Agriculture & Food

Rural e-commerce has become an important channel for the circulation of agricultural products, a breakthrough and leader in the development of the rural digital economy, and has played an important role in achieving comprehensive victory in poverty alleviation. In the new journey of comprehensively promoting rural revitalization and accelerating the construction of an agricultural power, rural e-commerce still has huge development space, which requires government departments, business entities, and all sectors of society to further promote, innovate, and achieve high-quality development of rural e-commerce.

At the recently held 2023 China Agricultural Products E-commerce Summit, participants reviewed the development of China's agricultural products e-commerce in 2022, analyzed current problems, challenges, and opportunities, and discussed the future development trend of agricultural products e-commerce.

In the past year, despite the impact of the epidemic, online retail sales of agricultural products still exceeded expectations. "In 2022, China's agricultural product e-commerce exceeded the goal of the" Key Points for Digital Rural Development in 2022 ", especially the goal of exceeding the 'agricultural product e-commerce network retail sales of 430 billion yuan', reaching 531.38 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%." At the seminar, the China Food (Agricultural Product) Safety E-commerce Research Institute and the Business Economics Research Institute of Beijing Business University jointly released the "2023 China Agricultural Product E-commerce Development Report.". According to the report, many highlights of China's economic development in 2022 have created conditions for the development of rural e-commerce. In 2023, e-commerce for agricultural products will enter a period of medium to high speed development.

This year's "Government Work Report" mentioned e-commerce many times, including cross-border e-commerce, digital economy, online sales, etc. Guests at the meeting expressed the need to better play the important role of agricultural product e-commerce in empowering rural revitalization and expanding the "cake" of consumption.

Cross-border e-commerce of agricultural products presents new trends and features

"At present, the development of e-commerce for agricultural products in China presents various trends." Hong Tao, President of the China Food (Agricultural Products) Safety E-commerce Research Institute, stated at the seminar that from a macro perspective, e-commerce for agricultural products in China mainly presents ten major development trends: scale, standardization, standardization, greening, digital intelligence, networking, internationalization, innovation, modernization, and digitization.

According to the report, in 2022, China introduced a number of policies involving e-commerce of agricultural products. In the face of favorable policies, many new features and highlights have emerged in China's agricultural product e-commerce, such as the significant effect of "express delivery into the village", the growth rate of agricultural product online retail exceeding that of rural online retail, new highlights in the construction of agricultural product logistics system, continuous enhancement of agricultural product upstream capacity, and the emergence of pre prepared vegetables and real-time retail as new hot spots.

Hong Tao further stated that currently, multiple modes of agricultural e-commerce have been innovatively developed, live streaming e-commerce and prefabricated vegetable e-commerce will enter the upgrading and development stage, agricultural e-commerce enterprises and platforms will accelerate the digital transformation, and the upward trend of agricultural e-commerce will be integrated online and offline. The cross-border upward volume of agricultural products will be increasing. Agricultural standardization will promote the branding development of agricultural e-commerce, and greening will promote the ecological development of agricultural e-commerce, "Non contact" trading mode is becoming popular again, and digital control tower of agricultural product supply chain is becoming fashionable. It is worth mentioning that cross-border e-commerce for agricultural products continues to maintain rapid growth. According to data, in 2022, China's cross-border e-commerce trade in agricultural products reached US $8.1 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 25.9%. Among them, international trade exports reached 1.21 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 153%; International trade imports reached 6.89 billion US dollars, up 15.7% year-on-year.

"This is due to the continuous improvement of the policy and system for cross-border e-commerce of agricultural products. On the one hand, the RCEP came into force and implemented, with a large proportion of agricultural products involved in the agreement. On the other hand, by the end of 2022, the State Council has successively established 165 comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zones in seven batches, covering 31 provinces, regions, and cities. In addition, it supports cross-border RMB settlement of new foreign trade formats, plays a leading role in overseas warehouses, and promotes international trade in cross-border e-commerce." "Policies and measures such as the pilot program for easy export, return, and exchange have all promoted the rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce for agricultural products." Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the E-commerce Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said at the meeting.

"While cross-border e-commerce and international trade in agricultural products are developing in a diversified way, cross-border e-commerce and export of agricultural products are also exploring new channels." Hong Yong introduced that, for example, importing live and fresh commodities has opened up a cross-border e-commerce bonded online shopping mode, live streaming has become a new channel for overseas agricultural products to expand the Chinese market, the cross-border e-commerce B2B international trade export and export mode has rapidly popularized, and local governments have actively explored and opened up new channels for agricultural products to "go global" The influx of geographical indication agricultural products into cross-border e-commerce tracks reflects the new characteristics and trends of the current development of cross-border e-commerce for agricultural products. "In the future, cross-border e-commerce for agricultural products is about to usher in a new round of compliance, enter a new era of brand, and accelerate the layout of mobile terminals. The model will also accelerate iteration."

However, Hong Yong also admitted that the lack of systematic and coordinated policies, limited international competitiveness of agricultural products, and a shortage of professional talents are the main factors restricting the development of cross-border e-commerce for agricultural products.

Not only are there some shortcomings in the field of cross-border e-commerce for agricultural products, but the overall development of e-commerce for agricultural products in China will also face new challenges in 2022. The report shows that the internal structure of agricultural product e-commerce is not systematic with each other, there is serious homogenization competition, and it cannot be integrated with the real economy. B2B transactions of cross-border e-commerce have not received the due attention. Fresh e-commerce, community group buying, and prefabricated vegetable e-commerce are seriously following the trend, cultural construction is seriously lagging behind, statistics are seriously lagging, theoretical research is relatively lagging, and other issues are still affecting the development of agricultural product e-commerce.

According to Zhang You, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and Secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Information Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, rural e-commerce agricultural brand creation and digital management are emerging sunrise industries, which contain enormous development opportunities. Local governments should propose development strategies based on local conditions, focus on solving problems such as the single marketing method of rural e-commerce products, poor logistics, insufficient talent, insufficient tapping of agricultural brand value, and weak product competitiveness, and firmly promote the development of rural e-commerce agricultural brands to promote high-quality development of agricultural e-commerce.

Accelerate the construction of agricultural product logistics system

Rural logistics is an important support for rural e-commerce and agricultural product e-commerce, as well as an important link to smooth the urban-rural cycle and enable industrial products to better go to the countryside and agricultural products to better enter the city. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the construction of the county level commercial system will accelerate in 2022, with the coverage rate of rural e-commerce and express logistics administrative villages reaching 90%.

Specifically, the first is the continuous improvement of business networks. In 2022, 983 comprehensive business service centers in county towns, 3941 township "Daji" and business centers will be renovated. The second is the continuous acceleration of logistics and distribution. Build 506 county-level logistics distribution centers and 650 township express logistics stations. Currently, 95% of administrative villages have achieved direct delivery, and more than 1/3 of county express deliveries can be delivered from the county seat to the village on the same day. Third, live streaming e-commerce has developed rapidly. Live streaming with goods has become a good helper for farmers to start businesses and increase their income. Last year, there were 17.303 million rural online merchants (online stores) nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 6.2%. Among them, there are 5.732 million live streaming e-commerce companies, accounting for 33.1%. Fourth, the circulation efficiency of agricultural products has been improved. Upgrade and renovate 890 wholesale and agricultural markets for agricultural products, and add 960000 tons of cold storage capacity. The production and sales of agricultural products are more closely connected, and the circulation is more efficient and smooth.

This year, the No. 1 central document of the Central Government proposed to strengthen the construction of the county business system and connect the county and rural e-commerce and logistics distribution system. In accordance with the deployment of the No. 1 central document of the Central Committee, the Ministry of Commerce will deploy and promote county commerce and rural e-commerce at the same time, with the channel sinking as the main line, to promote the further recovery and expansion of rural consumption, and better help rural revitalization.

Zhang Hao, an investigator from the Rural Market Division of the Circulation Department of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced at the seminar that the Ministry of Commerce will focus on three aspects in the next step: First, accelerate the improvement of the rural consumption environment, adhere to the principle of marketization, transform and upgrade a number of large towns, innovate consumption scenarios, and stimulate consumption vitality.

The second is to promote the high-quality development of rural e-commerce, comply with the development trend of the digital economy, fully utilize e-commerce to enter rural public service centers, create a live streaming e-commerce base, cultivate agricultural product brands, and drive the upward movement of agricultural products and increase farmers' income.

Third, continue to strengthen the construction of rural mail and delivery logistics system, upgrade and transform county-level logistics distribution centers and township express service stations, promote the integration of rural logistics resources, develop joint distribution and real-time retail, and open the "last mile" of agricultural products downward.