At the 2022 China Supermarket Merchandising Annual Conference, Professor Chen Liping from the Capital University of Economics and Business shared his observations and thoughts on the sustainable development model of fresh produce distribution through the new concept of "local production and marketing".

In his opinion, although "local production and marketing" is a relatively new concept to many domestic retailers, but we all encounter various local production and marketing problems in our business. "Local production and marketing" mean that locally produced agricultural products should be sold locally.

Professor Chen Liping shared that in 2017, Fresh Legend started selling suburban vegetables, not only suburban vegetables but also chicken, ducks and fish within a 100 km of the Hefei suburbs or Hefei. In his opinion, this is a Chinese local production and marketing model.

Recently, Fresh Legend held a campaign to sell high mountain vegetables from Yuexi, more than 100 km from Hefei, sourcing vegetables from one village to another and then transporting them to the shops for sale. At the same time, Fresh Legend put photos of farmers who grow vegetables in its shops, to show consumers that vegetable growers and cooperative farmers have very deep cultivation experience. Professor Chen Liping said that this promotion is called visible freshness so that consumers can not only see the freshness but also know who grew it. This is a very good example of local production and marketing.

Actually, local marketing is not a new thing, Europe and the United States have a rich history and experience of local marketing. In the United States, France, Germany and other countries, there are state-owned supermarkets specializing in locally produced vegetables and fruits. In Japan, there are also many such supermarkets, nearly 60% of agricultural and sideline products are locally produced.

At the conference, Professor Chen Liping introduced the Japanese experience of "local production and marketing". He said that in 2010, the Japanese government introduced the Six times industrialization - Local Production and Marketing Law, which contains several concepts: 1. to strengthen the connection between producers and consumers; 2. to promote the production and consumption of local agricultural and sideline products and promote regional economic development; 3. to enrich consumers' dietary life; 4. to promote food education; 5. to strengthen symbiosis and exchange between cities and surrounding rural areas, promote integrated urban-rural development; and 6. To promote low-carbon emission reduction and the development of an environment-friendly society, etc. This is why local production and marketing have become a national policy in Japan.

This has led him to think that many policies in the past have been focused on the production side without paying attention to the consumption side, which has led to a lot of products not being digested, resulting in a lot of waste. Could the experience of local production and marketing be a good link to low carbon? Wouldn't it be more profitable for the fresh produce saga if turnover baskets were combined with local production and marketing?

Talking about low-carbon circular development, Professor Chen Liping said that as long as agricultural products are involved, low-carbon cannot be the sole responsibility of supermarkets. Institutions, colleges, schools and hospitals should be encouraged to actively consume local agricultural products, as well as restaurants and tourism industries. As the saying goes, one side of the land feeds one side of the people.

Finally, Professor Chen Liping summarized the significance of local production and marketing to supermarket operations: direct real estate harvesting can ensure food safety; shorten the circulation link, which can improve the freshness of fresh produce; shorten the transportation distance, which can save transportation costs and achieve energy saving and emission reduction; visible freshness in the outlets can enhance consumers' satisfaction with supermarkets and establish a good corporate image; local product fresh food can enhance consumers' local awareness, retaining people's nostalgia; ensuring supply, promoting farmers’ income, fresh agricultural products achieves corporate social responsibility in sustainable development.

He said that enterprises should follow the concept of symbiosis with the region and that if they earn money from the local people, they need to make their contribution to the local community, agriculture and local development. The simplest is to advocate for supporting local production and marketing, to make it a corporate strategy so that all personnel can achieve consensus!

“Local production and marketing” is the future sustainable development model for regional fresh produce distribution, and will play an important role in promoting the construction of county business systems!" Professor Chen Liping said.