Longquan City: Digital Transformation Boosts Bamboo Value Chain Upgrade

I. Background

Bamboo is a traditional characteristic industry and grassroots economy in Longquan City, Zhejiang Province. The city has a bamboo forest area of 603,700 acres, with forest farmers accounting for 67.5% of the total population. With over 600 bamboo processing enterprises, the bamboo industry yielded a revenue of 6.3 billion yuan in 2021, accounting for about 60% of the total forestry output. The government has planned a digital project for the bamboo industry, focusing on industrial services and operations. This project covers data systems, decision-making screens, industry applications, brand planning, new product development, integrated marketing, etc., exploring an innovative path for value chain upgrading that brings prosperity to mountainous areas.

II. Approaches

1) Comprehensive Improvement of the Industry Operating System

Longquan City has implemented a "Strengthening the Bamboo Industry" plan, focusing on the bamboo industry's e-commerce. It shapes the industry process from product development, continuous new product development, integrated marketing, and brand building, as well as events like Longquan Bamboo Festival and industrial standards.

Design small-scale bamboo furniture for young consumers

On one hand, Longquan uses big data analysis in e-commerce to target the bamboo products. It clarifies brand strategies and product line based on market competition, target audience and design trends. On the other hand, relying on e-commerce platforms and utilizing integrated digital marketing, they plan online and offline activities to diversify sales channels and increase brand awareness for Longquan's bamboo products on e-commerce platforms.

2) Digitization Drives Cross-Scenario Application

Digital decision-making system for the bamboo value chain

The digital decision-making system for the bamboo value chain collects and organizes existing bamboo industry data, production and operation data coordinated across departments, and data from mainstream e-commerce platforms. This system integrates primary and secondary industry applications and is integrated into this cross-scenario application platform managed by the city's Forestry Bureau.

It can analyze the development trend of Longquan's bamboo production and processing through industry structure analysis, enterprise supply chain rankings, secondary industry transactions, processing enterprise services, and more. It also introduces a B2B matchmaking trading platform, providing matchmaking services for Longquan's bamboo farmers, primary processing points, and processing factories, promoting the wholesale trading scale of local secondary industries. It builds a comprehensive picture of tertiary industry innovation applications, analyzes and displays Longquan bamboo industry e-commerce sales data based on local shared data and internet e-commerce platform data, clarifying consumer trends, gaining insights into consumer groups, optimizing resource allocation through big data analysis, and enhancing industrial competitiveness.

III. Benefits

1) Leading by the "Longshang Bamboo" brand, 15 local e-commerce enterprises were supported, and new products, and marketing resources were introduced, achieving a year-on-year growth of over 20% in store sales in 2022. The e-commerce academy completed over 2,000 online training sessions and 18 offline training periods, covering over 800 participants. Longquan City will also build a comprehensive modern service platform, construct a smart logistics center, a 60,000 square meters smart cloud warehouse, e-commerce office building, expert workstation, and internet celebrity live broadcasting base, striving for a bamboo e-commerce sales exceeding 3.6 billion yuan (US$557.52 million).

2) By promoting the transformation of the forestry industry to precision processing and extending a variety of product categories, and driving the increase in production chain demand, the city-wide bamboo price has increased from 48 yuan per 100 kilograms to 64 yuan, with an annual increase of 57.6 million yuan, and an average increase of 443 yuan per person.

IV. Lessons Learned

Considering the cost-effectiveness of digital construction in different regions, integrated innovation should be carried out according to local conditions.

Reference Links:

1. Zhejiang Longquan: Forestry Digital Reform Opens a New Path for Mountainous Areas to Prosper Together

2. Rural Work Communication

For more information, please contact WFP China COE (wfpcn.coe@wfp.org)