BOC helps Jingning's apple farmers

One of China’s four largest banks, the Bank of China (BOC), has been utilizing the Internet Plus strategy to support Gansu province’s targeted poverty relief campaign and helped improve conditions in Jingning county, one of the province’s poorest areas.

As an important state-owned financial institution, BOC took it as its critical mission to boost local economies and lift them out of poverty.

After learning about problems with Jingning county’s apple industry, the bank made full use of an e-commerce platform to facilitate the marketing and sale of regional apples.

The bank’s customer service department got into contact with orchard owners and worked out realistic solutions to the problems the industry was facing. They promoted apples through the bank’s public WeChat account and developed more channels to sell the fruit.

The BOC also built a long-term partnership with an e-commerce agency and sponsored an initiative for farmers as part of the targeted poverty reduction strategy. The online platform enables consumers around the country to gain a better knowledge of the variety of apples planted in Jingning county, place orders and complete payment. Through this method the apples can be sold directly and the farmers will not be at the mercy of intermediaries’ price fluctuations and deferred buying.

Apple-planting is the driving force behind Jingning county’s economic growth. At present, there are nearly 150,000 people involved in growing apples, but who remain poor due to limited channels for selling and the practices of the agents who buy the fruit. The BOC has proven its determination to serve the under-developed region, helping boost the local economy.

Edited by James Skinner