Online commerce helping farmers reap gains

While foodies might be a latecomer in China's battle against the coronavirus outbreak, they turn their smartphones into effective "weapons" to buy fruit and vegetables from village farms that would have otherwise gone to waste.

Liu Juncheng, a 31-year-old resident from Fuzhou in East China's Jiangxi province, is an online shopaholic in buying poverty-alleviation products.

Hearing the news that local government officials set up a livestreaming session to help farmers sell agricultural products, Liu swiftly opened the e-commerce app on his phone and bought 30 eggs.

"I used to buy eggs in the supermarket nearby, but now I choose to purchase them online after I heard that farmers in Dongxiang district found it hard to sell the produce," Liu says.

The two-hour livestream attracted almost 40,000 viewers, and a total of 150,000 eggs all sold out in a wink, according to Jie Yufang, the livestreaming host and head of the bureau of animal husbandry and aquatic products in Dongxiang.

The Spring Festival holiday used to be a seasonal hit for farmers to sell agricultural produce as family reunions would help spur demand for fruit, vegetables and flowers. Yet this year, farmers in China felt the pinch.

Measures to stem the coronavirus outbreak disrupted traditional supply chains and forced many offline trading centers to close. With targeted consumers and sellers on both ends, logistics becomes an obvious obstacle lying ahead.

Many farmers and local government officials have jumped on the livestreaming video bandwagon to attract viewers to buy their produce.

E-commerce platforms have also offered a helping hand.

Alibaba launched a rural support project on Feb 6 to help farmers find a market for produce. The project has helped farmers sell 1,396 kinds of agricultural products in 20 provinces across the country, with a cumulative sales volume of 90,000 metric tons.

Jiangxi, a major agricultural province in China, mobilized more than 20 e-commerce platforms in the province to help sell farm produce, including vegetables, eggs and mushrooms.