sales were over 16,000 orders, a pretty good result. It was both cheap and for a good cause, so I placed an order readily. The experience this time was not bad. Although it arrived 2-3 days late, the product was at least intact. As for product quality, to be honest, it was average. The next day I went to a fruit shop and saw 3.8 yuan/jin, where you could pick and choose and take it immediately; then I looked at that charity-selling company. It stopped after selling over 16,000 orders (I guess it was crazed by the express delivery for those 16,000-plus orders), 80,000 jin of goods (40 tons), and there should have been no profit. If labor is included, it probably had to put money in.

Personally, I greatly admire such companies, but how many can afford to keep putting money in like this? Selling fresh agricultural products is still a professional job. Once a production area has unsalable goods, it's tens of thousands of tons of goods. For non-professional charity-minded people, how many orders can they sell? A drop in the bucket.

Relying on charity to solve unsalable products is a fantasy!

Can normal commercial behavior work? It's still a disappointing result.

Unfortunately, I also joined this wave of lychee selling. Because New Farmer Hall mainly gathers small and medium-sized special-channel sellers along the eastern coastal region, including many fruit WeChat merchants, I tried to use a B2B2C approach to get everyone to sell lychees together.

In terms of products, I cooperated with Zhihong's lychee factory to select goods from the production area according to relatively high standards. Even for the unsalable variety Lanzhu, we selected the best grade of Lanzhu. To make the product more appealing, we also paired the relatively high-end Nuomici, Guiwei, and Lanzhu into a combination for sale, and added many cultural-creative elements.