Specialties from the Three Gorges leave the deep mountains, and the sales channels for agricultural products grow ever wider

Not long ago, at the Third China County E-commerce Summit held in Shandong, Fengjie County of Chongqing was rated by Alibaba as the 2015 annual “Most Influential County” for rural e-commerce. Tang Keren, a staff member of the Fengjie E-commerce Office who received the medal, felt especially proud, because this award is particularly valuable, and only 3 across the country received it.

Fengjie County is located in the heart of the Three Gorges reservoir area. In recent years, around the “three trees” (navel orange, olive, and Chinese yew) and the “three leaves” (tea leaves, mulberry leaves, and tobacco leaves), it has developed characteristic high-benefit agriculture, planting 300,000 mu of navel oranges, 50,000 mu of Chinese yew, 60,000 mu of olives, 150,000 mu of Chinese medicinal materials, 93,000 mu of mulberry for sericulture, and 250,000 mu of vegetables, becoming a major national county for high-quality agricultural products.

However, Fengjie is located in the contiguous poverty-stricken area of the Qinba Mountains and is a national key county for poverty alleviation. Its transportation infrastructure is poor, logistics costs are high, information is blocked, small products find it difficult to connect with large markets, and the sale of agricultural products is difficult.

To escape the predicament in which farmers increase production but not income, Fengjie set its sights on the internet and actively built a new bridge connecting agricultural products with large markets. Last year, Fengjie carried out close cooperation with Alibaba on the rural Taobao “Thousand Counties, Ten Thousand Villages” project. From the first contact on July 2, 2015, to the signing of the rural Taobao strategic cooperation agreement on August 4, and then to the opening of the rural Taobao Fengjie Service Center on September 15, it completed the selection of 60 village Taobao sites across the county, partner recruitment and training, and the decoration and display setup of the operations center and specialty hall in only 42 days.

Tang Keren happily told reporters, “On the opening day of Fengjie rural Taobao, 4 national firsts were set: the first batch of 60 village sites opened, the most in the country; the village logistics route mileage of 1,386 kilometers, the longest in the country; total opening-day transaction value of 12.1 million yuan, the most in the country; and the transaction value of a single village site on opening day of 2.57 million yuan, first in the country.”

Fengjie is the “Orange Capital of China,” with an annual output of 280,000 tons of navel oranges. Once, due to geographical factors, Fengjie navel oranges experienced increased production but poor sales. After getting on the e-commerce express train, Fengjie strengthened online marketing and turned navel oranges from an offline advantageous brand into an excellent brand that sells well online. Last year, online sales exceeded 150 million yuan; in April this year, an “E-commerce Online Navel Orange Festival” marketing activity was carried out on the Taobao homepage, selling 400,000 jin of navel oranges in 2 days; and the number of online merchants selling navel oranges also surged rapidly from 254 to more than 1,600.

Driven by Fengjie navel oranges, more than 50 kinds of local agricultural specialties such as Fengjie cured meat, honey, and native eggs have come online for sale one after another. In order to promote more agricultural specialties going online, Fengjie, following the model of “online merchant + rural Taobao partner + large planting and breeding households + poor households,” vigorously develops farmers' e-commerce cooperatives.

“In the next 3 years, Fengjie will incubate 5,000 online merchants of various types, establish 3 to 5 Taobao villages, push online sales of agricultural products past 1 billion yuan, vigorously implement the ‘e-commerce + poverty alleviation’ strategy, and drive more people to increase income.” Regarding the future path of e-commerce development, Xiang Chenggang, director of the Fengjie County E-commerce Office, appeared fully confident.

Using e-commerce cooperatives to drive villagers out of poverty is the first choice of Fengjie's “e-commerce + poverty alleviation” strategy.

Zhuping Village in Caotang Town is a county-level poverty-stricken village in Fengjie. Cai Maolin, 34, became a Zhuping Village Taobao partner last year and has now become a local model entrepreneur, while 2 years ago he was still a poor household. “After my online store opened on September 15 last year, I helped villagers shop online while also selling local specialties, and I had income of more than 10,000 yuan every month.” Cai Maolin recalled that on the opening day of the village Taobao service station, he helped villagers purchase agricultural vehicles, daily necessities, electrical appliances, and other products, with transaction value reaching more than 1.5 million yuan, setting the single-day transaction record for a single rural Taobao village site.

Since the beginning of this year, Cai Maolin and more than 220 farming households have jointly established an e-commerce cooperative, with villagers responsible for planting and breeding and Cai Maolin responsible for sales. Cai Maolin's e-commerce professional cooperative has taken in 70 local poor households, advanced funds to place 5,000 chicks and distributed them to poor households to raise, and the collected eggs and live chickens are sold through the e-commerce platform. While increasing income, the people can also receive profit dividends from the cooperative. Next, Fengjie will set up at least one e-commerce cooperative in each of 30 townships and towns.

Doing a good job in product marketing through the Taobao Fengjie specialty hall is another strategy of “e-commerce + poverty alleviation.” At present, Fengjie has built the Specialty China Fengjie Hall on Alibaba, selling more than 30 local specialty products such as Fengjie navel oranges, cured meat, pig tongue, sausages, and smoked dried chicken. With the further development of e-commerce, Fengjie plans to concentrate more than 200 specialty products, including ebony furniture, Kui combs, Chinese yew products, Three Gorges stones, Shu embroidery, and olive oil, into the specialty hall for operation, promoting the standardization, distinctive development, and branding of local products, and driving the sustainable development of rural industries.