A wide variety of high-quality fruits have become an indispensable part of people's diets. However, the reporter's investigation found that some unscrupulous merchants will move their minds to the field of fruit sales, and make profits through excessive packaging and poor information. Industry insiders suggest that more diversified supervision and management measures should be adopted to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
"Fake and exquisite" or "really deceived"?
A column of exquisite wooden boxes is neatly placed, after opening, all kinds of decorative fillers are filled with, but the actual content is only a strawberry, the store told reporters, such a "Japanese snow strawberry", in the festival can be sold for nearly 100 yuan. "For little couples to give gifts, who cares about the taste?"
The reporter opened the online shopping platform and found that similar "exquisite fruits" sold a lot of money, cantaloupe, avocado and other fruits were delicately packaged, and then labeled with imports, you can mark the price of hundreds of yuan.
In a store, a strawberry labeled with a Japanese variety costs as much as 99 yuan, and when the reporter asked whether it was really an imported product from Japan, the store said that he only said that "the products consulted are in stock." When the reporter asked whether imported strawberries could still be guaranteed to be fresh, the store simply gave up replying.
In another store, there are also honeydew melons marked as imported varieties, and the price of each one is about 500 yuan. However, interviewed industry insiders told reporters that the relevant varieties were not allowed to be imported many years ago, and the platform sold either illegal imports or "counterfeit goods". "There are also some varieties of fruits that are locally sourced, but some merchants will lead consumers to mistakenly think that they are imported fruits, thereby driving up prices."
The reporter saw that this variety of melon alone has thousands of sales, and many other "imported fruits" and "exquisite fruits" in the store also have at least hundreds of sales results.
In the message area of the store that sells similar exquisite fruits, the reporter found that some netizens posted pictures saying that the packaging was exquisite and "had face" and "I liked to receive gifts", but some netizens bluntly said "IQ tax, don't buy".
The reporter's investigation found that the special demand of some consumers for packaged fruits is one of the reasons for the formation of the high-priced fruit market. "Valentine's Day gives it out to look upscale and makes people feel valued." Similar statements are common in the reviews section of online stores that sell such products. Some respondents said that on many social platforms, they will see such delicate packaging of fruits, which makes people "can't help but want to be delicate". In the face of comments and questions about the "IQ tax", some netizens responded that buying is "appearance" and does not care about the higher price.
Some stores bluntly said that in order not to appear shabby, "people are passable", luxury packaged fruits have been sold during the festival. "There will be customers who think it's too expensive, but they always bite the bullet and buy it."
Industry insiders said that in the fruit sales market, the profit difference between different categories will not be too high, and some unscrupulous merchants have moved "crooked brains" in order to earn more, such as adding boxes and lids, and the profit margin can go up a big step.
Some of the product sales links are fraudulent
The reporter interviewed industry insiders and learned that some inferior fruits in the production process flowed into e-commerce and live broadcast platforms. Wang Biao, CEO of Xianbee (Beijing) Network Technology Co., Ltd., told reporters that all kinds of fruits produced by orchards are generally divided into grades according to letters, "The worst quality in our industry is generally called 'e-commerce fruit'." Wang Biao explained that defective products with injuries are generally difficult to sell in traditional channels, and are generally resold to some merchants on e-commerce platforms at a very low price.
"This fruit industry also defaults to no warranty, and it doesn't matter if you sell it." Wang Biao said that the orchard and the acquiring merchant have a "tacit understanding" on such fruits, and will not check the proportion of good products in the relevant fruits. "Consumers buy poor quality, first, it is difficult to collect evidence for fresh food complaints; Second, most people feel that dozens of dollars are not worth it, so in the end, they often end up with the result of no longer pursuing. ”
There is also fraud in the intermediate wholesale link. Jiang Liancheng, deputy general manager of Tianjin Food Group Trading Company, told reporters that in the wholesale link, some unscrupulous businesses racked their brains to seek profits. "For example, there is a common way to gain weight in fruits, which is to fill industrial products such as lime in the gaps in the cardboard compartment in the box."
Jiang Liancheng said that shoddy charging is also a common problem. "Open the box, the big ones are on the upper floor, and the small ones are on the lower level. However, it is impossible to open all the goods for inspection, which will increase the cost. "In the case of apples, high-quality apples posing as Gansu or Shandong can sell for an average price of more than 20 percent higher." Non-specialists, difficult to identify at a glance. ”
Under the poor information, the retail end should not be taken lightly. Wang Biao said that it is also a common means to use poor information to sell inferior fruits at high prices in the sales process. "For example, durian, repeated freezing and thawing, the flesh will turn white or even deteriorate, consumers will not know that they will buy it at the normal price."
"Fruit freedom" is expected to be more fully guaranteed
The mandatory national standard for food and cosmetics with requirements for excessive packaging of commodities approved and published by the State Administration for Market Regulation will be officially implemented on September 1, 2023. Zhang Yuhua, a lawyer at AllBright (Tianjin) Law Firm in Shanghai, said that after the implementation of the new standards, attention should be paid to new application issues in law enforcement practice, and supervision and management should be strengthened in view of some new packaging forms and variants that may exist in the current fruit sales field.
Jiang Liancheng suggested that the promotion of national certification standards such as "three products and one standard" in fruit sales should be strengthened, and the registration and rights protection of local labels should also be strengthened for some characteristic products. Regulators can intensify crackdowns on problems in sales areas such as shoddy charging and "impersonation", and increase the cost of violations. "Activities such as fruit purchasing knowledge lectures can be carried out, starting from increasing consumers' ability to identify."
In addition, in view of the characteristics of online platform fresh food transaction supervision and rights protection, some industry insiders suggested that the entry review of fresh food e-commerce platform merchants should be strengthened and a more long-term accountability mechanism should be established. According to the "2022 China Fresh E-commerce Consumer Complaint Data and Typical Case Report" released by the E-commerce Research Center of NetEconomics, the non-standard labeling of commodity information, deterioration and decay, damage, peculiar smell of goods, and inconsistency between the physical goods and the publicity are the high incidence of fresh e-commerce complaints. "Some complaints about bad reviews can be brushed down by themselves, and some are re-listed under a different name." Wang Biao suggested that e-commerce platforms should work with regulatory authorities to set up a more complete evaluation and merchant exit mechanism to promote consumer participation and continue to optimize the e-commerce fruit market. (Reporter Guo Fangda)
Source: Economic Information Daily