Dezhou Zhenjiao Village, Dechang County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, is a well-known "cherry town", mainly growing Chinese cherries. However, in the past, due to factors such as inconvenient transportation, difficult packaging and transportation, and low brand awareness, the cherries in the village have long been sold.
Lai Jianfeng, a post-70s Dechang person, began to contact the new e-commerce platform Pinduoduo four years ago, and launched a small cherry in 2021, selling thousands of orders a day and ranking among the best-selling lists of the platform, successfully helping Wang Changyou and other growers to open up cherry sales, making the small cherries of Daliangshan quickly become a platform hit.
With the entry of e-commerce into the village, Dechang County's cherry, mulberry, loquat and other characteristic fruits opened up online channels, not only out of Sichuan and Chongqing, exported to major cities across the country, the price of production has also achieved several times growth, greatly enhancing the positive accumulation of farmers' planting, making the fruit industry a real rich peasant advantage industry, e-commerce has also invisibly enhanced the popularity and reputation of Dechang specialties, and Jiaoban Village has become a well-known local new e-commerce village.
Why did Dechang cherry sell poorly before?
Wang Changyou's family has a total of five acres of land, planted about two or three hundred cherry trees, and is currently picking the first batch of ripe cherries, of which the best quality batch of fruits sold for about 15 yuan per unit, according to last year's experience, it can be sold for about 30,000 yuan this year.
There is no heat in summer, no severe cold in winter, and abundant water and soil, which also makes Dechang County have fresh fruits ripe and marketed almost every month, including cherries, mulberries, strawberries, loquats, grapes, mangoes, high-quality peaches, half red plums and so on.
Chinese cherry is one of the most representative fruits of Dechang, and unlike the exotic cherry, the Chinese cherry produced in Jiaobancun has a thick skin, sweet taste, bright color and rich nutrition.
Wang Changyou said that before, Chinese cherries have been selling at a low price, 3 years ago, it only sold a few yuan a pound, and even sold 2 or 3 pieces at the worst time, which is far from the price of cherries.
Good goods are also afraid of deep alleys. Dechang traffic is not developed, after the opening of the Iasi Expressway, Dechang County only has a north-south passage, and there is no east-west passage. Cherries also have a short time on the market, usually only more than 20 days, coupled with the thin skin and tender flesh, it is not easy to preserve and transport. Therefore, Dechang cherries can only be sold to the surrounding Xichang and other places for a long time, and further afield to Chengdu and Chongqing, and the market is quite limited.
After the convenient transportation, with the help of new e-commerce, in mid-to-early April this year, Dechang is the season when the mulberries and cherries that spread over the mountains begin to ripen, the mulberries are as black as gems, the cherries are red like agate, the villagers are busy harvesting, and the roads up and down the mountain are all vehicles transporting fruits.
From not being able to sell to not worrying about selling, the best fruit is given to e-commerce
The e-commerce practitioners represented by Lai Jianfeng who brought a turnaround for the cherry of the corner half village were the ones who brought a turnaround.
Four years ago, Lai Jianfeng, a 44-year-old native of Dechang, and his wife Zhang Jing decided to do e-commerce full-time and moved their "position" to Pinduoduo, "I want to push the fruits of my hometown to more places." ”
In the first year of opening a store on Pinduoduo, Lai Jianfeng chose to ask the fruit farmers to buy only the best quality batch of fruits, and the price was higher than that of ordinary offline buyers.
For example, cherry, from the selection point of view, he requires large particles, full, no bad fruit, 8-9 minutes ripe; picking time, he only harvests fresh fruits picked before 11 a.m., because after the noon sun, the fruit becomes soft, easy to break, it is difficult to ensure the quality of the hands of consumers.
Despite the high requirements, the villagers of Jiaoban Village are still willing to go out picking with flashlights at 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, and use motorcycles or portables to send their own cherries to Lai Jianfeng's purchase point in Jiaoban Village to inspect the goods in person.
In terms of packaging and transportation, Lai Jianfeng is also quite particular. Because the cherries are more delicate, he sucked on the experience of selling baybutus in the past, using vacuum packaging and ice packs to keep them fresh. Logistics cooperates with SF to ensure the timeliness of transportation.
Lai Jianfeng comprehensively guarantees consumers to get the best quality cherries, "cherry online sales are more difficult, if the cherries do well, other categories will not be a problem." Lai Jianfeng said.
Lai Jianfeng's sales on Pinduoduo are increasing year by year. His shop "Lizhen Specialties" specializes in Dechang local specialties, and the fruits currently on the shelves include cherries, loquats, mulberries, etc., with a cumulative sales volume of more than 100,000 singles, and has been shortlisted for many times in the "Loquat Best Seller List", "Cherry Best Seller List" and other lists, and in 2021, it won the first place in the "Loquat Best Seller List" of Pinduoduo.
Introduce the good fruits of Daliangshan to consumers across the country
On the basis of the "zero commission" of agricultural products, Pinduoduo innovates the "farmland cloud spelling" model to achieve "shopping + direct origin", and further realizes the docking of consumer demand and production areas.
The popularity of e-commerce has also changed the awareness of farmers. In the case of Kakubancun, about one-sixth of the cherries have been sold on a large scale through e-commerce platforms, and farmers will also sell peer-to-peer by posting videos and photos on social platforms. Villagers who participate in the picking, sorting and packing of e-commerce links have a lot of additional income during the busy agricultural season.
In Dechang, the development of e-commerce has been greatly supported and encouraged. According to Li Pei, deputy director of the Dechang County Bureau of Commerce, Economic Cooperation and Foreign Affairs, in 2017, Dechang County established an e-commerce industry cluster, supporting a service system covering functions such as enterprise incubation, training guidance, product display, product sorting, etc., with a total of more than 1,600 people trained and guided, and residents' awareness and participation in e-commerce have also been continuously improved.
At the same time, relying on the provincial e-commerce demonstration county project, Dechang County has also established more than 80 e-commerce stations, covering the townships and towns of the county, helping industrial products to go to the countryside and agricultural products to go up, and also discovering many e-commerce talents who are "needed for enterprises and serving the society", providing professional talent support for the development of e-commerce in the county.
E-commerce has become an important force driving the local economy. In the future, there will be more and more new e-commerce villages like Kakubancun. In the future, Dechang will continue to strengthen and enhance the brand awareness of agricultural products, relying on the power of e-commerce to further enhance the popularity and reputation of Dechang agricultural products.