I. Challenge:

One of the three main sweet orange-producing areas in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Xiangzhou County, Laibin City, is home to 320,000 mu’s worth of orange orchards and produces around 600,000 tons of the citrus fruit a year.

Its farmers bring in approximately 100 million yuan of annual income growing a high-quality, late-maturing hybrid citrus variety with thin skin, sweet flavour, high yields, and long maturity that has been popular in recent years known as the fertile orange across more than 35,000 mu of the land that oranges are cultivated on in the county.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 severely disrupted the wholesale markets that Xiangzhou relied on for sales, however; and traditional offline distribution chains recovered slowly. It, therefore, became imperative for the county to explore new ways to improve sales, expand the influence of its citrus fruit and boost villagers’ incomes.

II. Methodology:

● Incorporating Mobile Internet Technology with E-commerceto Grow Revenue

The Xiangzhou government established an e-commerce platform at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with the goal of helping its agricultural products reach new markets through a new online channel that takes advantage of mobile internet technology.

“E-commerce platforms can solve the problem of information asymmetry in agricultural production and raise farmers’ awareness of scientific and technological cultivation techniques,” Wei Tao, county chief of Xiangzhou, noted when discussing the important role that mobile internet technology can play when engaging in rural development, poverty alleviation and rural vitalisation. “Smartphones can serve as new agricultural tools, livestreaming can be a new type of agricultural work, and digital data can be a new type of agricultural information.”

A national comprehensive rural e-commerce demonstration county, Xiangzhou regards e-commerce as an important way of accelerating rural vitalisation progress and promoting economic transformation and upgrade. Taking advantage of its favourable resources and characteristic industries, the Xiangzhou Economic and Trade Bureau has been thoroughly implementing a strategy involving construction of e-commerce systems, development of innovative models, brand cultivation, and other endeavours, promoting a whole-industry-chain approach that connects primary, secondary, and tertiary industries in order to increase production and added value across the entire agricultural sector.

The Bureau has been developing innovative online-to-offline (O2O) commerce experience models in order to attract potential customers who are found online and may want to make purchases in physical stores, built an e-commerce poverty alleviation supermarket experience centre with three special areas dedicated to showcasing produce grown in its impoverished areas and 11 that exhibit speciality products produced under a project devoted to helping individual towns in Xiangzhou focus on the production of specific goods known as “one town, one product,” created an“O2O e-commerce” mini program, has marketed and sold agricultural products both online and offline, established an agricultural product traceability system, formed an efficient cold chain distribution team for its fresh produce, launched an e-commerce talent training system, and has been providing convenient e-commerce services since 2021.

A local people promotes fruit through live streaming on an e-commerce platform. 

● Inviting Notable Influencers to Help with Live Commerce

Xiangzhou held its sixth Sweet Orange Festival on Dec. 17, 2021. Live commerce events were conducted in order to promote local agricultural products and e-commerce, and some of the most influential influencers from the area were invited to participate. A number of successful livestreaming and e-commerce activities were held, which helped increase sales and thus boost farmers’ incomes.

The county has established livestreaming studios dedicated to the promotion of its sweet oranges, flavourful rice, and other high-quality products at the village and township levels. It has also invited well-known livestreamers and other influencers from the area to introduce its long history, rich culture, and high-quality agricultural products on various livestreaming platforms. Xiangzhou has also conducted livestreaming events that help it connect its online and offline efforts and that stimulate high-quality industry development and overall rural vitalisation.

On Feb. 20, 2020, Wei promoted local oranges as a livestreamer when he was serving as the acting county chief of Xiangzhou. He attracted up to 200,000 viewers at a time and received a total of 20,000 orders over the course of several sessions, which was enough to move all of the 50,000 kg’s worth of a high-quality, late-maturing hybrid citrus variety with thin skin, sweet flavour, high yields, and long maturity that is cultivated across more than 35,000 mu of land in Xiangzhou and results in approximately 100 million yuan of annual income for its growers known as the fertile orange that organisers hoped he could sell during the event.

● Holding Exhibitions and Strengthening Cooperation with Businesses from Other Provinces

Xiangzhou also cooperates with merchants based in various provinces and autonomous regions across China in order to expand the influence of its sweet orange products in addition to the livestreaming efforts it makes and the in-person events and promotions it holds.

The county helped arrange for e-commerce enterprises to participate in a total of six exhibitions held both in the local area and outside the region thus far, including the 105th China Food & Drinks Fair – the October 2021 iteration of the semi-annual, large-scale event organized by the China Sugar and Wine Group Corporation with the goal of promoting the development of the industry and national economic and social development in general – and the 2021 National Agricultural Product Production and Marketing Docking to Boost Rural Vitalisation event – an expo designed to help connect agricultural production with sales that was held in Nanning City, Guangxi’s capital, late in the year – in order to keep momentum going and expand into new markets.

● Strengthening Brand Building and Stepping Up Publicity Efforts

Xiangzhou launched a major initiative known as “vigorous regional public brand cultivation” and another known as “quickening the pace of market expansion” in order to promote its agricultural products and the development of its economy.

The county has successfully launched and developed its Xiangzhou: As Sweet as You (partially a play on the word “Xiangzhou” in Chinese) regional public brand. Media platforms such as the TikTok short video app and Weishi (a similar video sharing-oriented social network) have been used in conjunction with e-commerce platforms to promote local specialities and other agricultural products across China, which has boosted sales. Thirty-five products produced by 15 enterprises, such as rice, fruit, and tea products, were incorporated into the Xiangzhou: As Sweet as You brand at the Xiangzhou: As Sweet as You Regional Public Brand Conference, which was held in Nanning in June 2021, and have thus been benefiting from related marketing efforts among other undertakings that have been occurring.

Ⅲ. Effects:

Related Link: Whole-process Digitalization Empowers “Hong Mei Ren” High-end Citrus Brand of Xiangshan County

For more information, please contact WFP China COE (wfpcn.coe@wfp.org)