County in NW China’s Shaanxi promotes integration of apple industry, e-commerce

June is usually lean for apple sales in Luochuan county, Yan’an city, northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, but Zhang Xiuxiu, a local woman, sells nearly 5 tonnes of apples each day to customers across the country through her online store.

Farmers pick apples in an orchard in Luochuan county, Shaanxi Province on Aug. 28, 2019. (Photo/Xinhua)

Many locals like Zhang sell apples through e-commerce channels. Since 2013, Luochuan county has gone all out to develop its e-commerce sector with a focus on apples while promoting the transformation and upgrading of its industries. The online sales volume of apples in the county had increased from 4 million yuan (about $595,540) to more than 1.25 billion yuan in 2021.

Zong Shuanlong is one of the first groups of locals to run an online store selling apples in Luochuan. In the first year since he opened his store on Chinese online shopping site Taobao under e-commerce giant Alibaba, he received 10,000 orders of Luochuan apples, earning a net income of 30,000 yuan.

Zhang Jidong, secretary of the Communist Party of China Luochuan county committee, said e-commerce platforms have helped upgrade the county’s apple industry in addition to raising the brand visibility of Luochuan apples.

Zhao Hengliang, who returned to his hometown of Luochuan 10 years ago, is now the boss of a leading e-commerce enterprise with annual sales of 100 million yuan. Zhao’s livestreamers regularly hold live-streaming sessions at an apple base, where automatic sorting lines separate high-quality apples from low-quality ones. Luochuan has strengthened scientific and technological support for its apple industry as well as promoting intelligent sorting capabilities and cold-chain storage capabilities, the livestreamers introduced.

While cooperating with e-commerce platforms to formulate standards for high-quality Luochuan apples, the county launched a traceability system to ensure the quality of its apples. So far, the brand value of Luochuan apples exceeds 68.7 billion yuan.

Luochuan is home to over 700 e-commerce companies and self-employed households. There are more than 5,000 online stores in the county. The thriving e-commerce sector helps improve farmers’ income generated from each mu (about 0.07 hectares) of land. According to statistics, the per capita net income of apple growers in Luochuan reached 15,900 yuan in 2021. Meanwhile, the total output value of the county’s apple industry surpassed 11 billion yuan last year.

“Luochuan will continue to seek deeper cooperation with e-commerce platforms to achieve full integration between the digital and real economies and improve the quality and brand image of Luochuan apples,” said Zhang Jing, mayor of Luochuan, adding that the county plans to increase the brand value of Luochuan apples to reach 100 billion yuan in five years.