Guo Kaijia, a post-90s youth from Linxian, Shanxi, wears a thick pair of glasses and speaks with a hint of shyness. I prefer to deal with agriculture rather than people, as it suits my personality better, “he said when asked about mushroom related issues, speaking incoherently.
Guo Kaijia, who was informed before the college entrance examination that her family owed 4 million yuan and did not get into university, chose to work outside. Along the way, she keenly discovered the promising prospects of the mushroom industry and resolutely returned home to “pick up” the agriculture she had loved since childhood.
Guo Kaijia told The Paper, “At present, the sales of shiitake mushrooms are limited to offline purchases by merchants. In the future, he wants to expand the shiitake mushroom industry, start live streaming, and directly connect with customers.” However, this has also left Guo Kaijia confused. He knows that live streaming is not just about selling goods in a live streaming room, but also requires a series of supporting chains such as logistics and operation teams behind it. Currently, he doesn’t know how to make efforts.
In Linxian, there are many “small town entrepreneurs” like Guo Kaijia who are eager to open up sales channels. What is the problem? Lu Peng, member of the Standing Committee of the Linxian County Committee and Deputy County Mayor of Lvliang City, Shanxi Province, said in an interview with The Paper, “The biggest problem with county-level e-commerce is that the ‘waist’ is not good. Large platforms are the head, while rural areas are the legs. It is impossible to get down directly from the head to the legs. There is no waist in the middle, and there is a lack of connection
In order to give these small town entrepreneurs “wings”, local government departments, chambers of commerce, and Internet giants are trying to give their own assistance programs. On September 20th, the launch ceremony of the “Chuangba, Small Town Entrepreneur!” Harvest Good Things Plan in Linxian and the release event of the Qingning Intelligent Selection Agricultural Product Platform, jointly organized by Linxian and Tencent, was held in Qikou. This is a special agricultural assistance plan of Tencent to help agricultural product brands with digital transformation and upgrading.
Tencent’s Vice President of Sustainable Social Value, Xiao Liming, introduced that the “Harvest Good Things Plan” relies on Tencent’s product and technological advantages, and uses WeChat’s digital solution for comprehensive management. Through brand innovation, talent training, advertising and marketing, ecological resources and other full chain support, it enhances the digital capabilities of agricultural product brands, explores sustainable social value innovation, helps rural revitalization, and promotes common prosperity.
How can “small town entrepreneurs” break out of the circle?
On the eve of the college entrance examination, Guo Kaijia learned that his family owed 4 million yuan and failed the exam. As the eldest son, he chose to go to Guangzhou to work in order to share the burden of the family. During his days of wandering outside, he always kept in mind his childhood passion for agriculture. Through online research, he found that the mushroom industry had a promising future and gradually had the idea of returning home to grow mushrooms.
In order to better master the technology of edible mushroom cultivation, Guo Kaijia went to Xixia, Lushi, and Miyang in Henan Province for research and study for 2 years. During this process, he felt his lack of theoretical knowledge, so he became an auditor at Shanxi Agricultural University and systematically studied agricultural theoretical knowledge in the classroom and laboratory. I spent half of my time studying in the library, “he said, feeling particularly motivated to learn at that time.
After returning from school, Guo Kaijia did not immediately start working, but chose to work first. Within six months, he made a group of reliable friends. What about the funds that haven’t been activated? He finally built a factory and purchased raw materials by relying on credit, mortgaging his own house, borrowing money from relatives and friends, government subsidies, and other methods. How to solve the problem of not being able to hire workers? The physical labor is all supported by his family, and his friends have also been invited to provide assistance in the form of a second year’s salary.
Guo Kaijia recalled encountering many difficulties during the entrepreneurial process. I chose that piece of land because I didn’t have money. Actually, it’s too water scarce and not suitable for mushroom cultivation. I drilled six wells, but the water volume is still not large, which is particularly difficult. In addition, in winter, in order to monitor the temperature inside the greenhouse, seven greenhouses need to be inspected every three hours.
Guo Kaijia said that his family initially opposed his entrepreneurship. “The elders felt that dealing with agriculture was just dealing with the soil, which was a bit embarrassing,” and during this period, there were also complaints from relatives, “You have so much foreign debt, yet you still do this and that.
But I persisted and never gave up, “Guo Kaijia said with a slightly proud tone. He used practice to make his relatives and friends understand that farming can also earn money.
In the first year, no loss, no profit; In the second year, there was a profit of one million. In a few years, Guo Kaijia paid off the debt of building the factory, and his family also emerged from the shadow of debt.
The industry is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more troubles. Pengpai News learned that in Linxian, mushroom sales mainly rely on customer purchases. Based on this model, Guo Kaijia is often in a passive position when negotiating prices. Guo Kaijia’s biggest idea at present is to expand the mushroom industry in the future, start live streaming, and directly connect with customers. In addition, I feel that my comprehensive abilities need to be improved, and I want to receive some professional training. But he understands that live streaming is not just about selling goods in the live room, it requires a series of supporting chains such as logistics and operation teams behind it.
Another “small town youth” Zhang Jinbao, who returned to his hometown to start a business, also has the same problem. After returning to Linxian, Zhang Jinbao went through many twists and turns. Through investigation, he found that the small grain industry was still blank in the Linxian market. Therefore, he established Shanxi Qikou Wharf Agricultural Technology Development Co., Ltd., which mainly produces local millet and small grains. Zhang Jinbao adopted the model of company+cooperative+farmers, which can not only drive the employment of villagers, but also promote the development of surrounding towns and villages.
As a ‘new farmer’, the use of ‘new farming tools’ is indispensable. “Zhang Jinbao expressed his views to Pengpai News, believing that using digital platforms to expand the sales of agricultural products is the future trend, and he is also preparing to make efforts in this area.” Because there is no team, I don’t know how to build Xiaomi’s influence online, so online sales currently only account for about 10%
Behind the dilemma lies the issue of enhancing agricultural product brands and coordinating production and sales, which is also one of the difficulties and focal points in rural revitalization. In addition, the lack of talent, the lack of connection between products and their cultural values, and the failure to create private domain traffic also limit the development of entrepreneurs and the “out of circle” of agricultural products.
Internet giants empower “small town entrepreneurs” to help agricultural products “go global”
However, a transformation is coming.
On February 22, the No. 1 central document, “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Doing a Good Job in Comprehensively Promoting the Key Work of Rural Revitalization this Year”, was released, which clearly proposed to strengthen the construction of the county business system, including the implementation of the county business construction action, the implementation of the “express into the village” project, support for large circulation enterprises to sink into the supply chain, accelerate the implementation of the “Internet plus” agricultural products out of the village into the city project, promote the extension of the cold chain logistics service network to the countryside, support supply and marketing cooperatives to carry out the county circulation service network construction and improvement action, and many other contents.
In recent years, many large Internet enterprises have built a lot of infrastructure in the county, and have made some innovations in new models in practice. This year, Tencent has once again launched the “Harvest Good Goods Plan”, and its deep cooperation with pilot counties such as Linxian is one of the measures to explore the development of county-level commercial system construction.
In Linxian County, Tencent helped build a county operation middle platform, including Linxian official “Qingning Zhixuan” video number, official account, enterprise WeChat, small app store, and the offline broadcast room built by “Good Harvest&Qingning Zhixuan” in Qikou Ancient Town, Linxian County, to help local entrepreneurs to accumulate private fans through online and offline channels, so as to achieve sustainable operation after the end of traffic support. Using the county’s platform to showcase and promote agricultural products has opened up new ideas for local entrepreneurial youth.
In the process of planning and implementing the ‘Harvest Good Things Plan’ in the past two years, we have a particularly profound feeling that under the national strategy of rural revitalization, more and more young people who have left the county are considering or have already returned to their hometowns to engage in entrepreneurial work related to agricultural product brand marketing. Xiao Liming said that the exploration of the Harvest Good Things Plan is precisely aimed at providing lower cost and more efficient digital entrepreneurial tools and skill training for such a group of people. If more young people in small towns can become small town entrepreneurs with the help of Tencent, we believe that the development of county-level agricultural product brands and rural revitalization will be greatly improved.
Lv Peng, Deputy County Mayor of Linxian in Lvliang, said that in fact, Linxian has advantages in developing e-commerce. In 2019, it was rated as a national comprehensive demonstration county for e-commerce entering rural areas, and in 2021, it successfully applied for the provincial-level rural e-commerce strong county. Last year, during his research in Lvliang, the Governor of Shanxi Province, Lan Fo’an, fully affirmed the development model of the e-commerce industry in Linxian
Pengpai News noticed that in January of this year, the Yellow River Lvliang Channel reported that the annual sales of e-commerce in Linxian reached 650 million yuan, benefiting more than 100000 people in the county.
Meanwhile, Lv Peng also pointed out the urgent operational issues that need to be addressed in the development of e-commerce in Linxian. He said that currently Linxian has the infrastructure needed to develop e-commerce. “Although there are logistics parks and e-commerce parks, there is a lack of operation teams and talents in rural areas. It is better to manage stores and not know how to build platforms
Based on this situation, the “Harvest Good Goods Plan” will develop a series of training courses to provide training and content production support for local entrepreneurial youth in Linxian. Through county-level creation competitions and other methods, a group of county-level talents will be trained to enter the WeChat ecosystem, guide them to proficiently master video account content production and WeChat sales tool applications, meet the needs of cultivating local product talents in the county, and also meet the needs of young people in the county who crave innovation and entrepreneurship.
On the morning of September 20th, the temperature in Qikou Ancient Town was only a dozen degrees, but the atmosphere was very hot in the live broadcast room of “Huang Chuangchuang and He Chuangchuang”.
During the “Good Harvest Products” promotion segment in Linxian, young entrepreneurs returning to their hometowns, under the guidance of live streaming teachers, introduced Linxian specialties to netizens. Photo by journalist Dinar from The Paper
Pengpai News saw on site that the “Promotion of Good Harvest Products in Linxian County” segment of the launch ceremony has become a unique teaching practice in the live broadcast room. Under the guidance and guidance of the live broadcast teacher, young entrepreneurs returning to their hometowns perform their talents, showcase their hometown, and recommend Zaoren Pai, Tu Egg, Qikou Wharf Yellow Millet and other products to netizens.
In order to help more local agricultural products “go global”, the “Harvest Good Products Plan” also launched a special live broadcast to assist farmers on the day of the Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival on September 23. In addition to the main venue in Beijing, sub venues have been set up in Youyang County, Chongqing and Linxian County, Lvliang, Shanxi. Through a 12 hour live streaming of goods, nearly 1.3 million viewers have been attracted, and nearly a hundred specialty agricultural products have been promoted. Among them, many products such as Leba, Goutou jujube, and black bean cheese have become popular.
The biggest problem with county-level e-commerce is that the ‘waist’ is not good. The big platform is the head, and our rural areas are the legs. You can’t get down from head to leg, and there is no waist in the middle, no middle connection. “Lu Peng said in an interview with The Paper that this cooperation with Tencent is called the Strong Waist Project, and the Qingning Smart Selection jointly built with it plays the role of the ‘waist’.
At the launch ceremony, Zhang Chaoxia, a second level researcher at the Market System Construction Department of Shanxi Provincial Department of Commerce, stated that the joint “Harvest Good Products Plan” held by Linxian and Tencent is a meaningful social exploration that combines the background of rural revitalization, drives product sales through online brand building and offline content production methods, and helps rural revitalization.
New Exploration on the Development of E-commerce in Linxian County
The surging journalists learned that Linxian County was also actively exploring its own e-commerce model based on its own development before obtaining the help of Internet giants.
During the Loong Boat Festival this year, Linxian County launched the gift box zongzi product of “Green Water and Green Mountains Are Gold Mountains and Silver Mountains”, which has achieved “out of the circle”. According to Lv Peng, its sales reached 80 million yuan.
Qingtang Zongzi is an intangible cultural heritage of Lvliang, Shanxi Province, originating from Qianqingtang Village in Linxian County, which has a pleasant phenology. Before leaving the industry, the production of Qingtang zongzi had already taken shape locally, and the annual income of the entire village could reach tens of millions. “But there are also problems. Everyone in the village is making Qingtang Zongzi, a public regional brand. Villagers can make it at home. There is no technical content, so it is necessary to standardize it and make some high-end products at this time,” said Lu Peng.
How to make it “out of the circle”? Considering that the raw materials are divided into yellow rice and ginger rice, and that the Zongzi is triangular after being wrapped with green reed leaves, which looks like a “mountain”, the naming idea of “green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains” was born.
The proposal of this product design concept and marketing strategy comes from the establishment of Shanxi’s first Shanxi Business Continuing Entrepreneurs Association, and Lv Peng is the main promoter of the establishment of the Linxian Jin Business Continuing Entrepreneurs Association.
The members of the Shanxi Business Continuing Entrepreneurs Association not only include local entrepreneurs in Linxian, but also open their doors to out of town entrepreneurs who invest in Linxian and attract new generation Linxian entrepreneurs who start businesses outside, helping them improve their own literacy and expand their thinking, in order to promote the development of their own enterprises and organizations.
To achieve this goal, the Jin Business Continuing Entrepreneurs Association has established the “Qingning Business College” in Qikou Ancient Town to coordinate the county’s enterprise training plans, students, faculty and other resources.
At the entrance of Lime Business School. Photo provided by the People’s Government of Linxian County
Nowadays, the “Harvest Good Products Plan to Assist Farmers in Co creation Base” has also been listed at Qingning Business School. Lv Peng introduced that currently, “Qingning Business School” has launched two training sessions, and in the latest training session, a total of 41 people participated in the learning. During the training, the professor from the Academy of Social Sciences and the chairman of the Internet enterprise told the trainees about the logic of the agricultural product market system, the opportunities of the live broadcast e-commerce industry and the video number traffic play.
In Lv Peng’s opinion, cultivating local operational talents is very important. He hopes that the establishment of the “Green Lemon Business School” can help solve the problem of a lack of operational teams and talents in the development of e-commerce in Linxian.
County level is the fundamental sector of the national economy and a key node connecting the circulation of agricultural and industrial products between urban and rural areas. Now, with the help of local governments, chambers of commerce, and Internet giants, Linxian is actively adapting to new changes, seizing new opportunities, and injecting new momentum and vitality into economic development.
