Qinglong County Builds Its Chestnut Brand, Boosts Sales with Assistance from Rural Vitalisation Commissioner

Surrounded by mountains in northern China, Qinglong County, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, was impoverished until recently. Chestnut farming has been popular in its borders over the generations, and almost all 560,000 of its current residents participate in the industry to varying degrees. One of the 392 villages under its jurisdiction, Xiaoyingzi Town’s Wuzhishan Village is home to over 600 households as well as 102 online stores that are mostly operated by left-behind women as of 2022, and the number continues to rise. After they finish their farmwork, they strive to sell the chestnuts that they have grown online using livestreaming technology. Alibaba Foundation rural vitalisation commissioner Liu Lin introduced this method of selling chestnuts in the county and helped it spread throughout its borders. 

An active participant in the important pursuits of poverty alleviation and rural vitalisation, tech and e-commerce giant Alibaba has created and implemented programmes such as the Alibaba Poverty Alleviation Fund, which it launched in December 2017 and evolved into the Alibaba Rural Revitalization Fund in 2021 after absolute poverty was effectively eliminated in China, with the goal of helping agriculture become stronger and more secure, the countryside maintain and enhance its beauty and become more vitalised, and rural residents become more prosperous by contributing its wisdom to empowerment and development. Focusing on education, health, women, the environment, and e-commerce-powered poverty alleviation, the fund was launched with the goal of creating a “sustainable, inclusive, and imitable” online poverty alleviation and rural vitalisation model. In May 2021, the Alibaba Group unveiled a project designed to promote rural vitalisation through science and technology, industry development, and talent cultivation known as the Hometown Initiative.

The company also launched an aspect of the Hometown Initiative designed to help underdeveloped counties emerge from poverty and achieve a reasonable degree of prosperity known as the Poverty Alleviation Commissioner project at this time, which ultimately was transformed into its Rural Revitalization Commissioner project in 2021. The committed and devoted commissioners that are selected from the numerous applicants that express interest in the undertaking live in and make contributions to grassroots communities in such counties for extended periods of time, and their professionalism coupled with the power of the internet and other information technologies and new concepts and ideas help bring about significant changes in these towns and villages. The commissioners’ efforts have helped the administrative areas that they work in vitalise themselves through the pursuit and development of various industries; greater numbers of people have gotten involved with rural vitalisation and become rural entrepreneurs; and young people have become more confident about the future. A total of 24 rural vitalisation commissioners had been sent to 23 underdeveloped counties in 13 provinces across China in order to advance rural vitalisation as of the end of 2021. 

One of the first rural vitalisation commissioners, Liu travelled to Qinglong to begin her stint in May 2021. She spent the first three months conducting an inspection tour in order to familiarise herself with the county and discovered that 80% of its area is mountainous; the Qinglong River, Shahe River, Duyuan River, Xinggan River, Qihe River systems and other bodies of water cover 10% of its surface area; and that sporadic regular arable land comprises the remaining 10%. Liu learned that a great portion of the mountainous land in Qinglong is not suited to grain cultivation, though its soil and climate conditions do lend themselves to chestnut farming, which makes it possible for the crop to be grown across nearly 1 million mu of land in the county. She became aware of the fact that a lack of processing capability resulted in local farmers having no other option than to sell their chestnuts to outside buyers who firmly controlled prices for many years, however, and that they, therefore, often fell into a strange cycle in which “the better the harvest was, the lower the profits were.”

Although Qinglong chestnuts are soft and fragrant and have sweet, glutinous flavour, they are not as well-known as chestnuts grown in neighbouring Qianxi County, whose annual output value stands at billions of RMB, and did not command great prices until recently. Liu believed that the Qinglong chestnut brand might be able to help power the development of related industries, such as e-commerce, processing, cold chain logistics, design, and packaging, if it were built to a greater degree and promoted. She had been working at a national grocery chain that has created a new shopping experience by integrating online and offline elements and thought that Qinglong might be able to become a supplier of chestnuts used to produce sugar-roasted chestnuts, a traditional snack popular in the Beijing-Tianjin City-Hebei region, for the chain and thus compete with Qianxi chestnuts. Blind taste tests involving the two types of chestnuts were eventually conducted at the stores in order to see if there would be sufficient demand.

“We were happy to discover that consumers widely accept and enjoy the flavour of both our chestnuts and Qianxi chestnuts,” she explained, noting in 2022 that Qinglong did indeed become a supplier of the supermarket.

A seasonal food, sugar-roasted chestnuts can only be sold for half a year at most, however. The enterprising commissioner, therefore, spearheaded a collaborative project that led to a local processing plant developing a sugar-roasted-chestnut-flavoured popsicle with the supermarket in order to help maintain continuous demand. The popsicle quickly became popular with online influencers the summer it was launched, and the supermarket’s involvement with Qinglong chestnuts has had a favourable effect on their reputation. In 2021, many agricultural traders began coming to the county, and it was able to command higher prices for the first time.

Qinglong achieved a chestnut bumper harvest that year as well. It produced approximately 70,000 tons’ worth of the crop, and retail prices increased by RMB0.6 yuan to 1 per kg. Revenue thus increased by up to RMB70 million.

Liu encouraged local farmers to try livestreaming in order to continue to expand the Qinglong chestnut market. As a woman from a rural area, she is aware of obstacles associated with employment and entrepreneurship that exist in the country and is committed to providing assistance. She has, therefore, been determined to help local women obtain new opportunities through digitalisation and promote industry and talent vitalisation based on the rich experience that she had accumulated over the years.

For example, Liu prepared for a special livestreamed agricultural sales event with a Wuzhishan native who had been attending university elsewhere and had returned after she graduated in 2021 named Han Wenliang, and the latter took charge of hosting duties. Meticulous planning and guidance helped make it possible for nearly 30,000 orders to be logged and even led to a logistics printer breaking twice throughout the day of the event amidst the flurry of activity, emphasising the magic of e-commerce for residents.

The Alibaba Foundation has received recognition from international organisations for the efforts it has been making to assist rural women with employment opportunities and entrepreneurship through e-commerce and digitalisation. On June 23, 2022, Liu participated in a high-level dialogue between UN China and the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in China in Beijing focused on empowering women and girls economically through education and skills development. 

The rural vitalisation commissioner summarised her experience during a question-and-answer session at the event. She thought that cooperating with local governments is a key aspect of helping young people unleash their potential and “liberating minds.” Liu stressed the need to select courageous, educated young people who have noble ideals, are full of insight, and are able to serve as leaders that help create prosperity, provide assistance and guidance, and set good examples in addition to strengthening publicity efforts, introducing outside resources, and instituting incentive measures. She felt that it is necessary to strengthen skills training, build livestreaming studios, and provide logistics support and to provide basic guarantees that help women and children meet their needs as well.

“Digitalisation is not a divide but rather a key that helps rural women become more confident, independent and self-reliant,” Liu summarised.

She concluded that her experiences helping Qinglong women demonstrate that offering women digitalisation education and skills training can promote the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals No. 5 – achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls – and No. 8 – promoting sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all – in the area among others.

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