The fresh cold chain is the focus of various logistics companies, but it also tests the strength of the upstream and downstream masters.
Now this track has another heavyweight. Recently, Cainiao Express has launched the "Fresh Affordable Delivery" service. At present, Cainiao Express's "Fresh Affordable Delivery" service has been opened for Luoyang cherry production area, Guangzhou lychee production area, Shenzhen lychee production area, Zhanjiang/Maoming lychee production area, and Dongguan lychee production area, which not only supports merchant orders, but also supports individual customer orders including tourists. It is reported that the follow-up service will also cover many other major fruit producing areas in the country.
Compared with the fresh delivery of other express delivery companies, the fresh express delivery cost of Cainiao Express has dropped significantly, and the price of some lines is only half of the mainstream service; There is a slight delay in terms of timeliness, but delivery is guaranteed within 48 hours.
Fresh cold chain delivery has always been labeled as "high-end" in the industry, and what kind of waves will the "stone" of the parity invested by the rookie in the fresh delivery market?
(The picture comes from the Internet)
The demand for fresh cold chain has further expanded
Behind the fierce competition between express companies in rural fresh logistics in terms of price and service is the temptation of huge market demand.
On June 25, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing announced the cold chain logistics operation data in January ~ May this year. The data shows that under the market demand and policy support, the cold chain logistics in the mainland has maintained a steady development trend, which strongly supports the improvement of consumer quality. In January ~ May this year, the total amount of cold chain logistics in mainland China was 2.76 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.0%; The total demand for cold chain logistics was 191 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%. The "2024 China Fresh Industry Market Analysis Report" predicts that the market size of China's fresh industry is expected to reach 1.2 trillion yuan in 2024.
This year's No. 1 central document also mentions that the high-quality development of rural circulation will be promoted. Optimize the construction of the cold chain logistics system for agricultural products, accelerate the construction of backbone cold chain logistics bases, and lay out the construction of public cold chain logistics facilities in county-level production areas. The "Three-Year Action Plan for County Commerce (2023-2025)" proposes to continue to promote the supply chain, logistics and distribution, the sinking of goods and services, and the "upward movement" of agricultural products.
"Cold chain logistics plays a significant role in reducing the circulation loss of agricultural products, improving the added value of agricultural products, realizing the staggered peak and seasonal sales of agricultural products, and extending the circulation radius of agricultural products, which can effectively help farmers increase income and agricultural efficiency." On June 24, Zhao Guojun, director of the Postal Development Research Center of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said that express delivery companies have made layouts in agricultural product production areas and further reduced express freight rates, which will help agricultural products go up and help the development of the mainland's economy.
Recently, the Jiayuguan Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government of Gansu Province issued the "Implementation Opinions on Strengthening the Policy of Replacing Agricultural Subsidies with Awards to Accelerate the Development of Agricultural Industrialization", which clearly supports the sales of special agricultural products in the production area, and outgoes local agricultural products according to the amount of subsidy of 5 yuan per piece (including 3 yuan for mailing and 2 yuan for packaging).
In fact, from the Harbin red sausage that was on fire last year to the Tianshui Malatang in the first half of this year, the popularity of tourist destinations has driven the development of the local agricultural products delivery market, and also stimulated the development of the local economy, but for fresh products that are easily consumed, such as Cixi bayberry, Yangshan peach, Dongtai watermelon, etc., are recognized in the industry as extremely incapable of transporting fruit categories, and have extremely high requirements for express delivery timeliness and terminal distribution. "It is required that the timeliness is stable, and at the same time, it cannot be violently sorted or thrown at will to ensure door-to-door delivery. Therefore, the express delivery players in the market are mostly self-operated express companies, with higher prices and fewer choices. On June 22, Zhao Xiaomin, an express delivery expert, said in an interview with a reporter from China Logistics and Procurement magazine that the emergence of rookie "fresh food parity mail" at this time can be one more option for the upward road of agricultural products.
The late-flying "rookie" takes the low-price route
Last year, rookie express officially entered the express circle, compared with SF Express, Jingdong logistics, three links and one reach and other old express delivery companies that have been developed for decades, it is indeed a late "bird", but obviously rookie express does not want to be a real "rookie".
This year is the first year for Cainiao Express to do a characteristic economy, and it officially entered the fresh market in March, and will fully enter the fresh production area this year. Since Cainiao Express began to lay out fresh delivery, its figure has appeared in major fruit producing areas.
This year, Tangqi loquat ushered in a bumper harvest, and it has been on the market since mid-May. In the 26th Tangqi Loquat Festival loquat sales area in Hangzhou, China, as well as other sales points in Tangqi Town, Cainiao Express has set up a number of service points to provide fresh food and affordable delivery services, a box of 5 kg of loquat sent to Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and Anhui is only 11.5 yuan, and the price of other similar express services is about 18~20 yuan. Similarly, in the Luoyang cherry production area, 5 catties of cherries use air express, the express fee is about 50 yuan, the next day can be delivered to Hangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu and other places, rookie express delivery time is about 48 hours, the speed will be slightly slower, but it can also ensure that the fruit is fresh, the express fee is 5% off, 24 yuan.
Li Bo, the person in charge of the fresh food project of Cainiao Express, previously said that Cainiao Express's "fresh parity delivery" is aimed at the area that can be reached within 48 hours, and the cost is low, and the technology of refrigerant transportation is added to land transportation, which can achieve similar effects as air transportation, "It may be slightly slower in timeliness, but the freshness of the whole product is similar to that of aviation." Li Bo revealed that in the second half of the year, the pace and scale of market investment will be more improved, and air transportation resources will also be invested in the future. Li Bo also said that fresh transportation pays attention to preservation and timeliness, and the input cost of the industry is generally high. However, Cainiao Express's current fresh business can break even, and the profits will be better after the scale is increased in the later stage.
It is worth mentioning that recently, Cainiao Express also proposed to waive the freshness fee. It is reported that the express preservation service is not an ice pack refrigerant packaging service, but refers to exclusive identification, priority transfer, priority delivery and after-sales, etc., and some companies charge value-added service fees ranging from 3~5 yuan according to the delivery distance. The relevant person in charge of Cainiao Express responded, "The preservation service is to ensure that the goods are delivered safely within the promised time limit, in our opinion, this is a basic service, and it is not a value-added service, and there should be no additional charges."
The "rookie" of Attack still needs time to be certified
It is not easy to stand out in the market competition that other express companies have been deeply engaged in for many years, and even to pry the pattern.
According to SF's 2023 annual report, SF's service network for the production and marketing of agricultural products covers more than 2,700 county-level cities across the country, including more than 6,000 kinds of special agricultural products in 226 categories across the country. According to the financial report, in 2023, SF's cold transportation and pharmaceutical business will achieve an operating income of 10.31 billion yuan excluding tax, a year-on-year increase of 19.7%.
As of September 30, 2023, JD Logistics has more than 100 fresh cold chain warehouses with an operating area of more than 500,000 square meters, covering more than 330 cities across the country.
At present, Zhongtong has 200 cold chain vehicles for trunk transportation, 40 cold chain transfer centers and 1,200 outlets, which can cover 28 provinces and regions and nearly 70% of the districts and counties.
As a latecomer, the rookie chooses a low-cost path that is different from SF Express and JD Logistics. Zhao Xiaomin believes that the pricing at the beginning actually represents the product positioning, based on the first cause effect, once the price is formed in the hearts of consumers and merchants, it is difficult to raise the price in the later stage, so the rookie fresh price is oriented to the user group that is sensitive to price and has a large volume.
The person in charge of the rookie express fresh food project told reporters that the confidence of the rookie to make affordable fresh food mainly comes from three points. The first is to rely on the self-operated system to achieve stable full-link sorting, and at the same time, rookies have invested in the terminal post station for many years, so that fresh food delivery is no longer a difficulty. The second is to establish a more cost-effective packaging and temperature control solution, reduce the number of transfers in the trunk line, and achieve the promise of delivery within 48 hours in the core area. Third, Cainiao is already using AI technology to develop customer guarantee mechanisms such as capacity forecasting and service early warning, so as to improve logistics accuracy, make the network more resilient, and achieve product stratification.
"Cainiao Express is a latecomer, and it remains to be seen whether it can have long-term operational capabilities." Zhao Xiaomin believes that at present, rookie express is still tentatively developing, "the development of this sector needs long-term cultivation, and it takes at least five or even ten years of development to test the operation ability, trunk line planning ability, as well as routing ability, solution ability, etc., which is a systematic long-term development." Zhao Xiaomin pointed out that the core of competition in the fresh food business is timeliness, intact delivery ability, brand premium ability and service radius, etc., which require long-term and continuous investment. (This article was published in the 13th issue of China Logistics & Purchasing magazine in 2024)