By building a vibrant e-commerce ecosystem and integrating digital tools across production, sales and branding, Liancheng county in Fujian province's Longyan has transformed its traditional sweet potato industry into a modern growth engine.
With year-end consumption peaking, food producers in Liancheng are operating at full capacity. "This is our busiest sales season," said Shen Zhiwei, sales director at Fujian Jingxing Food Co Ltd. Shen said sales during the Double 11 and Double 12 shopping festivals usually hit their yearly highs and the company's products are now sold across China and exported to Vietnam, Thailand and elsewhere, with annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan ($14.2 million).
Boasting more than 300 years of history in processing dried red-fleshed sweet potatoes, Liancheng is now home to 54 sweet potato processing enterprises, including 29 above-designated-size companies.
According to county government data, its sweet potato industry's output value has reached 17.4 billion yuan, accounting for about 85 percent of the national market and earning the county the reputation that "one sweet potato enriches half a county".
E-commerce has become a crucial growth driver for local producers. "In addition to offline channels, we sell through online platforms such as Taobao and Pinduoduo, as well as emerging channels like Douyin and Kuaishou," Shen said. "Livestreaming with online influencers has been particularly effective, providing strong baseline sales for factories through multiplatform distribution."
Qian Zhenxing, head of the local Tianyuan Food Factory, echoed the view, saying his company's dried sweet potato products are mainly sold through livestreaming e-commerce, generating more than 80 million yuan in annual sales.
"Thanks to the strong push from e-commerce, our business has continued to thrive," Qian said.
In helping local produce reach a much broader consumer base, livestreamers have played a key role. Xiao Wu from Hainan province, who married a Liancheng native, began sharing her daily life on social media and later promoted local agricultural products through livestreaming.
Now with more than 4 million followers on Douyin, her record for a single livestreaming session once reached 36 million yuan in sales, with peak viewership hitting 40,000 simultaneously. Dried sweet potatoes from Longyan are among her best-selling items, with more than 10,000 orders completed so far on the platform.
"Riding the momentum of the digital economy, Liancheng has brought together more than 100 agricultural cooperatives and leading agribusinesses along the sweet potato industry chain to integrate e-commerce sales, smooth distribution channels and enhance value creation," said Zhang Yuanshan, an official with the county's e-commerce office, adding that products are now sold online to more than 600 cities nationwide.
At present, Liancheng is home to more than 3,000 e-commerce companies, about 13,000 online stores and 25,000 industry practitioners, with one in every 10 permanent residents engaged in e-commerce-related work, the e-commerce office data showed.
"The county's internet transaction volume is expected to exceed 40 billion yuan in 2025, with a target of more than 80 billion yuan by 2030," Zhang said.
The county is also accelerating cross-border e-commerce, with online sales accounting for more than 40 percent of its total overseas volume. By cooperating with overseas platforms and establishing overseas warehouses, Liancheng has expanded international sales channels, with products exported to markets such as Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States.
