In light of the third Chinese Farmer’s Harvest Festival, Chinese e-commerce giants are taking action across various platforms to help boost the sale of agricultural products. 

As an important partner of the festival, e-commerce giant Alibaba’s campaign seeks to help farmers increase income by preventing merchants from demanding a lower price or selling counterfeit agricultural products, according to Li Shaohua, vice-president of Alibaba Group.

He Shuang (R) and her sister He Qian show pomegranates in Zhangguan Town of Huili County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, Sept. 19, 2020. In 2019, the sisters sold 4 million kilograms of pomegranates from August to November through e-commerce platform. (Xinhua/Jiang Hongjing)

More than 30,000 merchants will participate in the campaign, including those from 750 poor counties and counties just lifted out of poverty, Li said, adding that it will bolster the value of agricultural brands.

To help the sale of agricultural products from more than 1,000 counties, 1 million live streaming sessions will be held on Taobao Live, the group’s live streaming unit, during the festival.

Working with major harvesting regions like Taihu Lake, Gucheng Lake and Hongze Lake, Pinduoduo, another major e-commerce player in China, kicked off its first campaign to help the online sale of hairy crabs in the Yangtze River Delta region, Sept. 16.

On the same day, the platform also announced a plan to help cultivate 100 leading e-commerce companies and 1,000 online store owners in major harvesting regions of hairy crabs over the course of the next five years using various strategies.

Issuing coupons worth 500 million yuan, Pinduoduo is looking to boost sales of agricultural products to help farmers increase income during the festival.

The Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival coincides with the autumnal equinox each year, which is one of the 24 solar terms of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls between Sept. 22 and 24, during the country’s agricultural harvest season.