Selling Live Chickens on Taobao: Farmers Expand New Online Sales Channels
Report on ways to get rich in agriculture, rural areas and farmers: Selling free-range chickens and geese online for between 160 yuan and 400 yuan each, farmers in Letuyi Town, Manas County have set up their "chicken stall" on Taobao. From just a few varieties at the beginning to 16 varieties now. Since the free-range chicken specialty store set up shop on Taobao, it has attracted cooperation interest from customers in Sichuan, Chongqing and Guangdong, among other places.
Early in the morning on August 4, Liu Chang'an, head of the Yinlu Poultry Breeding Professional Cooperative in Manas County, was busy packing 23 free-range chickens into cardboard boxes to ship to Urumqi. Liu Chang'an said these chickens were all ordered on Taobao, each selling for 180 yuan, and now they deliver about twice a week.
Liu Chang'an is the head of the Yinlu Poultry Breeding Professional Cooperative, with 22 years of poultry-raising experience, and his name is well known among local farmers. In June 2008, organized by the local government, he founded the Yinlu Poultry Breeding Professional Cooperative made up of 162 farming households, with more than 40 breeding bases in total. Liu Chang'an said Letuyi Town has lush water and grass, very suitable for raising green, all-natural free-range chickens and geese, and most local farmers raise these poultry. "The sanhuang chickens sold on the market, which we also call commercial chickens, are generally raised for only 70 days, and broilers are 'fast-tracked' in just 42 days, while green free-range chickens must be raised for half a year." Liu Chang'an said that at first they only sold to Urumqi and cities around Manas County, and because they had not established fixed sales channels, retail volume was small. Liu Chang'an heard that many people buy things online, so he decided to try going online too.
From start of preparations to opening for business, Liu Chang'an spent more than half a year, and for this the Letuyi Town government specially assigned 3 staff members to the Yinlu Poultry Breeding Professional Cooperative to handle online technical guidance. On May 18, the "free-range chicken store" on Taobao officially opened. Ever since setting up his "stall" online, Liu Chang'an was delighted to find that the online market was much bigger than he had imagined. On the second day after opening, a customer from Chongqing contacted Liu Chang'an, wanting to visit the cooperative to see the raising conditions. If conditions met the requirements, they also wanted to establish a long-term partnership. After that, customers from Chengdu and Guangdong expressed interest in long-term cooperation. Liu Chang'an said that from being able to sell 2 to 3 chickens online per day at first, it later reached more than ten per day. Now his customers are increasing, and prices vary according to variety and growth age - the longer the growth time, the higher the price.
Liu Chang'an told the reporter that the cooperative requires all breeding bases to raise poultry free-range according to unified requirements, with dedicated supervisors, and any that are found not to meet the specified free-range time will not be purchased at all. For farmers, the net profit per chicken is 40 yuan, and with sales up, the benefit to farmers is still fairly considerable.
The reporter saw on the Letuyi Free-Range Chicken Store on Taobao that they have dedicated delivery vehicles and generally ship within 72 hours. Liu Chang'an said that no matter how perfect the immediate freezing measures after slaughtering live poultry, the original taste and nutrition cannot be preserved, and much nutrition is also lost during transport, so they only provide express delivery of live poultry, letting people who want to eat free-range chickens and geese truly enjoy the freshest green chickens and geese. The reporter learned that this is Xinjiang's first online free-range chicken specialty store. At present, Liu Chang'an has expanded his breeding varieties; besides free-range chickens and geese, there are also red-breasted geese, turkeys, wild pheasants and other 16 varieties, and through the internet he has already sold 3,000 free-range chickens, with revenue of 120,000 yuan.