by Vivian Yang

Carp and pigeon farmers crushed by export order cancellations due to COVID-19 have turned their products into hot sellers on JD.com for domestic customers. This is made possible through the “National Fresh Produce Green Channel” that JD established in February to support sales of agriculture products and provide customers access to more high quality and fresh produce during the special period.

For carp farmers in Kuandian county of Liaoniang province and pigeon growers in Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, export revenue accounts for more than half of the whole year’s income. In one month’s time from January to February this year, the virus had reduced Kuandian’s carp price from RMB 20 yuan to 15 yuan per kilogram and the price of Hotan’s pigeons dropped from RMB 17 yuan to 5 per bird.

As farmers seek help from domestic sales channels, JD immediately realized these agricultural products are a good fit for its farm-to-table initiative which works to provide support to farmers and bring naturally-farmed products to customers.

The carp and pigeon products joined JD’s special projects, which enabled them to enjoy more online traffic, marketing and promotional support. In the meantime, JD’s cold chain logistics ensured fast and secure transportation of the products directly from the farms to JD’s warehouses.

To date, nearly 500,000 carp and 300,000 pigeons have been sold on JD, almost doubling the year-on-year sales and sparing farmers more than RMB 6 million yuan in economic losses.

In addition, compared to trading with purchasers in the past, farmers selling on JD through more direct formats such as livestreaming and flash sales get to know about consumers’ demands and preferences firsthand.

With the unsalable crisis brought by export restriction in the first half of the year now solved, farmers in both Kuandian and Hotan have now started a new round of breeding.

(Vivian.yang@jd.com)