Selling Vegetables via the Internet Plus: Li Baoshu Leads Over 800 Farming Households to Prosperity
On the morning of September 12, in Beiqinggong Village, Xushui District, 42-year-old villager Ma Baosuo accompanied Li Baoshu to inspect the growth of scallion seedlings in a cold shed. Having started growing pollution-free vegetables with Li Baoshu last year, Ma Baosuo planted 10 mu of vegetables and that year earned a net income of nearly 200,000 yuan.
Li Baoshu's model of Internet Plus + membership system + delivery system made Ma Baosuo realize that selling vegetables via the Internet is more profitable.
Innovation Tackles the "Gamble": Traditional Vegetable Growing and Selling "Ruins" Growers, Li Baoshu Launches Membership-Based Vegetable Sales
"Take cucumbers, for example. This vegetable is famously a 'crazy vegetable.' Today the wholesale market price is 2.5 yuan per jin, tomorrow it might be 1.5 yuan, and the day after tomorrow 50 cents." Ma Baosuo told reporters that market conditions are unpredictable, and grassroots vegetable growers can only rely on "gambling."
Ding Wenxi, a villager from Chengbeizhuang Village, Suicheng Town, Xushui, felt this deeply as well: "In 2014, Ren Wenxue from our village contracted 40 mu of land to grow cabbage, but unexpectedly that year it was only two cents per jin... In the end, nearly a million jin of cabbage were fed to the sheep."
Ren Wenxue's experience is a microcosm of many grassroots vegetable growers. Li Baoshu's method for tackling "gambling on vegetables" is -- the membership system.
"If you want to eat safe vegetables, pay a fee to become my member, and the vegetable ordering prices are all average prices. For example, if you now order cabbage, tomatoes and hot peppers totaling 15 jin, the average price is 3.2 yuan per jin, and the cost is deducted from the membership fee." Li Baoshu said that under the membership system, vegetable growers will not experience the price "roller coaster," and urban residents will no longer sigh over "sky-high vegetables."
Delivery Ensures "Freshness": At Most 7 Hours from Harvest to Members' Homes, While the Traditional Market Is Unpredictable
At around 10 a.m. on the 12th, at the vegetable planting base in Zhengcun, the reporter happened to see staff from Chaomali Logistics busy loading boxes of vegetables labeled with customers' names onto trucks.
"A total of 177 boxes, and they can be delivered before 12 noon today." Chaomali staff said that Li Baoshu's vegetables take about 7 hours from being harvested to being loaded onto trucks and then reaching members' homes. Li Baoshu said that if they went through the traditional market, from harvesting in the afternoon or evening, passing through two or three middlemen at the wholesale market, and then reaching the morning market, it would take at least 12 hours. To ensure freshness, Li Baoshu chose to cooperate with several logistics companies, including Chaomali, Zhengshida, Linghang and Guangsu.
Relying on fresh, conscientiously grown vegetables, since starting to develop memberships in 2012, her conscientious vegetables have gained nearly 10,000 members: "Nearly 5,000 people have paid the membership fee. At first it was 1,000 yuan per year, and now it is 1,500 yuan per year. I have not asked another 5,000 people to pay, because I am afraid the vegetables cannot be supplied."
The Internet Improves "Efficiency": "Internet Plus" Expands Social Impact, WeChat Mall Changes Operating Efficiency
In 2013, Li Baoshu established the website of the Xushui Baoshu Vegetable Professional Cooperative, promoting the online vegetable ordering model.
"At that time there were more than 30 cameras in the planting area, and I also livestreamed the planting and growing conditions online." Li Baoshu said that the Internet increased her visibility and made her conscientious vegetables recognized by more and more people. As supply volume increased greatly, Li Baoshu's method of delivering vegetables to members by copying information by hand began to seem outdated: "I often copied until one or two in the morning. Copying information wrong was common, and vegetables were often delivered incorrectly. Later I really could not keep copying, so I started using computer software to solve it."
In March 2016, Li Baoshu began using a WeChat mall to sell vegetables: "My son, who is in university, asked a classmate to design a set of software that allows people to place vegetable orders in the WeChat shop, and then the vegetable cost is automatically deducted from the membership fee. It is so convenient."
Cooperation Brings "Prosperity": From Doubt to Recognition, Li Baoshu Leads Over 800 Vegetable Growers onto the Road to Prosperity
When Li Baoshu first started the membership system in 2012, she had only 8 greenhouses, less than 20 mu of land, and only 4 vegetable growers cooperating with her. In just 4 years, Li Baoshu's vegetable professional cooperative already had 8 planting bases of about 2,000 mu, involving 4 townships and 15 villages with more than 800 vegetable-growing households joining.
Being able to make money is the greatest motivation for vegetable growers' recognition.
Ding Wenxi is cooperating with Li Baoshu for the first time this year and still feels a little nervous: "Only after seeing others make money following her did I dare to do it too. These tomatoes in two greenhouses are all grown according to her method. I estimate the yield is around 7,000 jin per mu, half lower than the yield of greenhouse tomatoes grown by others with pesticides. But at present the market wholesale price is more than one yuan per jin, while Baoshu's price is close to three yuan per jin. Calculating it all together, this is still more profitable." In addition to more than 800 vegetable-growing households, Li Baoshu's planting park also has more than 200 women working odd jobs: "The lowest daily wage is 60 yuan; the old farmers in charge of planting earn more than 4,000 yuan a month, and there is work almost all year round, and even this earns quite a lot."
"This National Day, the average price of my vegetables will rise to 5.5 yuan per jin." When saying this, Li Baoshu looked full of confidence.