Hot-selling navel oranges bring wealth to county in C. China's Hubei Province

Zigui county in central China's Hubei Province, where navel oranges grow throughout the year, has boosted the sales of the fruit through e-commerce platforms, generating wealth for local people.

Thirty percent of the navel oranges produced in the county are sold online, generating over 3 billion yuan ($432.3 million) a year.

Farmers gather navel oranges at Taiziwan village in Zigui county, Central China’s Hubei province, on Jan 28, 2021. As navel oranges ripen ahead of Spring Festival in Zigui county, a major producer of this fruit, local farmers are busy picking, transporting and packing the fruits to meet consumers’ demands during the holiday and increase their income at the same time. (Photo/Xinhua)

In the Huawei e-commerce logistics park, which is home to 214 e-commerce companies, workers were busy packaging navel oranges, which were later shipped around the country such as Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Henan provinces.

"The orders must be delivered within 24 hours of the order. It is normal for us to work overtime these days. An average of 300 tonnes of fresh navel oranges is sent to various places on a daily basis," said You Yumin, deputy general manager of the logistics park.

Workers transport navel oranges ready for cleaning at an e-commerce industrial park in Zigui county, Central China’s Hubei province, on Jan 29, 2021. (Photo/Xinhua)

According to Zheng Yuqing, executive for operations of Zhenshi Commerce and Trade Co., Ltd., in this park, 35,000 packages, all ordered online, were delivered in February. Some 45,000 kilograms of navel oranges were picked every day.

Boasting of 400,000 mu (26,666 hectares) of navel orange tree-planted land, the county developed a marketing mode integrating e-commerce platforms, livestream sales, and short video clips, which expanded the sales channels of the fruit.

Sixty-five key e-commerce enterprises of the county established ties with 3,582 households and 110 cooperatives, said Wang Enjie, general secretary of the e-commerce association of the county.

The county has also built a three-tiered rural logistics network on the county, township and village level, covering all its villages with e-commerce and logistics services.

Qugu International Agriculture Group, one of the fast-growing businesses in the county, sold navel oranges to over 150 countries through e-commerce distribution channels, with sales exceeding 100 million yuan, said Li Lingling, sales director of the company.