Fifty-eight-year-old Longhuai Village, Yongxing Town, Lixian County, native Zhang Jiacheng – known as "Uncle Zhang" to the people in his area – has gained some fame as a result of the e-commerce live-streaming that he engages in in Lixian. He mostly worked in other areas in order to support his family in the past until he returned to his village in 2004 with the intention of starting his own apple business in order to increase his level of prosperity. Uncle Zhang studied hard and learned to cultivate apples at this time. He also participated in e-commerce trainings organized by the government and established his own Taobao store in 2014 in response to the government's call to vigorously develop e-commerce, thereby taking part in a new wave of e-commerce entrepreneurship.

Uncle Zhang's e-commerce journey was quite difficult at first due to his old age and lack of education. In June 2019, Alibaba poverty alleviation technical task force member Yin Yipan traveled to Lixian in order to conduct e-commerce live-streaming training and encouraged him to participate. The budding businessman agreed and soon mastered various live-streaming skills. He created necessary accounts, began live-streaming for more than 10 hours a day, and received up to 14,000 views at a time. On November 10, 2019, Uncle Zhang – an original recommender of the Lixian apple – participated in a special poverty alleviation-oriented public welfare program connected with Tmall's Double 11 (November 11 shopping holiday) Party in order to promote Lixian apples to netizens across China and help them get distributed beyond his local area. In 2020, he was able to sell all 25,000 kg of the apples that he grew for good prices online using live-streaming technology. He also helped other Longhuai residents sell 15,000 kg of apples for a total of more than RMB300,000 (US$46,875). Uncle Zhang's entrepreneurial journey serves as an example for other farmers who want to participate in e-commerce, which promotes e-commerce empowerment and has played an important role in Lixian's publicity.

For more information, please contact WFP China COE (wfpcn.coe@wfp.org)