Express delivery services gives a boost to China’s rural industries

The rapid development of express delivery services in rural areas is tremendously facilitating China’s rural industries.

Statistics indicate that over 30 billion express packages were shipped to and from China’s rural regions last year, and the exchange of industrial products and farm produce between urban and rural areas totaled 1.5 trillion yuan ($232 billion). The use of express delivery services was improved in the sales of potatoes, sweet potatoes and corns.

In 2020, express delivery outlets have been established in almost all Chinese townships and over 50 percent of Chinese villages. They not only vitalized the development potential of rural industries, but also released the consumption potential of farmers, said Liu Jiang, a researcher with the Development and Research Center of the State Post Bureau.

River snail rice noodle, a local specialty of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has been enjoying huge popularity across China in recent years. It has grown into a business of 10 billion yuan in Liuzhou, the second largest city of the autonomous region.

Last year, Liuzhou sold 10.5 billion yuan of packed river snail rice noodle, and its daily production reached 3.25 million bags. More than 77.6 million parcels were shipped by China Post, up 142.7 percent from a year ago.

Baile village, Taiyangcun Township of Liuzhou is home to massive sweet bamboos from which pickled bamboo shoots, a major ingredient for the river snail rice noodle, are made. According to Huang Yugui, who runs a sweet bamboo plantation base in the village, the pickled bamboo shoots produced in the village are sold to all parts of the country. “We ship pickled bamboo shoots almost every day, and sometimes we ship more than 1,000 kilograms a day,” he told People’s Daily.

To assist the development of the river snail rice noodle industry, major express delivery companies have established outlets in villages and take relevant orders as a priority. They even tailored exclusive shipping routes for the business.

“Seventy to eighty percent of our business is related to the industry, and the industry is now a new growth point for Liuzhou’s express delivery,” said Xu Zhifang, head of Liuzhou Municipal Postal Administration.

“Before express delivery companies set up outlets in our village, we had to go to the township to sell the picked bamboo shoots,” Huang introduced. Now, the express delivery outlets in the village are enabling the man to ship his products to everywhere, and his annual income also surged from 60,000 yuan to 90,000 yuan.

Since the last year, the Postal Administration of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has been actively promoting express delivery services in rural areas. It carried out in-depth cooperation with market entities such as rural cooperatives, improved terminal logistics networks, and improved service capabilities, to further vitalize the rural economy.

Last year, the autonomous region sold 1.08 billion yuan of farm produce through postal and express delivery services. The shipping volume of passion fruits, duck eggs and other local specialties also surpassed 10 million pieces.

According to China’s State Post Bureau, the country will keep enhancing efforts to bring express services to villages, striving to cover all villages in the east with direct express services before the end of this year. Meanwhile, 80 percent of administrative villages in central China and 60 percent in the west will also be offered such services