In order to build a brand of agricultural products and enhance competitiveness, local governments have thought of e-commerce and thought of digitalization. For Alibaba, in the process of agricultural standardization, reaching out to the field is a necessary action to seize market share.
Text | Yang Liyun Edited by | Yu Le
After the live broadcast is on fire, in the future, in the fields of China, there may be countless "Li Jiaqi" and "Wei Ya" who plant land and plant trees, while planting and live broadcasting.
On December 2, Taobao Live Broadcast sister Wei Ya made a special session of agricultural products in Kecheng, Quzhou, Zhejiang Province, and 6 products such as honey orange tea in Caoxiang Garden, attracting more than 9 million netizens to watch online in 1 hour, selling 150,000 pieces of agricultural products, with sales of 5.17 million yuan.
"It's incredible, the staff of Via's live broadcast backstage has been urging me to add goods, and I really regret that there are too few stocks." Taobao Live's ability to carry goods surprised Fang Yu, the person in charge of Caoxiang Garden, and stimulated her interest in being a rural anchor.
Farmers as anchors are a form of transformation supported by the local government. Quzhou has built a number of village sowing bases, and nearly 200 farmers have received village sowing training to try this new model to shout their own agricultural products to customers across the country.
The impetus for this transformation comes from market competition. The honey orange tea recommended in Wei Ya's live broadcast is a typical finished product after the deep processing of Quzhou citrus. As the hometown of citrus in Zhejiang, Quzhou Kecheng District alone has 150,000 mu of citrus orchards, with an annual output of 200,000 tons, a total output value of 628 million yuan, and an export volume of 60% of Zhejiang Province. However, the name of Quzhou citrus in China is not very loud, and those who compete with it are Taizhou, Jinhua and Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, and Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hubei and so on outside the province.
(Meishan, Sichuan, Alibaba Ehime orange sorting line.) Every year, the Ehime orange produced in Meishan matures one month earlier than other origins, becoming a double 11 hit. Image courtesy of Alibaba)
In order to enhance competitiveness and expand the market, Quzhou Kecheng thought of e-commerce and thought of digitalization. Cooperation with Alibaba, let farmers be anchors, and create a "Taobao Live Broadcast Village Broadcast Pilot Zone" is only a marketing link nearing the end of the entire industrial chain. More importantly, the digital transformation of the whole industry chain, from what to plant, how to plant, when to pick, to how to transport, how to sell, the entire link is introduced and rely on big data support, so that agriculture from relying on the sky to rely on data to eat; agricultural products from production to marketing process is no longer a layer of middlemen to earn the difference.
In the process of agricultural standardization, for enterprises like Alibaba, reaching out to the field is a necessary action to seize market share. On the one hand, the scope of selection has been expanded, and the production, supply and marketing have formed a closed loop; at the same time, to a certain extent, it has avoided white-hot competition in the existing system in the middle and lower reaches of the industry. In October 2019, Alibaba established the Digital Agriculture Division, which aggregated 13 businesses in the Alibaba economy, including Taobao, Tmall, Cainiao, Ant, Alibaba Cloud, and Hema, and set a target: By 2022, the annual online sales of agricultural products in the Alibaba economy will exceed 400 billion yuan.
The baton of "digitalization" points to all walks of life, can the most traditional agriculture also be "turned into gold"?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > traditional limes, big data screened out chicken tail grapefruit</h1>
11 years ago, Gao Shaofei's "stealing vegetables" game "Happy Farm" was all the rage. 11 years later, he moved his passion for farms from the virtual game world to the real world, turning "Happy Farm" into a "digital farm.". Tailai Capital, of which Gao Shaofei is the general manager, invested in an agricultural technology company called "Agricultural Law Nature" in 2018. Three years ago, the agricultural law naturally valued the climate environment of Quzhou and was not easy to produce "citrus yellow dragon disease" (a devastating disease of citrus), and contracted 1250 acres of land in Kecheng District to plant the famous local limes, chicken tail grapefruit and daya mandarins. This year is the first year of hanging fruit, Ke Qichao, general manager of agricultural law and nature, told the "Finance" reporter that this year can produce 250,000 kilograms of citrus, and by the fifth year, it can produce 4,000 kilograms per mu.
Next to the chickentail grapefruit trees, there are soil sensors, light sensors and other equipment, which are transmitted to the digital control room next to the orchard, and two display screens monitor the soil moisture, PH value, sunshine hours, light and effective radiation in real time. According to these data, fruit growers can remotely control the time, intensity, etc. of irrigation in real time on their computers or mobile phones, so as to avoid causing droughts, floods, and waste of resources.
(Soil sensors used in the Kecheng citrus grove in Quzhou can monitor soil quality and moisture in real time,) Photograph: Yang Liyun)
Ke Qichao introduced that the agricultural law naturally introduces Alibaba's smart agricultural IOT Internet of Things technology and digital management tools. In addition to soil and light conditions, the system can also monitor plant growth, soil nutrient distribution, soil organic matter content, etc., and implement precise planting management and traceability throughout the process. Its purpose is to accurately control fertilizer and pests and diseases, improve the yield of chicken tail grapefruit, and enhance the sweetness and gloss of the fruit.
Not far from the natural agricultural law, is the orchard of Zhejiang Yunzeying Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd. This is a large local citrus household, contracting 5,000 acres of land and introducing 273 citrus varieties. According to Zheng Zhenhua, chairman of the company, Alibaba has jointly built a digital farm of chicken tail grapefruit, established a standardized planting management system, and a full traceability system to build a brand of agricultural products.
These two orchards are located in kecheng chicken tail grapefruit standard demonstration base. In October 2019, the month ali digital agriculture division was established, it and the local government jointly established this base.
"The aroma of wine is also afraid of the deep alley." Lin Jing, deputy mayor of Quzhou Kecheng District, told Caijing that "there is no production and no sales" is the biggest pain point. Now agriculture should take into account the market demand, what brand to grow, we must first start from the taste of consumers - they like how sweet, how much moisture, like the traditional Quzhou lime or from overseas chicken tail grapefruit, these need to give answers from the big data at the sales end, reverse the upstream fine planting, "customized fruit".
The longer-term goal is not only to sell fruit, but also to build a regional brand of Kecheng citrus. Jiang Hongmei, deputy director of the Government Office of Quzhou Kecheng District, said in an interview with Caijing that in the era of consumption upgrading, the traditional Quzhou lime has no advantage in taste and economic value. "After the consumption upgrade, citrus products must also be constantly iterated. It's like you always get bored of wearing a piece of clothing. Consumers have a curious mentality. There are 132 varieties in our citrus orchard, and the names are getting better and better, 'Chunxiang', 'Yu Ji', 'Chicken Tail Grapefruit', which is very in line with Internet thinking. As soon as people hear the name, they are tall and curious to buy; once they taste good, they buy it; they come and go, and they establish brand recognition. ”
(In Sanya, Hainan, the golden yellow dragon planted according to Alibaba's order for agriculture has increased the income of local growers by more than 10 times.) Image courtesy of Alibaba)
The Kecheng Chicken Tail Grapefruit Standard Demonstration Base is one of the 1,000 digital agricultural bases planned by Alibaba. According to Ali's planning, these 1,000 digital agricultural bases will spread throughout the country and various agricultural product categories, from rice fields in the northeast to huolong orchards in Guangxi, establish three major middle platforms of "production-supply-marketing", and create a new "base model" - to build digital farms at the source of agriculture, to upgrade bases through science and technology, and to achieve digital management; to establish an agricultural supply infrastructure middle platform, to cooperate with Cainiao to establish agricultural product circulation through big data, a new supply chain middle platform; to create a new agricultural digital distribution platform. Organize online and offline sales to feedback the supply chain middle office in the order mode.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > high demand from local governments and small and medium-sized agricultural cooperatives</h1>
Before the official establishment of the Ministry of Digital Agriculture, Ali had been working in the countryside for 5 years. In October 2014, rural Taobao was established, which has now covered 29 provinces and 700 counties (including under construction).
The Ministry of Digital Agriculture, which evolved from rural Taobao, integrates 13 business units. The accumulation of these business units in the rural network in the past few years has become Ali's advantage in the agricultural industry chain. According to the data provided by Alibaba, the Alibaba Cloud Agricultural Brain team has enabled nearly 26,000 farmers and enterprises to achieve scientific planting and breeding, and AI technology covers more than 100,000 mu of farmland, orchards, farms, and pastures. In terms of logistics, as of the end of 2018, Cainiao Rural Logistics has entered 900 counties in 29 provinces across the country, establishing more than 30,000 village-level logistics stations, going up to the mountains and as far as the border. Cainiao Rural Logistics alone will invest 1 billion yuan in rural areas in the next three years. At present, MYbank has served more than 8 million "three rural" users and has signed contracts with more than 300 counties in China. Ant Financial will be responsible for the construction of financial infrastructure and provide inclusive financial loan support to farmers.
(Heilongjiang Five Constants, rice growers harvest in autumn.) In July this year, Alibaba and Heilongjiang Beidahuang Group cooperated to build a "digital agriculture standard demonstration base", covering an area of 50,000 mu of fertile land, and it is expected to promote the online sales of Beidahuang rice by more than 10 times in the future. Image courtesy of Alibaba)
Hou Yi, head of Alibaba's Digital Agriculture Department, said that the next decade is a huge opportunity for China's agriculture. "We firmly believe that in the future, mobile phones will become new agricultural tools, live broadcasting will become new agricultural work, data will become new agricultural materials, and Alibaba Cloud technology will be applied to pig raising and vegetable breeding."
China's agriculture has yet to solve the standardization problem, and this is also an opportunity for technology and big data companies like Alibaba. The standardization of agricultural products is the basis for the branding of agricultural products. In developed countries such as Europe, the United States and Japan, strict implementation standards have been formulated for the selection and breeding of varieties, sowing, growth period management, rough processing, deep processing, packaging and listing. Chinese families randomly planted in flower pots and folded stir-fried green onions, which are also strictly regulated in Japan for the length and thickness of growth.
However, this requirement is still difficult to achieve in China today. According to the data of the third agricultural census in 2016, the number of agricultural production and operation personnel in China reached 310 million, of which only 7.1% had received cultural education at high school or technical secondary school. Among the agricultural workers, there are many people who understand the land and crops, but it is difficult to understand e-commerce and digitalization.
"Last year's push for this project (digital farming base) was painful, and it was the government begging the growers to do it. Because they only see that they are not worried about sales at the moment, but they don't know what the outside world is like, and they haven't thought about what will happen to the market in two or three years and what impact it will have on themselves. Jiang Hongmei said.
Therefore, agricultural companies such as Agricultural Law Nature and Yun Zeying, which are "walking fast", have been established as "bellwethers" by Kecheng District, playing a demonstration and leading role for local fruit farmers, with the purpose of gradually establishing a mature application model that can be promoted and copied, and providing reference for industrial transformation and upgrading and agricultural poverty alleviation.
In the initial stage of digital agriculture, it is difficult for technology companies to negotiate cooperation directly with small farmers. Local governments and small and medium-sized agricultural cooperatives have become "key figures", and their demand for industrial upgrading has supported the landing of Alibaba's digital agriculture model. Hou Yi said in an interview with Caijing that at present, the partners of digital agricultural bases, small and medium-sized agricultural cooperatives and local governments account for nearly 70%.
"Local governments and small and medium-sized agricultural cooperatives, the demand for Alibaba is the strongest." Hou Yi said that for local governments, selling local agricultural products at a good price and increasing farmers' income is the strongest demand. Alibaba helps local governments build brands of agricultural products through the sale of big data, technology and marketing methods, sell good prices, and reduce costs and increase income for farmers. Small and medium-sized agricultural cooperatives lack logistics, finance and sales channels, they only need to plant good land according to Ali's planting standards, and do not need to worry about logistics, sales and other links.
The level of warehousing and logistics largely determines whether agricultural products, especially fruits, can be successfully converted from "production" to "sales". Zhang Wang, supply chain director of Alibaba's digital agriculture division, said that the entire link of agricultural products is very long, "unlike clothing, entering the logistics system is the finished product; many agricultural products are semi-finished products, even raw materials, and they are easy to rot in transportation." "Compared with the 45% digital penetration rate of the apparel industry, the fresh fruit industry is only 8%, and there is still a lot of room for development in the future."