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Jack Ma to help eliminate poverty in China, increase per mu yield to $1000 for farmers

chinagate.cn by Ai Yang, February 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Alibaba announced that the first Alibaba Spring Festival Goods Shopping Gala will take place in Yan’an, the birth place of the Chinese revolution. The event is expected to start on January 14, 2016, with official sales starting on January 17, which is the Laba Festival. The event will conclude on January 21. The first shopping event aims to bring overseas goods to rural areas, and agricultural goods to urban areas.

Chinese have a long tradition of exchanging gifts. The thoughtfulness behind a gift is more profound than its worth, and it’s most necessary to do this during the Spring Festival, said the founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, in a speech. He hopes the new shopping festival will let urban consumers know there are great commercial goods emerging from China’s rural areas.

Ma believes China will be able to embrace even more opportunities once its 800 million farmers become well off, and he hopes the internet will help them increase their annual per mu (1/15th of a hectare) yield to $1,000.

He said the inspiration for the new shopping gala came from apples and dates from Yan’an, which are excellent products to exchange as Spring Festival goods. The shopping gala will be Alibaba’s third annual shopping event after 11.11 and 12.12. It will be a festival for China’s farmers, said Ma.

The Spring Festival Goods Shopping Gala aims to help farmers have a good harvest at the end of the year. Urban consumers can purchase rural specialties, delivery workers can make a profit before going home for Chinese New Year, while the internet can help bring rural goods from all places across the country. Ma believes these rural goods will also make Chinese New Year more festive.　　

Now, with the help of the Internet, local produce can reach customers much further away, and farmers worry much less about not being able to sell their harvest. China has proposed to eliminate poverty by 2020, and Alibaba, as a leading Internet company, is honored to take part in this campaign, said Ma.　

As more than 80 percent of farmers have started using mobiles, the target has become more achievable. In the past, there’s a saying in China, to become rich, one has to first build roads. Ma said now mobiles have connected people with the world, and e-commerce has become another channel for people to become rich.

Ma believes agricultural modernization will provide the next boost for China’s economic development. He expects one million migrant workers will return home to start their own business in the year after the Spring Festival Goods Shopping Gala. “In fact, many farmers have already returned to their villages and begun selling all kinds of agricultural products on the Internet,” he added.