The COVID-19 outbreak has brought a lot of challenges to vegetable and fruit growers, so what issues have they encountered in terms of cultivation and marketing?
Recently, Horti China launched a series of "Hort China Talk" interviews and interviewed Haisheng Group, a vegetable and fruit expert. Horti China is a professional B2B exhibition of vegetable and fruit planting technology held in Qingdao, China from September 17-19 this year. Haisheng Group shared with us their operating experience, specialized knowledge, and how they have dealt with the COVID-19 outbreak.
“We encountered a lot of challenges in keeping things on time in cultivation and marketing our products due to the COVID-19 outbreak. During the growing season, we were met with shortages in logistics and personnel to ensure timely sowing, harvesting, production, and processing, resulting in certain time windows being missed or starting time being delayed, which ultimately led to a loss of production. In addition, the sales volume of products mainly marketed offline has been affected to varying degrees."
"Of course, this is an opportunity for companies to check what’s wanting and to make up for it. We started to plan for all tasks well in advance, a lot earlier than before, put in place early warnings, and vigorously developed online sales channels. We also used promotions and other activities to recover peak sales."
Opportunities always coexist with challenges. With the COVID-19 outbreak, Haisheng observed risks and new business opportunities. "Haisheng Group is actively developing a variety of products and channels, offering both B2B and B2C products to avoid the risk of having undiversified products and channels. Recently, online fresh produce distribution is becoming increasingly popular, and the sales model of direct distribution by e-commerce or community group purchases will be a new opportunity for fresh produce."
China is a country that’s rapidly developing, especially in investments and scientific research of agricultural projects, and Haisheng is not different. "Looking to the world and seeing science and technology as a core driving force for the development of the agricultural industry has become a universal consensus here. Haisheng Group imported leading global apple seedling and planting technologies from abroad, taking the lead in making adjustments to the structure of the apple industry in China from the supply side.
"We built the China Modern Densely Planted Dwarf Apple Industry Demonstration Park in Qianyang County, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, the first of its kind in China, growing excellent imported varieties such as Gala Mitchgla and Honey Crisp to make adjustments to the varietal structure. With a yearly production of 10 million high-quality virus-free rootstocks, it has become China's largest high-quality virus-free densely grown dwarf apple seedlings supply production center."
Future
"Smart glass greenhouses are currently the focus of global agricultural technology exploration and development. It is a form of modern agriculture integrating high-tech facilities and high-caliber personnel. Haisheng Group fully understands the importance of modern agricultural technologies and actively imports advanced technologies and facilities. Working with the phenological conditions in the Shaanxi-Gansu region, we focus on the development of a high-tech agricultural industry represented by the ‘high energy consumption agriculture + Gobi agriculture’." 
"In the future, China's agriculture will gradually shift from small-scale household cultivation to intensive standardized and mechanized production, which will help reduce costs and ensure product safety, and at the same time will establish sales under a unified brand. Choosing suitable lands, import high-quality varieties to facilitate the upgrading of products, and explore the possibility of turning fruits and vegetables into snacks, providing consumers with healthier food and recommendations for a more reasonable dietary structure, is one of the roads towards commercialization that Haisheng Group is exploring and practicing." 
About Haisheng
Haisheng Group was established in 1996. In 2005, China Haisheng Juice Holdings Co., Ltd. was listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since 2012, the group has established a strategy to build a high-end produce brand in China and is committed to the development model of integrating the entire industry chain. Their business involves fruit and vegetable seedlings, modern cultivation, warehousing and logistics of fruit, marketing of produce, deep processing of diversified fruit and vegetable products, and modern agricultural tourism. The company has successfully transformed into a large-scale modern agricultural group that operates under a uniform brand.
Horti China started in 2017 to create a platform to showcase global vegetable and fruit planting technology solutions and to create a friendly atmosphere for product and technology providers to communicate with growers, traders, and investors.
Contact information of event organizer:
Heather Tao
Tel.：+86 139 1779 3503
Email： heather.tao@vnuexhibitions.com.cn