E-commerce brings new options for poor farmers
Rural areas find new channels for products in online marketplaces
“Kangping yellow sweet potatoes! Don’t miss them!” On the afternoon of Nov 2, Keyana Nozzari Varkani was selling sweet potatoes at a market in Shenyang.
The 17-year-old from US, a clinical medicine major freshman at Shenyang medical college, was helping to market sweet potatoes from Kangping, a poverty-stricken county.
“I really wish, with my efforts, Kangping’s sweet potatoes can get more popular and the villagers can get out of poverty,” she said.
Kangping County, located in the northwest of Liaoning province, is the poorest county in Shenyang. According to local government data, there are 3,349 poor households, accounting for 63.6 percent of the poor people in Shenyang. It is the main battlefield to overcome poverty.
Because of the creaking infrastructure and shrinking talent pool, Kangping kept struggling with poverty in recent years even though its sweet potatoes are ranked the best in Northeast China.
Sun Xuxin, from the Sweet Potatoes Cooperatives, disclosed that sweet potatoes cost around 2 yuan ($0.3) for one kilogram.
“We want Keyana to act as a spokesperson for sweet potato e-commerce,” he said.
In fact, e-commerce for poverty reduction became a hot word early this month during the World Internet Conference.
Alibaba announced its online agriculture program early this year, which aims to help sell rice, flour, coarse cereals and edible oil.
A senior manager from Alibaba who declined to be named told China Daily the company would pay special attention to those povertystricken areas.
Experts predicted that the rural e-commerce market is expected to reach 1.2 trillion yuan in 2018, with an average annual growth rate of 15 percent.
In Shenyang, the local government launched an e-commerce platform for poverty reduction in early October, in which agricultural products including Kangping sweet potatoes were made available.
Xiao Meiyu, the general manager of Shenyang Partner E-commerce Company Keyana, said that poor households could not support brick-and-mortar shops. E-commerce reduces manpower and opens sales channels.
“Online business is very hot now in China. Keyana is our Key Opinion Leader who can attract eyeballs and thus business,”said Xiao.
Sun’s sweet potatoes have become well-known and a lot of people ordered goods over the Internet, by telephone and on WeChat.
“I have sold out half the harvest in less than three weeks and the price has rises four times now,” said Sun. “I won’t sell the rest until the Spring Festival when the price gets even higher. And next year, I plan to double the planting area.”
Ma Shuang, professor of the Asia Australia Business College at Liaoning University, said: “Such innovative marketing techniques help break the geographical restrictions and raise the prices. But farmers also need to set up a brand at the same time.”
Chen Ying, vice-president of “A Better Community”, which provides consultation for social organizations, suggested that ecommerce should be more readily available for villagers who usually lack money and knowledge.
After her success marketing sweet potatoes, Keyana has been invited to be the spokesperson for all agricultural products, including peanuts and rice by the local government.
I really wish, with my efforts, Kangping’s sweet potatoes can get more popular and the villagers can get out of poverty.” Keyana Nozzari Varkani, a US student studying in Shenyang
Zhu Lin contributed to the story.