Apr 2, 2021|

SEVEN FRESH Buyers Make In-season Vegetables Accessible to Customers

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by Ling Cao

During the spring period, JD’s SEVEN FRESH buyers are busily collecting in-season vegetables for customers, as data showed that customers in tier one and two markets favored them in recent years, shared Jiangtao Song, a SEVEN FRESH buyer, on Mar. 31. One of the biggest challenges, however, is that as some of the products come from lower-tier markets, making transportation a challenge.

One customer in Beijing said, “I want to buy yu qian (samara of elm tree) while I didn’t find any supermarkets selling them. I saw there were several merchants selling them online though, I failed to buy at last mostly due to the long-distance delivery will damage its freshness, merchants only deliver to places nearby.”

Part of Jiang’s job is to solve these problems for customers and make more high quality fresh vegetables accessible. Last week, he visited Hanyang county in Shanxi province, where is the place of origin for cedrela sinensis. When farmers collected the leaves from the trees in the morning, Jiang quickly organized farmers to get rid of unqualified ones and applied a pre-refrigeration process to guarantee its quality. The vegetable will then be sent to SEVEN FRESH in Beijing, traveling over 800 kilometers with the help of cold chain logistics, and be stored in special freezers. Customers can now purchase in-store even as fast as the same day the leaves have been picked.

Jiang said, “During the spring season, we are able to provide over 40 in-season vegetables to customers.” JD’s data showed that since beginning of March to now, in-season vegetables sales are over five times compared with the same period last year.

To make this happen, SEVEN FRESH buyers like Jiang will travel to Yunnan, Jiangxi, Shanxi, Shandong and other provinces from the beginning of March to late April, ensuring adequate control over the entire supply chain. JD’s SEVEN FRESH buyers are on the hunt for fresh products all year round, traveling over 200,000 kilometers per year on average to source the best for customers.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

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