County's wealth entwined with flourishing orchids

E-commerce flourished during the COVID-19 outbreak, but growth has slowed in the post-pandemic period, Yan said.

The most capable livestreaming hosts at her company can earn more than 300,000 yuan a year, she said. Most of her e-commerce hosts in Wengyuan are housewives or men who had quit jobs in other cities to take care of their families at home.

However, Yan said the company is short of suitable e-commerce talent. "For sales people, especially in e-commerce, we need more young people. It involves technology," she said.

Yan has about 80 employees in her e-commerce operation in Wengyuan and more than 60 in Foshan where another e-commerce team is being planned to sell the moth orchids.

About 90 percent of the revenue, or more than 10 million yuan, is now generated from Wengyuan Defang Orchid Garden Co's online sales. The company has more than 30 employees engaged in livestreaming, packing, and customer service. Cao said his wife helps him with sales, including the livestreaming.

"Twenty years ago, few people here could speak Mandarin and most spoke the local dialect," he said.

"The salaries have become higher and people have become richer. A good livestreaming host can make tens of thousands of yuan a month," Cao said, adding that land and other resources have become more expensive.

He said the industry needs to be upgraded in areas such as orchid varieties, cultivation methods, and agricultural equipment. However, Wengyuan has the advantage of a full industrial chain to undertake such an upgrade, Cao said.

Training upgrade

Last year a cooperative model between Guangdong Songshan Polytechnic, the government and industry associations was established to train students for at least one semester.

"E-commerce is evolving rapidly," said Lan, the deputy dean.

"We invite experts in this field in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to train the students in the form of workshops. The students learn the latest, real-world knowledge.

"The goal of the department is to solve a bottleneck issue in the local development, which is a shortage of talent."

The college's Rural E-commerce Industry Department has trained about 300 students. More than 40 work for local enterprises and 10 chose to work in Wengyuan, mostly in the orchid industry, after graduation. The local government is funding a new building in the department complex, which will accommodate more students and teachers.

Lan also works at a Shenzhen-based company engaged in the integration of industry and education. He is involved in negotiations to build a livestreaming base of Douyin, a major short-video platform, and a warehouse and logistics base of JD Logistics, an arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD, at the complex.

Although the county government provides subsidies for e-commerce packaging and logistics, Ma from New Brothers Agricultural Development Co hopes delivery costs can be lowered.

To boost the high-quality growth of e-commerce in rural areas, nine central government departments rolled out a guideline earlier this year.

The guideline proposes 14 detailed measures including building a comprehensive multilevel rural e-commerce service platform, accelerating the construction of a modern logistics and distribution system, and fostering diversified e-commerce entities in rural areas.

In Wengyuan, efforts have also gone into the development of tourism, cultural and creative products.

Yan, from the Wengyuan Wanyi Information Technology Co, said government policies have been highly supportive of agriculture.

"The ultimate goal is to enable people to live a better life. Flowers are a spiritual demand and such a demand will only grow bigger and bigger," she said.

Yang Qianhang contributed to this story.

liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn