“Thieu” lychees introduced on e-commerce floors

Bac Giang is a locality that has successfully put lychees on e-commerce floors. Deputy Director of the Centre for Industrial Promotion and Trade Promotion under the Bac Giang provincial Department of Industry and Trade, Nguyen Van Tho, said that lychee the province’s specialty, is now available on major e-commerce platforms in Vietnam such as Sendo, Voso (Viettel Post), Tiki, Shopee, Postmart (VNpost) and Cuccu. Accordingly, the procurement and transportation of e-commerce transactions were agreed to be implemented in the form of refrigerated trucks and airplanes. Before being transported, lychees were provided with “certificates of safe shipment” guaranteed in terms of quality and epidemic prevention. The platforms have helped sell around 1,200 tonnes of thieu lychees. Tho added that lychee growers have very excited about this new method, especially as some e-commerce floors have sent staff to directly guide farmers to practice livestreaming and introduce lychees on their personal social networking sites in order to expand trading channels as well as help them get used to posting goods and finalising online deals.

Ngo Van Lien, Director of the Thanh Hai Agricultural Cooperative in Luc Ngan district, Bac Giang province, shared that Luc Ngan’s lychee crop has begun its harvest season. Farmers has sold lychees with prices ranging from VND25,000 – VND30,000 per kilogramme, pretty good levels considering we are amidst an upsurge in the COVID-19 epidemic. Notably, the cooperative has also participated in transactions on e-commerce floors this year. Despite the small quantity of orders, e-commerce has become a channel for the cooperative to boost the consumption of thieu lychees for its members. Talking about the difficulties entering this new field, Lien stated that farmers are familiar with traditional selling to traders or large enterprises, with large quantities and quick consumption. However, many locals, especially households with elderly people, have been afraid of putting lychees onto e-commerce floors.

Before Bac Giang, Hai Duong province had launched lychees on e-commerce platforms. For example, the Rong Do (Red Dragon) Company from Thanh Ha district promoted the linkage of consumption via the Lazada platform. This was the first enterprise distributing Hai Duong lychees through online sales (since mid-May-2021) atthe quoted price of VND150,000 per kilogramme. Half a tonne of Thanh Ha lychees were sold on Lazada within just four hours and reached customers in Ho Chi Minh City in only four hours. General Director of Lazada Vietnam James Dong said that this was a positive start in the long-term cooperation between Lazada and Hai Duong businesses, cooperatives and farmers.

Through the launch of thieu lychees on e-commerce floors, households, cooperatives, enterprises and transport units have proved that the "links" in the chain of production and consumption of agricultural products have both a systematic and methodical connection. This is a completely new form of transaction, associated with digital transformation and online sales, so its acceptance is valuable, opening up a fast, efficient and trendy consumption direction.