Taiwan, China's PayEasy was once a hit selling rice, but now it is shockingly reported to have been delisted from Tmall
Recently PayEasy in Taiwan made a splash selling rice to the Chinese online platform "Tmall Global," but on the 18th it was shockingly reported to have been taken down. Word spread that this was because it had not obtained Taiwan's quarantine certificate and also because sales were poor. However, PayEasy says nothing of the sort happened: this batch of goods uses a new-style "cross-border e-commerce" model, which never required a Taiwan quarantine certificate in the first place; the delisting is because China is currently conducting random inspections, and once it passes, it can immediately be relisted.
"Tmall Global" is a sub-brand of the Chinese company "Alibaba Group," specializing in selling food, clothing, housing and transportation brands from around the world. This year it connected with the Taiwan online shopping platform PayEasy, coming to Taiwan to contract-farm 360,000 kg of "Yiquan Fragrant Rice" (Tai Nong 71) from Wufeng in Taichung and Yuli in Hualien. The head of Tmall Global for Hong Kong, China and Macao, China even came to Taiwan especially to hold a press conference. The first wave of 10,000 units went on sale on November 11, but a week later it was suddenly delisted, and as of the reporter's deadline it had not been relisted.
PayEasy Taiwan rice no longer visible on the Tmall website
Hualien farmer Xia Junjie took part in the Tmall Global contract farming of 3 hectares, but he says the farmers mainly go through PayEasy for purchasing, and he is not clear about the subsequent sales situation; another contract-farming Wufeng farmer, Weng Liangcai, also once asked PayEasy about this matter. At the time PayEasy explained that this batch of rice had simply passed its promotional period, so it could not be seen on the website temporarily, and "it has always been on sale." Later Tmall planned to separately build a new platform dedicated to Taiwan, integrating all Taiwan brands; it is still in progress, so for the time being this batch of rice cannot be seen on the Tmall website.
In recent years China has actively developed "cross-border e-commerce," shortening customs clearance procedures and adopting "bonded import" or "direct-purchase import," that is, first letting goods enter special supervised zones of Chinese customs, and before shipment is confirmed, having local quarantine authorities quarantine and clear them. At present, e-commerce platform pilot programs have been selected in cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and Tmall Global is located in Hangzhou.
Taking this batch of Taiwan rice as an example, PayEasy uses "bonded import": the exported rice enters a Chinese "bonded warehouse." After Chinese consumers place orders on Tmall Global, the system notifies shipment, Chinese customs then inspects it, and after confirming there is no problem and clearing customs, it can be shipped directly to consumers.
Compared with the previous model of first quarantining and clearing customs before it can be sold, bonded import is several times faster, and goods can be received in just 3~4 days. However, in recent years different voices have also emerged in China, questioning that cross-border e-commerce products evade relevant food safety and trade regulations, and that quarantine tasks are delegated to local units, increasing food safety risks.
Although PayEasy stresses that the temporary delisting was due to routine inspection, the industry speculates it is not so simple and may involve political issues or poor sales. But Chen Zhongxing denies any speculation, stressing, "This is a new type of trade model, and many operators and government units in Taiwan are still unfamiliar with it, hence the misunderstanding."