Yichang firm becomes Alibaba’s main egg supplier
2023-07-30 18:07:03
By Tan Maolin, Yichang International Communication Studio
This week, more than 90,000 eggs valued at HK$70,000 (US$8,979) were dispatched from Yichang Comprehensive Protection Zone for cold chain delivery to Macau. The Yichang “egg” company has become the largest egg supplier on Alibaba's platforms – Taobao, Tmall and Hema Fresh, Alibaba’s new online-to-offline retail chain supermarket - which chalked up output of 300 million yuan (US$42 million) in 2022.
The egg shipment to Macau marks the opening of the company's trade routes to Hong Kong and Macao, a key step towards entering the ASEAN market.
Company chairman Zhang Shengjin studied breeding at technical college. After working for a period for a large domestic agribusiness, he resigned to found Yichang Zhongda Breeding Technology. In the five-year period 2018-2022, the company's turnover jumped from less than 10 million yuan in 2018 to 300 million yuan.
Skills and opportunities facilitated this rapid growth. The farming skills Zhang had honed in the previous company allowed him to boost the number of hens raised per henhouse. The support services his company provided to farmers helped them boost capacity. In the meantime, the outbreak of African swine fever in China led to a surge in demand for broilers and eggs. Volume soared, and so did prices and eventually corporate earnings. By opening online and offline sales channels, Zhang quickly expanded his company’s sales network.
Today, the company has seven breeding bases in Hubei, Henan, Hebei and Shandong provinces, including three in Yichang. In 2022, the company raised 3 million chicks and 1.2 million laying hens, with sales of more than 300 million eggs.
"I am not worried about sales or prices. We expect to notch up 800 million yuan in sales this year, nearly three times the 2022 total," Zhang said.
Alibaba’s platforms have opened a dedicated commercial channel for Yichang Zhongda to sell hundreds of types of agricultural products. The channel is not limited just to Yichang Zhongda products – any qualified agricultural products from Yichang City can be listed on Alibaba’s retail platforms. In addition to Alibaba, Yichang Zhongda is also working with JD Worldwide – the cross-border e-commerce extension of the JD.com Chinese marketplace, and Pinduoduo – one of the largest e-commerce companies in China.
Yichang Zhongda's strong sales volume has created opportunities for other Yichang companies, driving the development of local upstream and downstream industries.
For example, eggs require egg trays. Yichang Zhongda is working with Yichang companies Xingfa and Yihua to explore new materials for egg trays. The goal is to replace trays made of paper and plastic with fully degradable trays that cost less and are more environmentally friendly. Zhang said that the market for the new material egg tray in China is estimated to be around 8 billion yuan, creating a welter of new opportunities.
Yichang Zhongda’s arrival in the Comprehensive Protection Zone on June 1 saw the volume of express deliveries in the zone leap by nearly 90 percent, with an average of 20,000 orders per day. The company’s high business volume has cut logistics costs in the zone by 40 percent, benefiting other clients such as C6 Cross-Border Shop and cross-border e-commerce retailers.
The next step for Zhang is to make Hong Kong and Macao a pivot point to enter the ASEAN, Japanese and South Korean markets.
Three Gorges Daily's Gao Wei and Deng Yuqin contributed the original Chinese story for this report.
This week, more than 90,000 eggs valued at HK$70,000 (US$8,979) were dispatched from Yichang Comprehensive Protection Zone for cold chain delivery to Macau. The Yichang “egg” company has become the largest egg supplier on Alibaba's platforms – Taobao, Tmall and Hema Fresh, Alibaba’s new online-to-offline retail chain supermarket - which chalked up output of 300 million yuan (US$42 million) in 2022.
The egg shipment to Macau marks the opening of the company's trade routes to Hong Kong and Macao, a key step towards entering the ASEAN market.
Company chairman Zhang Shengjin studied breeding at technical college. After working for a period for a large domestic agribusiness, he resigned to found Yichang Zhongda Breeding Technology. In the five-year period 2018-2022, the company's turnover jumped from less than 10 million yuan in 2018 to 300 million yuan.
Skills and opportunities facilitated this rapid growth. The farming skills Zhang had honed in the previous company allowed him to boost the number of hens raised per henhouse. The support services his company provided to farmers helped them boost capacity. In the meantime, the outbreak of African swine fever in China led to a surge in demand for broilers and eggs. Volume soared, and so did prices and eventually corporate earnings. By opening online and offline sales channels, Zhang quickly expanded his company’s sales network.
Today, the company has seven breeding bases in Hubei, Henan, Hebei and Shandong provinces, including three in Yichang. In 2022, the company raised 3 million chicks and 1.2 million laying hens, with sales of more than 300 million eggs.
"I am not worried about sales or prices. We expect to notch up 800 million yuan in sales this year, nearly three times the 2022 total," Zhang said.
Alibaba’s platforms have opened a dedicated commercial channel for Yichang Zhongda to sell hundreds of types of agricultural products. The channel is not limited just to Yichang Zhongda products – any qualified agricultural products from Yichang City can be listed on Alibaba’s retail platforms. In addition to Alibaba, Yichang Zhongda is also working with JD Worldwide – the cross-border e-commerce extension of the JD.com Chinese marketplace, and Pinduoduo – one of the largest e-commerce companies in China.
Yichang Zhongda's strong sales volume has created opportunities for other Yichang companies, driving the development of local upstream and downstream industries.
For example, eggs require egg trays. Yichang Zhongda is working with Yichang companies Xingfa and Yihua to explore new materials for egg trays. The goal is to replace trays made of paper and plastic with fully degradable trays that cost less and are more environmentally friendly. Zhang said that the market for the new material egg tray in China is estimated to be around 8 billion yuan, creating a welter of new opportunities.
Yichang Zhongda’s arrival in the Comprehensive Protection Zone on June 1 saw the volume of express deliveries in the zone leap by nearly 90 percent, with an average of 20,000 orders per day. The company’s high business volume has cut logistics costs in the zone by 40 percent, benefiting other clients such as C6 Cross-Border Shop and cross-border e-commerce retailers.
The next step for Zhang is to make Hong Kong and Macao a pivot point to enter the ASEAN, Japanese and South Korean markets.
Three Gorges Daily's Gao Wei and Deng Yuqin contributed the original Chinese story for this report.
