Express services accelerate the development of modern agriculture

Small express delivery stimulates large rural market (big data observation)

　　core reading

　　Express delivery is increasingly entering villages, and the construction of rural delivery logistics systems is accelerating. Today, about 400 million express parcels are collected every day in our country, of which more than 100 million are transported in rural areas. Last year, the national rural online retail sales reached 2.5 trillion yuan, a significant year-on-year increase. The postal express industry serves the accelerated development of modern agriculture and provides strong support for stimulating rural consumption momentum.

　　Express delivery into villages and specialties out of villages are related to the vital interests of hundreds of millions of farmers and are also an important part of smooth urban and rural economic cycles. The continuously improving delivery efficiency has become a strong support for stimulating rural consumption momentum.

　　Data show that last year, the national rural online retail sales reached 2.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%, an increase of nearly 13 times compared with 2014; the national online retail sales of agricultural products reached 587.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.5%.

　　At present, what achievements has the postal express industry achieved in serving modern agriculture? How to better help agricultural products move out of villages and into cities and promote overall rural revitalization? On March 28, the State Post Bureau held a special press conference to introduce relevant situations and respond to social concerns.

　　Wider coverage area and more varieties

　　A new batch of postal express industry services modern agriculture brand projects have been launched

　　Fruit sifting, packing, shipping out, loading... Kongjiagou Village, Liulin Town, Pagoda District, Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, is a busy scene. Boxes of fresh and plump apples are rapidly circulating in the transfer center, from the fields to all parts of the country.

　　"Yesterday it was on the tree, today it is on the road, and it will be in the hands of consumers tomorrow." When talking about the speed of delivery, farmer Shi Haijun was full of praise. In September last year, ZTO Express' Shaanxi Yan'an Transshipment Center was officially opened, which not only improved the delivery time of agricultural products by about 15 hours, but also significantly reduced logistics costs. Since the beginning of this year, more than 2 million Yan'an apples have been shipped to various places through ZTO Express.

　　Small apples going to the big market are a vivid epitome of express delivery services for modern agriculture. "With the deepening of the construction of rural delivery logistics system, as an important channel for agricultural products to move up, the postal express industry is playing an increasingly important role in reducing the circulation costs of agricultural products and improving the efficiency of agricultural product circulation." Spokesperson of the State Post Bureau, Market Lin Hu, director of the Supervision Department, said.

　　As an important starting point for express delivery to serve modern agriculture, in recent years, the State Post Bureau has continued to integrate resources, optimize systems, enrich content, and promote the formation of a number of brand projects for the postal express industry to serve modern agriculture.

　　"After careful comparison and selection, 143 municipal projects with an annual business volume of over 10 million pieces were finally determined as 'gold medal projects', and 17 county-level projects with an annual business volume of over 2 million pieces were determined as 'typical projects'." Lin Hu introduced , the 2023 postal express industry service modern agriculture brand project will present many new features.

　　On the one hand, the coverage area is wider and the business scale is larger. "The gold medal projects involve a total of 91 cities and states in 22 provinces, generating a total express delivery business volume of 3.406 billion pieces and business income of 16.376 billion yuan." Lin Hu said that 9 of the projects have an annual business volume of more than 50 million pieces, and another 35 projects The annual business volume exceeds 20 million pieces.

　　Taking ZTO Express as an example, in 2023, there will be 24 express delivery service modern agriculture projects with an annual shipment volume of more than 5 million pieces across the entire network, covering Fujian tea, Northeast rice, Shaanxi apples, Sichuan citrus, Shandong garlic and many other agricultural products; The number of rural parcels shipped exceeded 10.9 billion, of which rural upstream parcels increased by more than 33% year-on-year.

　　On the other hand, it covers more varieties and has better service models. When sorting out the gold medal projects, we can find that there are more and more categories of agricultural products flowing on the large rural express delivery network, including fruits such as navel oranges and mangoes, livestock products such as sea duck eggs and beef jerky, vegetables such as lotus roots, and medicinal materials and products such as wolfberry. , flowers, succulents and other ornamental plants, as well as rice, corn, sweet potatoes and other grains and by-products.

　　The increasingly diverse types of agricultural products require more “fast, stable and accurate” delivery services.

　　As soon as we came down the mountain, it was on the tip of our tongue. In Xilong Township, Anji County, Huzhou, Zhejiang, the main production area of ​​Anji white tea, the spring tea is fried in the morning, and the truck is picked up and delivered in the afternoon, achieving "next-morning delivery". In order to improve the efficiency of spring tea shipment, Cainiao Express has specially set up a service team and set up collection points in tea mountains to ensure collection at any time and achieve efficient circulation of spring tea.

　　Increase investment in warehousing and cold chain of agricultural products, and build an online sales platform for fresh products... Since this year, express delivery companies have actively adapted to the characteristics of agricultural products with "variety of products, fresh quality and large quantity", and have proposed rapid parcel collection and logistics cost reduction. In line with new requirements, we will continue to innovate harvesting models, optimize transportation routes, extend service chains, and better serve the development of modern agriculture.

　　Accelerate the application and promotion of new technologies and new equipment

　　Improve the stability, convenience and greenness of serving modern agriculture

　　The "last mile" of rural express delivery is the key to opening up the county and rural e-commerce system and the express logistics and distribution system. Focusing on key areas such as low-altitude, cold chain, and packaging, the express delivery industry has continued to rely on technological innovation in recent years to continuously improve the stability, convenience, and greenness of the industry's service to modern agriculture.

　　——The application of new equipment is accelerated, and the express delivery business becomes smarter.

　　In Longjing Village, Xihu District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, the core production area of ​​Longjing tea, the mountain paths are full of passengers. Looking in the sky, drones full of new tea are shuttled in an orderly manner.

　　"Using self-developed drones to transport tea, the whole journey from the tea farmers on the mountain to the connection point at the foot of the mountain has been shortened from the previous 23 minutes to 8 minutes." Wen Lei, head of the marketing and sales department of Zhejiang SF Express, said that a single machine can carry up to 50 Kilograms, two drones can transport about 3 tons of new tea every day. After going down the mountain, they will be transferred to a dedicated truck to go directly to the airport, and can be transported to Beijing, Guangzhou and other places the next day.

　　"Strengthening technological innovation has effectively improved the service level of rural express delivery." The relevant person in charge of the State Post Bureau said that in recent years, major express delivery companies have actively explored the applications of drones, unmanned warehouses, and unmanned vehicles, and the use scenarios and scope have continued to expand. Effectively shorten the delivery time of agricultural products and reduce transportation costs.

　　——New technologies continue to be promoted, and parcel services are more scientific.

　　At the time of spring plowing, farmers in Kaiyuan, Liaoning, Tai'an, Shandong, Feixi, Anhui and other seedling-producing areas are busy pruning, transporting and selling seedlings.

　　"Seedlings and flowers have different shapes and are easy to bend, which requires high packaging and transportation requirements." The person in charge of JD Logistics told reporters that in order to ensure transportation safety, an exclusive packaging plan was specially formulated. In the packaging process, in addition to the reinforcement of the wooden frame, Stretch film is also used for packaging to reduce the package volume and damage rate; during transportation, logistics hangtags are used to prevent the sheets from falling off and ensure smooth arrival.

　　Not long ago, JD Logistics Packaging Laboratory was officially inaugurated. According to reports, the next step will be to continue to promote the digital application of packaging materials and promote the refined and green development of the express logistics industry.

　　——Create more typical projects to help the overall revitalization of rural areas.

　　“In the past year, we have increased our focus on poverty alleviation areas and created 17 typical county-level projects, mainly involving 14 poverty alleviation counties in 9 provinces including Hebei, Inner Mongolia, and Henan, and 5 key counties for national rural revitalization. ." Lin Hu said that in the next step, the State Post Bureau will continue to create typical projects to guide postal express companies to help more high-quality agricultural products from poverty-stricken areas "go global."

　　Improve delivery network and carry out project cultivation

　　This year we will further reduce logistics costs and improve the level of facility construction.

　　In recent years, my country's express delivery has continued to penetrate more deeply into villages, and the rural delivery logistics system has accelerated its construction, playing an increasingly important role in meeting the production and living needs of rural people, helping agricultural products move from villages to cities, and promoting rural revitalization.

　　"Especially in terms of the upward flow of agricultural products, the smooth delivery channels have reduced intermediate circulation links, reduced the loss of agricultural products, improved circulation efficiency, and effectively promoted the export of agricultural products and increased farmers' income." Lin Hu said that this year, the State Post Bureau will take multiple measures to A number of gold medal projects were "established" to inspire the entire industry to better serve modern agriculture.

　　Continue to improve the rural delivery logistics network. By strengthening cooperation with relevant departments, we will guide qualified areas to build county-level public distribution centers for delivery, increase the construction of village-level delivery logistics comprehensive service stations, and continuously enrich the modern agricultural carriers of postal express services.

　　Carry out project cultivation work according to local conditions. Based on the congestion and pain points encountered in the delivery service of specialty agricultural products, on the one hand, we actively promote local governments to increase policy support and build a communication platform for delivery companies, farmers, rural e-commerce companies, and industry associations; on the other hand, we guide delivery companies to continuously Innovate service models, enhance service capabilities in rural areas, improve the quality of agricultural product delivery services, and promote the large-scale development of local agricultural product delivery services.

　　Improve efficiency with one hand, and reduce costs with the other. "The postal express industry has unique advantages in reducing the logistics costs of agricultural products." Lin Hu said that this year the State Post Bureau will further reduce the logistics costs of agricultural products from villages to cities and improve the construction level of delivery service facilities in rural areas. We will continue to implement the "one village, one station" project and accelerate the construction of village-level delivery and logistics comprehensive service stations with "one point for multiple functions and one stop for multiple uses" so that more farmers can receive and send express delivery at their doorsteps. At the same time, we will further promote the coordinated development of rural e-commerce and express delivery, create a rural e-commerce service system with smooth circulation and efficient services, and guide postal express delivery companies to play a greater role in bringing agricultural products out of villages and into cities.

　　Reporter Han Xin

　　"People's Daily" (Page 07, March 29, 2024)