Online sales

Both the Xinxian and Yuexi governments have turned to the internet to expand the market for their agricultural products.

In 2017, the Xinxian government established an e-commerce service center to facilitate online sales for local agribusinesses.

"Our center is making efforts to turn Xinxian's environmental advantages into economic benefits for the county," said Chen Weiwei, the center's director.

She added that the center offers services to standardize agricultural produce, upgrade product quality, design packaging and organize publicity both on and offline. It also helps companies to comply with business procedures implemented by more than 10 government bodies.

The center has signed cooperation agreements with more than 50 local agricultural cooperatives and companies, and facilitated the development of more than 20 types of product. To date, it has helped to sell products worth 179 million yuan, and regularly conducts surveys in rural areas to identify goods that have the potential to gain popularity online, she said.

You Haiyang, who oversees the e-commerce business of Xinxian Antai Food Ltd, said his company began cooperating with Chen's center in 2017, which has helped to greatly raise sales.

He said the company mainly sells preserved potherbs and camellia oil to tourists, but before it began cooperating with the center, it could only make about 500,000 yuan from the potherbs annually. With the center's help, the company has upgraded the product's packaging and now offers gift sets and ready-to-eat packages. Last year, revenue from preserved potherbs reached more than 2 million yuan.

In addition to establishing the center, Xinxian has introduced a guideline to help promote the development of agriculture with local characteristics, according to Xia Mingfu, head of the county government.

He said the government offers a range of support, including loan guarantees for farmers and subsidized loans, to facilitate the development of local produce - such as camellia oil, tea and herbs - and agritourism.

"Xinxian's green resources are gifts from nature. We have a responsibility to protect them as we use them. We may fail to bring in some industrial projects because of concerns about environmental protection, but I believe we will ultimately benefit from this green development path," he said.