Written by: Du Gang and He Jun
Posted on: November 15, 2018 | 
| 中文
Aksu apples
Every late October onwards, it is the harvest season of apples in Aksu, Xinjiang, China. Fruit farmer, Hou Jia, expects good sales of her apples this year, through using her own brand and WeChat shop.
Hou's expectations are not groundless. Last November, she opened a WeChat shop to sell apples and some other specialties of Xinjiang. Last year her orchard produced more than 100 tons of apples, of which 8 tons were sold through her WeChat shop. This year, she applied to the local industrial and commercial department for the trademark "Hou Guo," and has received the notification of application acceptance.
“Once my trademark is registered, the sales through my WeChat shop can increase further,” said Hou, who plans to talk with logistics companies to reduce the logistical costs.
The fruit farmer began using the Internet for marketing in 2014, when Aksu held an online apple donation activity named, “Aksu's Apple is Ripe,” in which 20,000 apples were sent to the families of aiding Xinjiang officials, from other provinces or municipalities, and Xinjiang natives working outside the region and media workers. In the following few years, Aksu held similar promotion events, and the locally-produced apples became well known. Consequently, the fruit farmers also drew growing attention. Hou, who is articulate and often smiling, became a media favorite.
In a series of online activities organized by the local government, Hou saw the power of Internet communication,which prompted her to set up a WeChat shop and build her own brand.
Through the Internet, Hou also searched for a large amount of information about yields of other apple production areas, good varieties and planting methods. She realized that she needs to learn from the large-scale and mechanized planting in developed countries for her apple planting in the future. “The spacing between our apple trees is too small for mechanical harvesting now.” She plans to expand the planting area and adopt new planting methods if the sales increase in the future.
Hou recalled that when she and her husband first contracted the land in 2002, they had no ways to get new information for apple production, but could only work hard day and night. The situation has changed since she got more and more new farming technologies and new information about the market from the Internet. Last year, her family's 36-mu (2.4 hectares) orchard generated a profit of about 300,000 yuan, after deducting the costs.
In Aksu, Hou Jia’s family is not the only one that has benefited from the Internet. According to big data monitoring by the Ministry of Commerce, last year, there were more than 2,400 Aksu’s active sellers who registered through online shops on taobao.com. And more and more special fruits produced in Xinjiang are sold to the world through the Internet.
Aksu Prefecture is one of the main producing areas of Xinjiang featured fruits, with a planting area of 4.5 million mu (300,000 ha). The income from fruit industry accounts for more than 30% of the per capita income of local farmers.
Translated by Xu Donglin
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