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Yuxi Farmers' Association Opens Direct Sales Shelves for Farmers, Combining with FamilyMart One-Stop Shopping to Achieve Outstanding Results

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Yuxi Farmers' Association is so thoughtful, opening direct sales shelves for farmers and combining with FamilyMart so consumers can get everything in one stop, achieving outstanding sales results

Located in Yuli, south of Hualien, Taiwan, China, this is a major rice granary, ranking among the top four in national rice production. It also produces watermelons, pomelos, and daylilies. The Yuxi Farmers' Association, which helps farmers in Yuli Township and Zhuoxi Township sell agricultural products, tried seven years ago to combine the farmers' association supermarket with a convenience store, successfully transforming the farmers' association supermarket into the Yuxi Farmer Direct Sales Station and turning agricultural product sales from a deficit into a profit.

In addition to combining with FamilyMart to expand operations, the farmers' association supermarket also opens its shelves to small farmers to place their own freshly grown fruits and vegetables, with the farmers' association charging only a modest management fee, making the supermarket a beneficial sales platform for farmers.

Small farmers from Yuli and Zhuoxi go to the farmers' association themselves to print labels and place products on shelves; the farmers' association charges only a modest management fee, 15% for fresh produce and 20% for processed goods (Photo: Lin Yijun)

The convenience store space extends the display and sales time for agricultural products, and small farmers place products on shelves themselves

Cai Zonghan, director-general of the Yuxi Farmers' Association who has been in office for three years, explained that in the past the main competitor of the farmers' association supermarket was the traditional vegetable market. Later, after Pxmart supermarkets appeared locally, competition became even fiercer. "At that time, there were 2 Pxmart stores and 7 7-Eleven stores here in Yuli, and it became increasingly difficult for the farmers' association supermarket to sell."

Cai Zonghan said that former director-general Peng made a bold decision in the 102nd year of the Republic of China (2013). "There was no FamilyMart in Yuli, so the former director-general went to negotiate a franchise with FamilyMart in the name of the farmers' association." Thus, next to the Yuxi Farmers' Association Extension Department, the first farmers' association convenience store co-branded outlet in Taiwan, China was born.

Currently there are 17 farmers' association FamilyMart co-branded convenience stores in Taiwan, China, and seven years ago Yuxi Farmers' Association was the first. Cai Zonghan said that the advantage of the farmers' association franchising with FamilyMart is that the farmers' association already had the space, and only needed to fill in the equipment, while the convenience store format also effectively lengthened the time for selling agricultural products.

Cai Zonghan, director-general of the Yuxi District Farmers' Association who has been in office for more than three years (Photo: Lin Yijun)

Small farmers can apply to place products directly on shelves, with only 15% charged for fresh produce as a warehousing management fee

The co-branded store is divided into two areas, half of which is an agricultural product sales area, covering everything from fresh produce to processed goods. Chen Meiling, director of the Yuxi Farmers' Association Extension Department, explained that the main crops in the Yuxi area are rice, watermelons, pomelos, and daylilies, but there are still many farmers growing fruits and vegetables on a small scale. These small farmers can bring their agricultural products to the farmers' association co-branded convenience store to place them on shelves, and the farmers' association charges only a warehousing management fee, 15% for fresh produce and 20% for processed goods, with no additional shelving fee.

Chen Meiling pointed at each basket on the fresh produce shelves. "The agricultural products in each basket all come from the same farmer." She picked up one bag of lemons and pointed to the label sticker on it to explain that farmers can all apply to the farmers' association to place products on shelves. After bringing packaged agricultural products to the farmers' association and registering the product information (producer traceability, item, and price), the sticker can be printed out, and farmers all place the products on shelves themselves.

Cai Zonghan said that in the Yuxi area there are relatively few farmers growing vegetables on a large scale, and considering that supermarket operations must prepare enough product items, besides fruits and vegetables from eastern Taiwan, they also fill in with organic fruits and vegetables from other areas of Hualien and Taitung. "Priority is given to the Hualien-Taitung area; only if the Hualien-Taitung area does not have it will western Taiwan be considered."

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