June 6, which is in full swing, is also an agricultural product. At the end of May, in the fields of Xundian Hui Yi Autonomous County, one of Yunnan's main potato-producing regions, sweat-soaked potato farmers were busy shuttling through the loose soil, billowing potatoes churning out of the loose soil. Children returning from school sat on the ridge and sang "Dig, Dig" to cheer for the adults.

Deng Changjun, a member of the Xundian Six Potato Planting Professional Cooperative, said, "These are all processed potatoes ordered by enterprises, packaged and shipped to the factory, processed into Yunnan-style Chinese potato chips, and sold to the whole country." ”

At the end of May, potato farmers in Rudian Township, Xundian Hui Yi Autonomous County, were busy harvesting potatoes.

Li Yanqiong, head of the "Dian Erwa" potato chip factory, who was busy with the acquisition, is stockpiling raw potatoes for June 6, which was launched in advance. "On June 18 of Pinduoduo, agricultural products also have a large flow. We plan to prepare 6 million bags of potato chips in advance, which will require about 18 tons of potatoes. "According to the current purchase price of 100.180 yuan per kilogram, for every package of potato chips sold on Pinduoduo, potato farmers can earn 3.6 yuan.

In Yunnan, where fresh artichokes are produced all year round, fried artichoke chips topped with chili powder is a traditional local snack and a hometown taste that many people can't give up after leaving their homeland. However, this specialty snack has not been able to make it out of Yunguichuan for many years, and it is unable to compete with the Western-style potato chips on the street. Until recent years, with the technical blessing of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the help of e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, Chinese-style potato chips represented by Yunnan potato chips have quietly become a hit, which not only drives the hot sales of processed potatoes in many potato producing areas in Yunnan, but also makes the lives of many potato farmers in many producing areas have a new head.

Chinese potato chips have grown by leaps and bounds

In recent years, potato chips, as a kind of snack food that "makes you happy", have been consumed hotly. However, almost all of the mall sells Western-style potato chips, and food lovers can only find Chinese-style potato chips by looking for the fireworks of the roadside stalls in Yunguichuan.

"Most of the Western-style potato chips are puffed potato flour, and the taste of the potatoes themselves is very light, and the price is often about ten pieces a bag. In Yunguichuan, families prefer to fry their own potato chips, which are fresh and affordable. In Li Yanqiong's memory, in the last century, local brands in Yunnan such as angels and children were the first to introduce industrial assembly lines, and the Chinese-style potato chips produced by them were the childhood memories of a generation in Yunguichuan. But unfortunately, these products have not been able to go out of the southwest market on a large scale for various reasons.

In July last year, a raw cut potato chip jointly developed by "Dian Erwa" and the Institute of Agricultural Products Processing of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences appeared on the "shelf" of Pinduoduo, and the Chinese-style potato chips became famous online. With only two spicy taste designs, spicy and spicy flavors, this highly recognizable product quickly captured the hearts of a group of young people who are not spicy or unhappy.

Li Yanqiong's factory has 130 employees, and the two production lines consume up to about 1500,<> tons of artichokes per month.

Previously, data analysis of China's chili pepper industry showed that more than 6 million consumers in China can eat spicy or like to eat spicy. According to the "China Diet Moderately Well-off Index" survey conducted by the Media Research Laboratory of Tsinghua University, "spicy" has ranked first in dietary taste preferences for many consecutive years. When the spicy seeds from Yunguichuan are paired with local fresh potatoes, spicy snack lovers have tasted them on various social networking sites, "quacking, spicy", "I would like to call it the ceiling of spicy potato slices"...

"Benefiting from the zero commission of Pinduoduo agricultural products and the effective help of the group model on the sales outbreak, within a few days of being on the shelves, 10,<> orders were spelled out, and offline channels took the initiative to contact us, hoping to sell Yunnan characteristic products to the whole country together." Since then, there have been hundreds of similar calls a month, all hoping to cooperate in selling potato chips. Hu Stop, head of e-commerce operations at "Yun Erwa", was surprised, "In the past, we were begging to sell goods offline, but when we met Pinduoduo, things turned around."

According to Xiao Er, a snack food category of Pinduoduo, in the second half of last year, Chinese-style potato chips ushered in an outbreak on the platform. "This kind of product with distinct regional characteristics has a high degree of compatibility with the platform. After Pinduoduo tilted resources to increase the popularity of products, consumer demand was quickly stimulated. Through the model of 'single + direct delivery from the place of origin', the platform efficiently and accurately matches supply and demand, and small items have become big hits. ”

According to its introduction, "Dian Erwa" potato chips, which grew up from Pinduoduo, were the first place in the best-selling list of biscuits puffed during June 6, and last year's sales were nearly twice higher than the industry average. From the point of view of sales area, although it originated in Yunguichuan, it sold better in Guangdong, Zhejiang and other places.

"At present, we sell 11,12-6,18 bags of potato chips online every day, of which Pinduoduo is the most important channel, accounting for nearly 10%. During the <>.<> period, when <>,<> people were blessed, the daily order volume exceeded <>,<> bags. Hu stopped saying.

Hard technology in potato slices

Before gaining market acceptance, this pack of potato chips underwent nearly four years of research and development, during which it stepped on several pits. For example, the R&D team once spent millions to introduce a new assembly line, but after repeated debugging, they found that they could only replicate the Western taste, but could not restore the Chinese flavor. "Millions of people are lost, and the heart is like a knife." Li Yanqiong said.

During this period, it was paste, oily, soft... The team ate fried potato chips every day to taste the taste of failure. Gradually, they found that the potato chips that came out of the pan were hard and crisp and retained the aroma of the ingredients to the greatest extent possible. Through trial and error, they have accumulated key technical experience - different varieties of Yunnan artichoke, how to adjust the frying temperature and frying time, in order to ensure consistent quality.

Since it was a package of potato chips that were different from Western potato chips and few people had seen in Yunguichuan, they came up with an idea - put it in a transparent packaging bag to visually compete for consumers' attention from Western-style potato chips packaged in a dark package, helping this new product become a hit.

When a packaging material needs to carry the burden of expanding the new, "Dian Erwa" has been looking for nearly two years. Often pondered in the factory for a long time, the result of the testing agency measurement, the oxygen permeability rate greatly exceeded the standard. This means that the ability of packaging materials to block oxygen is poor, and photosensitive substances are prone to chemical reactions, which ultimately not only affect the taste, shelf life, but also cause food safety problems. This is also an important reason why Western-style potato chips generally choose non-transparent packaging materials.

Li Yanqiong, who encountered problems again, knocked on the door of the Institute of Agricultural Products Processing of the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences this time. Wang Haidan, deputy director of the Prepared Vegetables and Snack Food Research Center, who received her, is good at the research of fresh storage of fruits and vegetables, and has seen various high-performance packaging materials.

Wang Haidan (right) and colleagues discuss packaging materials in the laboratory.

After in-depth understanding of the situation, Director Wang suggested that the solution idea be placed on a packaging bag coated with alumina. "The oxygen permeability of this bag can be reduced to as low as 1 gram/square meter/day, which is equivalent to 1/6 of ordinary transparent bags." She then gave guidance on coating thickness, stability and other aspects based on past research. In just one week, the problem was solved.

Li Yanqiong, who tasted the sweetness, decided to increase cooperation with scientific research institutions. From the selection and breeding of processed potato varieties to the processing schemes of different varieties in different production areas, they are gradually being added to the list of joint research and study.

"We have a lot of know-how in potato varieties and food processing. If the enterprise can come to us with market demand and production problems, and then carry out targeted research and development, the efficiency of scientific research transformation will be greatly improved. Wang Haidan said.

For a long time, due to poor transformation and other reasons, many domestic scientific research projects "only bloom, not fruit", between laboratory results and products accepted by the market, there is a gap between the landing of results. Since last year, Pinduoduo has increased the resource tilt of high-tech agricultural products and deeply processed products in terms of platform strategy, fed back scientific research with sales volume, and dredged the transformation link of agricultural scientific and technological achievements with market orientation, aiming to create an efficient ecology for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

On the launch day of Shanghai's "May Five-Year Shopping Festival" this year, in the live broadcast of goods landed by Pinduoduo and China Central Radio and Television Station, "Dian Erwa" potato chips, as a representative of scientific and technological agricultural goods, were highlighted by CCTV anchors Ren Luyu and Guo Ruotian, attracting a large number of netizens to fight for orders.

Academy of Agricultural Sciences + new e-commerce to support potato farmers

The hot sales of technical potato chips have stimulated the enthusiasm of enterprises to acquire raw potatoes. From Yingjiang, the old to Xundian, Dali... After harvesting a year's worth of potatoes, Li Yanqiong almost ran Yunnan again.

Yunnan is one of China's largest potato growing provinces, with potatoes distributed in all states and cities and planted all year round. In Xundian, a key county for rural revitalization, Deng Changjun remembers that when he was a child, every family here planted potatoes. However, due to the outdated planting varieties, extensive planting and thin harvest, coupled with the remote location and inconvenient transportation, it is not only difficult to expand the market, but also difficult to sell at a good price. Many potato farmers rely on more than 10 acres of land, and their annual income is only 20,000 or 30,000 yuan a year.

But in recent years, with the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, potato farmers no longer worry about sales. With the improvement of transportation facilities, the wholesale business of commercial potatoes has become more convenient. Since the beginning of this year, Pinduoduo's "Nongyun Action" special team has also entered the Yunnan potato industrial belt, including Xundian, to help high-quality commercial potatoes go out of the village and enter the city. Due to the availability of fresh potatoes throughout the year, Yunnan potatoes now account for half of Pinduoduo's online sales of potatoes.

Towards the end of the evening, the harvest of artichokes was carried by potato farmers one after another, and they were about to rush to the processing plant.

The more important change is that there are more and more local potato processing plants in Yunnan, and the demand for special potatoes for processing is increasing. Agricultural technicians not only sent planting technology to potato farmers, but also actively went to the countryside and villages to encourage everyone to plant processed varieties such as cooperative 88 and Yunndou No. 304. "In 2016, my father joined forces with some farmers to set up a cooperative to develop potato farmers to grow processed potatoes according to the needs of enterprises and purchase them according to orders." Deng Changjun said that at present, the number of growers connected by the cooperative has reached two to three hundred, of which <>% are Yi compatriots.

Since last year, Dian Erwa has taken the initiative to cooperate with them to buy processed potatoes in large quantities. Deng Changjun estimates that the cooperative supplied more than 1,<> tons of raw potatoes to brands such as Dian Erwa, Zidi and Wumila last year.

Thanks to stable demand for processed potatoes and the opening of online sales channels for commercial potatoes, the average annual income of local farmers has grown rapidly. In Yangsa Village, Liuxian Township, Xundian County, some large households have planted potatoes on a scale of 70 to 80 mu, with an average output value of 3 tons per mu and an annual income of 50,<> yuan.

As a bulk agricultural product, potato prices fluctuate and fluctuate from time to time. But Xundian farmers are enthusiastic about growing processed potatoes. In the long run, farmers can understand that "once the market changes next year, commercial potatoes may be unmarketable and rotten, but processed potatoes are purchased by processing plants, and sales and prices are more stable." ”

"There is no upper limit on our quarterly purchase price, but the lower limit cannot be lower than the guaranteed price signed with the farmer." Li Yanqiong said, "A small package of potato chips complements the industrial chain of potato intensive processing, and through optimizing management, enhancing scientific and technological capabilities, and opening up online sales, we hope to support more potato farmers and change Yunnan artichoke from 'specialty grain' to 'rich people's potato'." ”