How can niche fresh agricultural products open up online sales channels?

E-commerce is going to the countryside, and agricultural products are entering the cities. At present, the model of many agricultural and sideline products being sold online has matured, but how niche specialty fresh agricultural products can get on the fast track of online sales is still an emerging topic.

Recently, reporters found during grassroots interviews that through the cooperation model of e-commerce experts + farmers, some niche agricultural and sideline products have also begun to get on the fast track of online sales and are being sold across the country. How is this done?

Market scan

Niche agricultural products

can also sell into a big market

"Put the okra into a foam box, add dry ice, and then immediately ship it to all parts of the country." On June 22, Wei Yushuang, a Rural Taobao partner in Xiangyi Town, Weiyuan County, was busy packing freshly purchased okra. He said that since this year's okra harvest began, he had already sold more than 100 orders.

Wei Yushuang's Rural Taobao service store is located in the farmers' market of Xiangyi Town. Since joining as a Taobao partner last year, every time there is a market day, farmers from various villages flock over to ask about the prices of online shopping goods and consult about the conditions for selling agricultural products online.

Carrying the farmers' hopes for selling agricultural products online, Wei Yushuang often went online to follow the types of agricultural products that sold most briskly. At the end of last year, he found that besides conventional vegetables and fruits sold online, some niche agricultural products also had strong markets and demand. So he acted decisively, combining this with the local agricultural reality, and began sorting out specialty agricultural and sideline products that could be sold online - fish mint, sweet potato, Qixing pepper, and so on.

He began selling agricultural products in November last year. At first there was only 1 order a day, but later the brand gradually became well known. In March this year, the sweet potatoes he sold were once in short supply.

Coincidentally, He Fangbin, a Taobao partner in Longhui Town, Weiyuan County, after creating an annual transaction volume of 2 million yuan for industrial goods going to the countryside, began doing business in agricultural products entering the cities.

"For a town's consumer market, we have almost reached saturation in bringing industrial goods to the countryside. The new performance growth point in the future lies in agricultural products entering the cities." On June 12, He Fangbin was busy replying to online shopping inquiries while introducing his rise to success to reporters.

Since he began online sales of agricultural products in February this year, He Fangbin has sold local bamboo shoots, lemons, fish mint, native eggs, sweet potatoes, and other products through online channels to various parts of the country, with sales amounting to more than 100,000 yuan.

He Fangbin told reporters that last winter he discovered that the northern market was very enthusiastic about fresh pea shoots, so he decisively purchased local pea shoots and shipped them by air to the north. The result was unexpected: in less than a month, he sold several thousand jin. Speaking of experience, he said: "For selling agricultural products online, on the one hand, you must find the right positioning. The market for ordinary agricultural and sideline products has become saturated, so you need to sell some unique products. On the other hand, you must pay attention to marketing methods, be good at using various promotional activities, and keep pricing stable and not change it arbitrarily. Finally, you must choose fast logistics methods."

Reporter's investigation

The rise of a new model of e-commerce experts + farmers for agricultural products going online

"The traditional model for selling agricultural products is that intermediary online sellers are responsible for sales, while farmers are responsible for growing, and there is not much connection between the two. But as the agricultural products market grows larger and the online market changes rapidly, this requires our intermediary online sellers to establish stable cooperative relationships with farmers." said Chen Xudong, deputy director of the Weiyuan County Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.

The okra sold by Wei Yushuang is a typical example. Previously, farmers in Xiangyi Town had never grown okra, but Wei Yushuang, seeing the market opportunity, bought seeds, signed purchase and sales agreements with farmers, mobilized farmers to grow okra, and promised guaranteed purchasing, solving the farmers' worries.

"Last year I mobilized farmers to grow about 10 mu of okra in total. It has now entered the harvest period. Okra yields 2,500 jin per mu, with a total output of about 25,000 kg, all sold online. So far, more than 100 orders have been sold." Wei Yushuang told reporters that in March this year, he opened up the online sales market for sweet potatoes, and Weiyuan sweet potatoes were once in short supply. Later, he cooperated with villagers, introduced sweet potato varieties suited to market demand, distributed them free to farmers to plant, and promised guaranteed buyback at 1 yuan/kg. If the market price was higher than this price, he would purchase according to the market. At present, 20 mu have already been planted.

"New sweet potatoes do not come out until November, but we plan to start presales in August to make the market hot first. In addition, we plan to buy a dryer to initially process okra and Qixing pepper to increase the added value of agricultural and sideline products." Wei Yushuang told reporters.

Similar to Wei Yushuang, in order to develop the online market for agricultural products, He Fangbin established close cooperative relationships with farmers on the one hand, and on the other hand set up several hundred mu of agricultural base himself to grow seasonal vegetables and fruits.

"As of now, there are more than 80 Taobao partners like Wei Yushuang and He Fangbin in Weiyuan. Most of them are promising young people in rural areas. After expanding the market for industrial goods going to the countryside, they began to establish close cooperative relationships with farmers in reverse, or develop agricultural bases, driving farmers to increase income and become better off." Chen Xudong told reporters that through the cooperation model of e-commerce experts + farmers, local fresh agricultural and sideline products such as bamboo shoots, lemons, fish mint, native eggs, and sweet potatoes are selling well online. Last year, the county's online sales of agricultural products exceeded 200 million yuan.