Report on the 2014 Winter Agricultural Products Online Purchase and Sales Matchmaking Fair

The 2014 Winter Agricultural Products Online Purchase and Sales Matchmaking Fair concluded successfully on January 29, 2015. With the close cooperation and meticulous organization of commerce authorities at all levels and the distance education offices of the organization departments of Party committees, over the course of one month, the commerce authorities of 586 counties (cities, districts) across 25 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government) reported 1.619 million pieces of agricultural product supply and demand information, involving 1,035 varieties of agricultural products, facilitating the sale of 850,000 tons of agricultural products with a transaction value of 5.53 billion yuan. Among the regions with relatively outstanding information publication and transaction volumes were: Hunan, Henan, Chongqing, Hebei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Ningxia. The relevant circumstances of this matchmaking fair are hereby reported as follows:

I. Main Features

(1) High attention and meticulous preparation. This matchmaking fair took place on the eve of the National Agricultural Products E-commerce and Rural Commerce Information Service Experience Exchange Conference. The distance education offices of the organization departments of Party committees at all levels and the commerce authorities attached great importance to it, and on the basis of conscientiously summarizing experience, further unified their understanding, clarified their thinking, defined their tasks, and made meticulous preparations. Provinces such as Henan, Shandong, Yunnan, Gansu, and Jiangxi promptly convened inter-departmental joint meetings, established matchmaking work leading groups, studied and formulated work plans, and assigned dedicated personnel to supervise, inspect, and guide distance education information sites to ensure the normal operation of network equipment and facilities. Provinces (autonomous regions) such as Hunan, Shanxi, Ningxia, Hainan, Anhui, and Guangxi, while carrying out publicity of successful cases of the matchmaking fair and skills training for personnel, strengthened close cooperation with departments of agriculture and animal husbandry, forestry, and others, comprehensively grasped the supply and demand situation of local specialty products and the procurement situation of key enterprises, and accurately collected and reported information on agriculture-related businesses, agricultural product supply, procurement, and regional specialty agricultural products. The Commerce Bureau of Longyang District, Yunnan, together with relevant departments, conducted on-site research and inspection in more than 100 villages across 16 townships and 2 subdistricts (offices), formulated an implementation plan for the construction of a public commerce information service system, and established 20 new information service sites, laying the foundation for the comprehensive organization and implementation of rural commerce information services. Changsha County, Hunan, while investing 80 million yuan in installments and batches to build network infrastructure such as "Wireless Xingsha" and achieve full coverage of the commerce information service network, also allocated 400,000 yuan in special funds annually for rural commerce information services, ensuring that the work "never goes offline."

(2) Expanding the functions of the national platform and innovating service methods.

First, displaying agricultural products by special zones. Each special zone focused on displaying information on seasonal agricultural product supply and demand, quality merchants, brands, and specialty agricultural products, in order to enhance the visibility and brand value of regional agricultural products. During this period, special promotional events for specialty agricultural products were also organized, such as the Guilin Gongcheng Persimmon Promotion Fair and the Shimen Citrus Online Promotion Fair, and assistance was provided to the distance education office of the organization department of the Nantong Municipal Party Committee in launching a special topic on the "Nantong Specialty Agricultural Products Online Matchmaking Platform."

Second, establishing a procurement matchmaking special zone. More than 50 large-scale procurement enterprises and enterprises providing relief for "difficult-to-sell" products were invited to join the national platform. Through forms such as publishing procurement demands and establishing an "electronic poster" column, quality agricultural product suppliers and procurement demands nationwide were displayed and promoted. Jiangxi Ganzhou Haibo Agriculture Co., Ltd., through the matchmaking hall, successfully achieved matchmaking with COFCO Group, Dalian Caiyijia, and Beijing Jingpaidang Technology Co., Ltd. (Nongxiansheng JD Flagship Store), cumulative selling more than 20 tons of Huicheng (Gannan navel oranges) and reaching long-term cooperation intentions.

Third, opening up mobile terminal information reporting channels. The Henan Department of Commerce incorporated rural commerce information services into the advancement of distance education "on mobile phones," launched the "Henan Nongshang" mobile application platform, achieved data interconnection with the national platform, and formed a work pattern of "multiple networks in parallel and multiple networks transmitting" for rural commerce information in TV version, web version, and mobile phone version. At this matchmaking fair, through the national platform's "Zhangshang Nongshang" and "Henan Nongshang" mobile clients, more than 600 pieces of agricultural product supply and demand information were published, effectively broadening information publication channels.

In addition, the matchmaking fair also invited agricultural product e-commerce enterprises such as Dalian Caiyijia, Benlai Life Network, and COFCO Womai to help agriculture-related users promptly answer questions related to using e-commerce channels for agricultural product marketing through online exchanges.

(3) Overcoming difficulties and vigorously pursuing implementation. This matchmaking fair spanned New Year's Day and was close to the Spring Festival. Commerce authorities and distance education departments in various regions firmly seized the favorable opportunity of strong demand for agricultural products during the holidays, overcame numerous difficulties such as tight time and heavy tasks, and adopted practical and effective measures to ensure that the matchmaking fair achieved real results. The Yunnan Department of Commerce, despite severe shortages in annual work funding, allocated 100,000 yuan in special funds for the matchmaking fair to Tonghai and Yuanmou counties and Longyang District respectively, in order to improve work quality and efficiency. The Commerce Bureau of Hengnan County, Hunan, drew on capable personnel to establish five township gatekeeping groups, selected quality products with large local output, long-term supply, and a certain scale of production as the main targets for information collection, screened information reported by various townships, agricultural departments, and distance education sites from the aspects of output, quality, and market sales, and carried out focused publicity and matchmaking. The Shanxi Department of Commerce actively cooperated with the construction of an agricultural product "difficult-to-sell" public opinion monitoring system, organized its 11 prefecture-level cities to increase efforts in declaring relief enterprises, and guided enterprises that had completed declarations to join the procurement matchmaking hall to publish procurement demands, actively promoting the realization of the goal of "buying nationwide and selling nationwide." Provinces (autonomous regions) such as Liaoning, Sichuan, Inner Mongolia, Hubei, Fujian, and Shaanxi also did a great deal of work during the matchmaking fair and achieved notable results.

II. Main Existing Problems

First, commerce authorities in a small number of pilot areas did not pay sufficient attention to rural commerce information services, lacked overall planning, had insufficiently sound work mechanisms, did not coordinate strongly enough with distance education departments, and failed to carry out the agricultural products online purchase and sales matchmaking fair in a timely manner.

Second, although most regions had very high enthusiasm for carrying out rural commerce information services, because the published information was not complete or detailed enough and did not highlight the advantages and characteristics of local agricultural products, especially as publicity and training work in a small number of regions was not in place, the quality and efficiency of the matchmaking fair were affected.

Third, commerce authorities in some regions did not put enough effort into implementing related work, such as organizing the declaration of "difficult-to-sell" relief enterprises and reporting liaison persons for the public opinion monitoring system and work summaries of the matchmaking fair, which affected the progress of the overall work.

III. Requirements for the Next Step

Relying on the Party member distance education network to carry out rural commerce information services has solved the "last kilometer" problem of bringing commerce work into townships and villages, better resolved the "difficult-to-sell" problem caused by information asymmetry, accelerated the cultivation of the rural e-commerce market, and is a "people's livelihood project" and "intensive project" deeply welcomed by the broad masses of farmers. Commerce authorities at all levels should further unify their thinking, raise their awareness, take rural commerce information services as an important lever for closely linking Party-mass and cadre-mass relations, strengthening the feelings between the Party and the masses and between cadres and the masses, and improving Party and government conduct, and incorporate them into the key work of their departments. They should conscientiously implement the spirit of the National Agricultural Products E-commerce and Rural Commerce Information Service Experience Exchange Conference, and in accordance with the "2015 Work Priorities for Agricultural Products E-commerce and Rural Commerce Information Services" (to be issued), carry out implementation item by item in comprehensively promoting application, normalizing matchmaking, training information officers, and improving work mechanisms. The Ministry of Commerce, together with the Party Member Education Center of the Central Organization Department, will further strengthen supervision, inspection, and guidance, promptly discover typical examples, summarize experience, and promote the healthy and rapid development of rural commerce information services.

Special notice hereby given.

Department of E-commerce and Information Technology, Ministry of Commerce
March 3, 2015