Nothing quite beats the joy of sinking one’s teeth into a piece of juicy sweet muskmelon on a hot summer’s day. And they don’t come much sweeter than those from Yanliang in China’s northern Shaanxi province.
In recent years, the melon farmers of Yanliang have been able to attract increasing interest from across the country thanks to the reach of e-commerce. Whereas in the past farmers used to haul their harvests in handcarts and small trucks to local markets to meet prospective buyers, with no certainty of a sale, online marketplaces like Pinduoduo have helped promote the Yanliang’s muskmelons far and wide.
E-commerce has enabled farmers to break through the age-old constraints of geography and market more directly to the end consumer. This has also helped rural communities to build brands out of their local agricultural specialties, allowing farmers to differentiate and command a premium for their quality products. The new online businesses not only boost farmer incomes but also create jobs by stimulating demand for ancillary industries such as packaging and logistics.
“Yanliang muskmelons are particularly suited to e-commerce because there’s production scale, they come onto the market early, and they are hardy in transportation,” said Zhang Chengguang, who runs an online store on Pinduoduo, China’s leading agriculture platform.
Zhang is on track to surpass 500,000 in muskmelon sales this year, compared with 410,000 last year and 180,000 when he first started selling the cantaloupes online in 2018. Back then, he had just returned from Shanghai - where he had a promising career in the food and beverage industry - to start a business selling his hometown’s specialty through online marketplaces.
Unlike the handcarts at the local markets, however, Zhang is able to reach a much bigger pool of consumers across China using a platform such as Pinduoduo’s. The e-commerce company has more than 880 million annual active buyers and has helped over 16 million farmers sell their products through its platform.
Having an online sales strategy is becoming increasingly critical for farmers, who risk potentially catastrophic financial losses if they are stuck with unsold produce due to dislocations in the traditional wholesale distribution networks.
Zhang is so confident of the prospects for online demand for Yanliang’s muskmelons that he has invested in constructing a 2,000-mu (133 hectares) greenhouse, working together with local farmers to produce the coveted fruit.
Another merchant, Yang Xinghong, belongs to the up-and-coming generation of online entrepreneurs born in the 1990s. While working as a courier collecting and delivering parcels for the nation’s fast-growing express logistics industry, Yang saw the potential for sales of high-quality fruits and set up a store on Pinduoduo.
“The logistics vehicles that come and go bear the expectations and hopes of the villagers,” said Yang, whose first sales were of jujubes, another local agricultural specialty of Shaanxi province. “They not only bring them goods from the outside world but also allow local goods to venture out.”
It’s a win-win, said Yang, who has since branched out to sell peaches, apricots, and of course, Yanliang muskmelons. Farmers earn more from fewer intermediaries in a sale, consumers get fresher fruit from the reduction in transportation time.
