Fresh food e-commerce helps farmers sell agricultural products without leaving home

The development of e-commerce allows fruit farmers to sell agricultural products without leaving home, and their income has increased. While farmers are delighted, some problems have also emerged: apples are "returned for no reason," the taste is not as good as before, and the size, color, and ripeness of the apples vary. This actually reflects the problem of "standardization" of agricultural products.

In regions with developed agricultural industrialization abroad, because the quality, size, and specifications of every piece of fruit are classified and screened, the indicators of fruits at the same grade are all the same, which is the so-called "standardization." Therefore, they are usually sold by the "piece."

By contrast, due to the lack of standards, high costs, and many aspects of cultivation technology, the quality of domestic fruit is usually uneven, and the only feasible option is to sell by weight. Taking fresh fruit as an example, the most common manifestations of non-standardization are: differences in appearance such as size, weight, and color; appearance damage, including physical damage such as compression injury, scratches, and bird pecks, as well as damage such as mold, frostbite, and rot; and chemical damage such as off-flavors caused by packaging and preservatives; unstable taste, with some fruit in a box sour and some sweet; different degrees of ripeness, with some fruit in a box unripe and some overripe. For example, kiwifruit may be soft or hard; most commonly, they are all unripe and need to be ripened before eating; and overripe ones cannot be eaten at all. In Japanese supermarkets, apples are all the same size and equally sweet. The reason they are equally sweet is that farmers use near-infrared and other non-destructive testing instruments. This small device only needs to be pressed onto the apple, and with the push of a button, it can determine how much soluble solid content there is.

Lessons from elsewhere: standardization abroad

It is understood that in developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan, agriculture is based on a high degree of standardization. Agricultural products have a strict set of standards from regional trials and characteristic trials for new variety selection and breeding, to sowing, harvesting, processing and sorting, and packaging for market. When farmers grow watermelons, there are strict rules on which variety to use, when to sow, when to fertilize, how much fertilizer to apply, and when to harvest. For cucumbers sold on the market, their length, thickness, and degree of curvature must all meet standards.

Japanese people buy things by the piece or by the item, which precisely reflects that Japan does standardization well. In Japan, all agricultural products must undergo strict screening and grading according to certain standards before entering the market. Fish and shrimp are measured by the "piece"; pears and apples are mostly measured by the "piece"; Chinese cabbage and cabbage are priced by one head or half a head. In the market, vegetables and fruits are not seen being sold priced by weight units. Agricultural products below grade are not allowed to enter the market for sale, but are used as processing materials.

The American and New Zealand apples often seen in the market are all in small packages, with two apples selling for 20 yuan. Even excluding packaging costs, each one still sells for 8 yuan. But high-quality domestic apples are better than imported fruit in freshness and taste, yet their price is less than 1/10 of imported fruit. Apart from consumers' psychology of favoring foreign products, the main secret is that these imported fruits are selected according to standards, waxed, and polished, and thus greatly increase in value.

For the same cultivation of scallions, Japanese farmers have a strict and standardized process from variety selection and breeding to different growth stages, making every scallion almost like a "clone" in length and thickness; for the same cultivation of grapes, in Japan only 4 bunches of grapes are allowed per sq m, each bunch 400 grams, and each grape weighs 12 grams; for the same production of cucumbers, they require the cucumbers to be straight, the same length, and basically the same color.

Experts offer advice on "standardization"

The realization of standardization of fresh products requires a process. Under current circumstances, experts suggest starting from five aspects: standardized cultivation, realizing "traceability" of agricultural products, making them "personalized," logistics standardization, and packaging standardization, and striving to promote the development of "standardization."

Standardized cultivation means cultivating according to certain scientific standards. Through standardized cultivation, crops can achieve high yields and increased income, high quality and added value, and ultimately achieve a great increase in output value. Standardized cultivation has strict and complex requirements.

"Traceability" of agricultural products means giving vegetables a "household registration." By applying a dynamic quality traceability system for agricultural products, various pieces of information about agricultural product production are stored in a barcode, and then the barcode is affixed to the outer packaging. Consumers can use computers, telephones, the internet, and other means to find the producer, inspector, pesticide use, fertilization, and harvest date of the agricultural products in that package, and can even find information about the seeds and seedling cultivation of that batch of agricultural products. At the same time, field records are established for agricultural products. The role of field records is to record and supervise, ensuring that products from the "vegetable garden" to the "vegetable basket" all meet standards and can be verified.

Making products "personalized" means requiring sellers to use the unique characteristics of the product as a selling point. For example, mountain apples, although very sweet, lack water and are small, so standardization cannot be implemented, and this requires sellers to explain to consumers. In fact, large fruit is not necessarily of good quality. Agricultural products are very special, and everyone's taste and psychological expectations for products are different. You might give the seller positive feedback because the apples are very sweet, or you might give the seller negative feedback because the apples are too sweet. In this case, standardization should not be forced, and using creativity to enhance the value of each fruit and each vegetable is more meaningful.

Logistics standardization and packaging standardization. This point is also relatively easy to achieve. For example, apples are suitable for direct single-item packaging at the place of origin, which can avoid damage during transportation, while some products are suitable for logistics to a distribution center before packaging.