E-commerce platforms help boost China's agricultural product trade during harvest season

Aerial photo shows a pomegranate plantation in Zhangguan Town of Huili County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 19, 2020. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- China plans to set up special sections on relevant e-commerce platforms to boost the sales of agricultural products during the third Chinese farmers' harvest festival starting in late September this year, reported Economic Information Daily Tuesday quoting a Chinese official.

According to China's Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs Yu Kangzhen, coupons will also be provided to consumers to purchase over ten thousand high-quality agricultural and sideline products from the special sections of the e-commerce platforms.

With the coupons, the maximum discount for a single transaction is between 20 yuan and 200 yuan.

Many e-commerce giants in China have recently held activities related to the Chinese farmers' harvest festival this year, enlivening the festival atmosphere.

On August 24, Alibaba announced the launch of a month-long harvest shopping festival. The event covers 30,000-odd businesses, including more than 750 state-level poverty-stricken counties, and it plans to create 100 one-billion-yuan Chinese agricultural brands, in a bid to enhance the brand value of Chinese agricultural products, said Li Shaohua, vice president of Alibaba.

It's learned that during the Chinese farmers' harvest festival, a total of one million live broadcasts will be staged on Taobao, an e-commerce platform of Alibaba, to sell agricultural products, covering over 1,000 agricultural counties.

Another Chinese social e-commerce giant Pinduoduo has also cooperated with multiple hairy crab flagship stores in the quality production area of hairy crabs in the Yangtze River Delta. It plans to help the production area of hairy crabs in the Yangtze River Delta cultivate 100 leading e-commerce companies and 1,000 e-commerce platform businesses, and create an online incremental market of 20 billion yuan in the next five years.

Pinduoduo will also issue 500 million yuan of coupons for the harvest festival, so as to stimulate the domestic agricultural product consumer market. (Edited by Gu Shanshan with Xinhua Silk Road, gushanshan.1987@163.com)