Revealing the trap of ＂Suqian fake seedlings＂： merchants created their own ＂imported flowers of four seasons＂ and turned them into ＂universal charges＂

Zhonghongwang Jiangsu April 20th　Recently, the chaos in the flower seedling market in Shuyang, Suqian, the hometown of flowers and trees, was exposed by the media: shoddy, fake, fictional goods, and wrong goods … In this regard, some netizens joked: "The earliest blind box egg on the Internet may be to buy seedlings." After the buyer is fooled, safeguarding rights is even more difficult. On April 18th, Shuyang County launched the "Spring Thunder Action" to rectify the market chaos in spring.

E-commerce platform nursery stock products Source: Taobao platform

Many netizens posted posts to expose

Online shopping "Suqian Shenmiao" is tricky

Shuyang County, Suqian City, Jiangsu Province is a well-known "hometown of flowers and trees" in China. Many local sellers of flowers and trees agricultural products open their own online stores.

According to the website of Suqian Municipal People’s Government, at present, Shuyang County has 45,000 active online merchants, 282 logistics enterprises, 19 express delivery enterprises, 290 express delivery outlets and nearly 10,000 logistics express employees. Fifteen townships in the county were awarded "Taobao Town, China" and 84 villages were awarded "Taobao Village, China".

Source: Suqian Municipal People’s Government website

According to media reports, more than 80% of the succulent products in the country are produced in Shuyang, and the direct sales of e-commerce flowers in Suqian Shuyang account for one-third of the country. Suqian Shuyang’s online sales of flowers and trees agricultural products ranked first in the country for many years, with an average of 11.5 pieces of express delivery from Shuyang to all parts of the world every second. About 40% of the sales of flower seedlings on an e-commerce platform are concentrated in Suqian Shuyang, which means that for every two or three flowers and trees purchased online from this platform, one comes from Suqian Shuyang.

However, in the circle of gardening enthusiasts, some flower seedlings sold by Suqian merchants are called "Suqian Shenmiao": they create their own "new" plant names, and the pictures are all "created" by PS software; The purchase price of Ophiopogon japonicus in 10 yuan can earn 10,000 yuan; A large number of online stores are playing "blitzkrieg". After 20 days of operation, even if the online store is blocked, it will make money. If one store is closed, it will become a problem for buyers to defend their rights.

Many netizens posted on the Internet to expose their experiences of being cheated by online shopping for seedlings: the goods are not right, fake and shoddy, and there is no door after sale … Some gardening enthusiasts even nicknamed these businesses "Suqian University", which means that gardening "Xiaobai" people are easily deceived.

Source: Sina Weibo

Merchants create their own "mosquito repellent flowers" and "peanut trees"

Stir-fried seeds before delivery.

At present, it is in the peak season of flower seedling sales. Recently, it has been exposed by the media. On the e-commerce platform, many online stores whose coordinates are Suqian Shuyang claim to have their own seedling bases with complete varieties and beautiful pictures, which can stimulate customers’ interest. However, after visiting and investigating, it is known that the sources of these online stores are actually local wholesale markets, and most of the pictures displayed are downloaded from the Internet.

Shuyang Flower Gardening Taobao City Source: Sina Weibo

A number of merchants engaged in the seedling wholesale industry revealed that only landscape seedlings such as holly and boxwood were cultivated locally in Shuyang, Suqian, and fruit seedlings, flowers and green plants were purchased from other places. After the wholesaler purchases, it will be distributed to the online shop owner through the local market.

Some merchants also said that in the process of on-site purchase, customers can compare and check the physical objects and select them, and it is difficult for physical stores to "shoddy". However, after the rise of online shopping platform, many merchants saw "business opportunities" from it, purchasing cheap ordinary seedlings from the market and packaging them into rare varieties for sale at high prices.

"Begonia can be sold as an apple tree or as a peach tree, as long as it is a fruit tree."

"Wild rose is very cheap, only a few cents per tree, but it is an artifact, which can be sold as a rose, and can also be sold as a passion fruit seedling, which is also a’ universal charge’."

According to relevant media reports, many local online shop owners love some low-priced seedlings, which are indistinguishable from many varieties of seedlings, and send them to buyers as other more expensive seedlings. Locals vividly call it "universal charge".

Seedlings in wholesale merchants’ homes Source: Sina Weibo

According to local merchants, among the routines selling fake seedlings, the fastest way to make money is the self-innovation variety. "That is to say, there is no such variety, so we create one ourselves and then make it an explosion." Self-made new varieties are easy to sell, and it is also difficult for consumers to identify them as fakes.

For example, roses in nature cannot grow blue petals. The popular "blue enchantress" in the market is actually made by dipping white roses with special dye solution, but the price and sales volume are very considerable. There are more than ten varieties of roses on the shelves of online stores, including blue roses. No matter what kind of roses are placed, buyers receive ordinary old roots of roses, which will not grow or bloom.

A "new variety" of flowers with gorgeous colors and strange shapes. Source: Taobao platform

There are also the so-called exotic and eye-catching imported flowers, mosquito repellent flowers, peanut trees and watermelon trees on Taobao … all of them are fictional plant "new varieties", and the actual delivery is replaced by other cheap varieties, which are difficult to distinguish because consumers are not familiar with flower seedlings and plants have a long growth cycle.

In order to increase sales, online shop owners are also racking their brains: prepare in advance before the peak season of flower seedlings. Re-apply for the online store, brush the bill, brush the praise, and wait until the sales season comes, then invest money to promote it on the e-commerce platform. Cut off the flower arrows of ball flowers, fry the seeds and sell them to buyers. If the plants can’t grow and bloom, buyers won’t notice that they have bought fakes.

Source: Sina Weibo

If the store is seized by complaints, it will be replaced by a standby online store that has been prepared before to "fight guerrilla warfare" and re-operate. Or move the delivery place to a distant town, or even to the surrounding counties and cities to avoid the investigation by the regulatory authorities.

Due to the low capital threshold of registered online stores and the high profit of selling fake seedlings, it is difficult for stores that sell real goods in a down-to-earth manner to compete with them, forming a situation that "bad money drives out good money".

Shuyang County launches "Spring Thunder Action"

Special rectification of chaos in flower and plant seedling market

According to the website of the Natural Resources and Planning Bureau of Shuyang County, on April 17th, Shuyang County held a special rectification deployment meeting for the flower and tree seedling market, and decided to launch the "Spring Thunder Action" for the special rectification of the flower and tree seedling market in spring, and set up a leading group for the special rectification of the flower and tree seedling market, with four law enforcement inspection teams and one publicity and reporting team. It is required to solve the problem with the case, clear the way with the case, and eliminate the law with the case, and fully crack down on the illegal activities in the flower and tree seedling market and polish the golden signboard of Shuyang flower and tree industry.

Source: Website of Shuyang County Natural Resources and Planning Bureau

On April 18th, the law enforcement inspection team of "Spring Thunder Action", a special rectification of the flower and tree seedling market of Shuyang County Natural Resources and Planning Bureau, went to various villages in xinhe town, Shuyang County to carry out law enforcement inspection.

In Zhouquan Village, xinhe town, the law enforcement inspection team seized 455 express parcels from unlicensed operators and business operators suspected of selling fake seedlings; Joint law enforcement will be carried out with the public security department for illegal acts involving a large amount, and then the case will be transferred to the public security department for legal treatment. (ZhongHongWang Jiangsu comprehensive finishing from Sina Weibo, Taobao platform, Suqian Municipal People’s government website, etc.)