Growing E-Trade in Chinese fresh produce sector

Aucxis has rolled out its E-Trade technology for various projects in China in the past year. For example, Qixia Fruit Auction Center in Shandong was officially opened. Mid-2017, the Moby-Clock and Aucxis Online application for selling fruit and vegetables were delivered at the company APC (Advanced Produce Centre Development). 

Aucxis also participated in the CAA (China Association of Auctioneers) seminar regarding the agricultural sector in November 2016, and the APC seminar about the functioning of Western European fruit and vegetable auctions in 2017. 

The Qixia Fruit Auction Center was founded by the China Fruit Marketing Organisation, Yantai Huteng Real Estate and Qixia Defeng Food in 2013. This first-ever Chinese fruit auction in Shandong was built on a surface of 12.2 hectares, and cost 207 million RMB in total. In October 2016, the Qixia Fruit Auction Center was officially opened. Around Qixia, about two billion kilos of apples are grown by about 20,000 growers.

Aucxis supplied the equipment with accompanying electronics for a complete auction hall that can hold a total of 192 buyers. The two clocks are lit via P4 multicolour LED technology. The local back office software supplies the catalogue that’s for sale. After the opening in 2016, 3.2 tonnes of fruit were sold at this auction, with a value of 16 million RMB. This trade model is very much appreciated by both buyers and sellers, and the size of transactions continues to rise. Approximately 71 tonnes of fruit are sold daily on average.

The mobile auction clock of Aucxis, the Moby-Clock, was introduced through customer APC in China in July 2017. The major advantage is that the Moby-Clock can drive from one lot of products to another. That way, buyers are given the opportunity to inspect the quality of the products. According to the ‘Dutch falling clock’ principle, the buyers can stop the decreasing price counter using a radiographic buying-button that has a predetermined speed. The buyer who pushes the button first or offers the best price buys the lot for the corresponding price. The Moby-Clock is an ideal tool to make the transition from shouting auctioning to an auction hall more acceptable for buyers. Moreover, transactions are passed on to the back office of the auction via Wifi.

Aucxis supplied a derivative of the web-based Aucxis Online application to customer APC. They will use the web application for selling fruit and vegetables that are imported into China. Interested, registered buyers can raise bids against each other. The screen layouts were developed in close cooperation with the customer.

On 27 November 2016, Aucxis was invited by the Chinese Association of Auctioneers (CAA) to give a presentation about the history of clock auctions in Europe. The CAA, which was founded in 1995, is the only national association in the auction industry in China, and is currently the most important platform promoting the development of the Chinese auction industry. The CAA consists of more than 2,700 members and represents 80 per cent of the market share. At the seminar, more than 150 auctions were present, from the antiques to the agricultural sector. Aucxis’s presentation, as well as the explanations by our customers about the Aucxis solutions (such as the fruit and vegetable auction APC and flower auction KIFA), were very positively received within the organisation.

The Chinese government wishes to invest more in this Western European model for trading by means of a central trading place for fruit and vegetables in coming years, and this includes the accompanying quality standards and descriptions. The first careful steps have already been made through a number of interesting pilot projects. “We naturally hope that our professional, innovative solutions will find their way more and more in China in the coming years,” says Patrick Bauwens.

On 1 and 2 July 2017, Aucxis was invited by the CAA and APC to introduce the function of the Western European fruit and vegetable auction. This seminar about the fruit and vegetable sector took place at APC. On the second day, demonstrations were given by APC that extensively showed the auction hall and the Moby-Clock. About 60 interested parties from various provinces in China followed the two-day session with enthusiasm. Because the auction system was received with such enthusiasm, there are clearly quite some opportunities in China. For this reason, Aucxis closely follows the developments there.

Moreover, China is the largest consumer and producer of fruit and vegetables in the world. In 2016, total consumption amounted to 851,110,000 tonnes. Besides, total import volume amounted to 270,000 tonnes, and total export volume was 10,390,000 tonnes. The most consumed types of fruit and vegetables in China are apples, oranges, pears, grapes, bananas, pineapple, lychees, peaches, kiwi fruit, cucumbers, cabbage, carrots, aubergine and tomatoes.