Beekeeping becomes a new trend overseas. Henan factories seize overseas opportunities on Alibaba International Station

Ordinary middle-class people in developed countries have quietly taken up beekeeping as a new hobby in addition to leisure activities such as Frisbee and land surfing .

(Photo: Xiaoqian’s mother-in-law keeps bees at home. Leisure beekeeping is gradually becoming a trend in Europe)

Xiao Qian , who married and moved to Switzerland , is keen on sharing her exotic life on social media. Recently, she discovered a new hobby - leisure beekeeping.

After her Swiss mother-in-law retired last year , she decided to keep bees as a hobby. She learned that overseas, leisure beekeeping has become a specialized industry. Her mother-in-law attended training courses, bought relevant books, and applied for a license before setting up beehives in her garden . Recently, she has made some achievements, with one bee colony producing 15 kilograms of honey at a time.

Xiao Qian said that every time she took the kids to her parents-in-law's house, her mother-in-law would talk endlessly about beekeeping, as if she wanted to pass on all the skills of beekeeping to the kids. However, she discovered through observation that beekeeping actually has so many benefits.

Beekeeping can not only produce honey, which can be used to make honey desserts and honey cakes, but also produce beeswax , which can be made into pure natural candles . In addition, Swiss people like to receive handmade gifts, so giving homemade honey to friends is also very decent.

In April this year , Beckham updated a photo on social media, showing him taking care of his bees, with several beehives neatly placed in the yard. Fans said that beekeeping will become a new fashion trend. Then, Beckham's wife Victoria posted a video on social media, showing Beckham immersed in his own beehives.

(Photo: Beckham is obsessed with beekeeping and keeps bees as pets)

Abel and other scholars from Curtin University in Australia also conducted a special study on recreational beekeeping in 2020 , which was published in the journal Leisure Studies. They surveyed 800 recreational beekeepers from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Their biggest motivation for beekeeping was "as a hobby" ( accounting for 63.2%) . In addition, pollination, supporting the food chain, and protecting nature are also the benefits of beekeeping.

Domestic beekeeping for a living   Beekeeping as a leisure activity abroad

" At present, beekeeping in China is just a means of making a living. But overseas, we see that more and more people are engaging in leisure beekeeping. Just like fishing, it has become a leisure activity for experiencing happiness. " said Meng Shaowei, founder of Henan Duotianmi Beekeeping Technology .

Previously, Duotianmi's main overseas customers were basically dealers and large bee farms. However, since 2020 , Meng Shaowei has found that more and more e-commerce sellers targeting end consumers have come to purchase beekeeping equipment on his store on Alibaba International Station. These overseas customers are mainly from Europe, the United States, Australia and other countries and regions . Especially in the first half of this year, the export volume contributed by such e-commerce sellers has accounted for 40% of Duotianmi 's overall export volume, which has doubled compared to 2021. The global "leisure beekeeping" group is expanding .

Moreover, people who engage in leisure beekeeping overseas not only purchase beekeeping equipment, but also want to maximize the sense of ritual of beekeeping, so they must buy a whole set of products. As a result, the demand for beekeeping clothes, small honey extractors and personalized beekeeping tool sets has increased significantly. Therefore, Duotianmi has made adjustments in product research and development based on the original equipment for these new beekeepers, such as small honey canning equipment and bee mite control tools.

If you want to do your job well , you must first sharpen your tools. The increasingly popular beekeeping trend overseas is driven by the rise of Chinese manufacturing and technology.

Chinese manufacturing behind the beekeeping boom in Europe and America

The top sellers of beekeeping equipment on Amazon all manufacture and supply products from Duotianmi Company in Changge City, Xuchang, Henan Province, China. Changge City, Henan Province , where the Duotianmi factory is located , has a nearly 400-year history of beekeeping development and has become the country's largest bee product distribution center and processing base.

In 2009, Duotianmi discovered the export opportunity of beekeeping equipment and expanded its products to the beekeeping service market and entered Alibaba International Station . In 2021, Duotianmi 's foreign trade exports reached 60 million, of which Alibaba International Station accounted for 70%, and its products were sold in more than 150 countries and regions around the world. It is worth mentioning that Duotianmi's annual export volume has maintained a year -on-year growth of more than 30% for four consecutive years .

Meng Shaowei and his two other partners started their business by selling bee products . In 2003, they started a small retail store selling bee products and began to be associated with the beekeeping industry. In the following years, they started chain stores, wholesale stores, and built factories for their own production , and their business was going smoothly .

Accidents always happen suddenly. In 2014, a sudden fire burned down the sweet propolis factory, and burned more than 10 million worth of goods. Meng Shaowei and his two friends were confused for a while, whether to give up or start over. But as the saying goes, there is no construction without destruction, and it was also this fire that allowed them to re- examine the company's development direction. Then they came up with a bold idea and decided to shut down the honey business and fully switch the business to the export of bee machinery.

By studying the overseas purchasing demand data on Alibaba International Station, Meng Shaowei found that there is no shortage of high-quality honey products in the global market, but the market for cost-effective beekeeping machinery is a blue ocean.

Compared with the "involution" of the honey market , Chinese manufacturers have more advantages in the global market as food machinery exporters. Duotianmei's beekeeping machine product performance has become a leader in the Chinese market. The high-quality and low-priced Chinese beekeeping machines meet the needs of high-quality industrialized honey production and sales in developed countries in Europe and the United States.

To avoid risks and seize business opportunities, we need to understand changes in customer needs and make effective market forecasts. This requires a more holistic view and making predictions in advance based on customer data. Meng Shaowei is good at finding data analysis helpers from Alibaba International Station. "The account manager will review product trends with us , do data diagnosis and data analysis every month, and let us seize the opportunity. "

Meng Shaowei, the founder of Duotianmi, said that being able to accurately identify market opportunities is already half the battle won.

From reaching customers to opening up markets: How to be sustainable?

The other half of success comes from sustainable growth.

Finding customers, establishing connections, and continuing transactions are the basic skills for business expansion overseas and the key to growth. But even in the face of the epidemic and policy instability, Meng Shaowei has become less and less worried, because he has always believed in leaving professional matters to professionals.

The conventional path to finding customers is not complicated. You can reach potential customers online through cross-border e-commerce platforms, and you can also live broadcast factory visits to customers in international stores; you can also participate in various international exhibitions offline to expand your contact with industry exchanges. When Duotianmi first wanted to open up the European and American markets, it participated in many large exhibitions in Europe and the United States, and was also good at using social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. With the cost-effectiveness of Made in China, it became one of the first manufacturers in China's beekeeping industry to win high-end users.

Obtaining sustainable transactions and winning the trust of customers with diverse cultural backgrounds is a key step, but also a difficult point.

Building up the strength of its own products and being good at using platforms like Alibaba International Station to endorse them are the keys to Duotianmi's winning trust. On the one hand, the iron must be hard to forge, Duotianmi's beekeeping equipment has excellent quality and has already obtained international standards such as SGS, CE, and ISO certification. On the other hand, platforms like Alibaba International Station transparently display various information of merchants, which is a guarantee for overseas customers . Upgrading the accumulated word-of-mouth to the reputation of the brand, customers' trust is therefore deeper.

After achieving success in the European and American markets, Duotianmi has begun to expand into more markets, and customers in Asia, Africa and Latin America are growing significantly. Meng Shaowei believes that " this upward trend can effectively resist the market risks brought about by the foreign trade policies of European and American countries. In addition to providing professional store operation experience and perspectives, Alibaba International Station not only has a large number of inquiries , but also can more comprehensively cover customers in underdeveloped areas. "

Having withstood the test of demanding developed markets, Duotianmi's beekeeping products do not have to worry too much about product competitiveness in the Asian, African and Latin American markets. They just need to make targeted product combinations based on the characteristics of the local markets. In 2019 , the Ministry of Agriculture of Bangladesh found Duotianmi through the international website and sent four people to have in-depth exchanges , and directly signed an order of 260,000 US dollars.

(Photo: Duotianmi’s store on Alibaba International Station)

Recently, Duotianmi is preparing for the September Procurement Festival of Alibaba International Station. Zhao Zhongyang, director of Duotianmi's cross-border e-commerce business department, said, "This year is our fifth year to participate in the September Procurement Festival. We hope that through this procurement festival, we can complete our annual export target ahead of schedule and achieve new breakthroughs." In fact, Duotianmi has started preparing to participate in the September Procurement Festival since June . In order to adapt to the rules of the procurement festival, they have also specially added mechanical equipment such as honey processing production lines, looking forward to getting more orders in the machinery industry exhibition hall.

In the second half of the year, there are many key promotional nodes in the overseas market, such as Black Friday and Christmas season . Many overseas buyers will prepare goods in advance during the September Purchasing Festival. Meng Shaowei hopes that Duotianmi can have more outstanding performances this time, giving himself and his partners more confidence.

When talking about how merchants can stand out in the September Procurement Festival, Zhao Zhongyang suggested that the most important thing is to ensure the star rating of the platform. This rating reflects the comprehensive strength of the merchant. Star-rated merchants are eligible to sign up for the online industry pavilion of the Procurement Festival.

In addition to product selection, the logistics timeliness guarantee for overseas buyers is an area where the platform's capabilities can be particularly leveraged to attract buyers.

Different venues have different crowds, so you need to be clear about which industry pavilion you belong to. Try to qualify for the secondary subdivided industry pavilion so that the customers are more accurate. At the same time, you must choose the main product and register different products in different venues. If there is anything you don’t understand, ask the industry staff of the international station.

Meng Shaowei also has a wish that after the overseas warehouses of Alibaba International Station are built in the future , it will be able to provide Chinese companies with a barrier to resist risks, so that the supply chain in the European and American markets will not be damaged due to customs policies, and companies will have more opportunities and confidence to go global .

t oB + toC, becoming a beekeeping solution provider

It was during the period of rapid growth in beekeeping machine export business that Duotianmi came into contact with the trend of leisure beekeeping through B- end customers , and also became clearer about the company's next step. Meng Shaowei noticed that in recent years, overseas C-end users have continued to grow, especially in Europe, the United States, Australia and other countries and regions.

In fact, looking back, every step counts. Because Meng Shaowei has his own bee farm , he has a deep understanding of the pain points in the beekeeping process . At present, other companies in the industry are more likely to make single products, while Duotianmi can provide customers with a complete set of solutions to guide customers in beekeeping. For example, in addition to teaching beekeeping, it also includes the canning, purification, and bottling of honey.

Whether overseas or domestically, from personal leisure beekeeping to industrial production, the number of practitioners of all kinds is quietly growing. What they need more is a complete set of technical guidance, from beekeeping and honey production to product packaging and sales. Duotianmi believes in the truth that "it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish."

The development path of Duotianmi's "toB+toC" is also clearer. They hope to become a "beekeeping solution provider." Meng Shaowei believes that to become a beekeeping solution provider, it is necessary to build an industrial ecosystem from the purchase of bee machines , bee breeding , to the processing and sale of bee products.

The prospect of industrial upgrading is attractive, but will it be a loss if the company spreads its business too wide? Meng Shaowei said that this puts higher demands on the company's talent training and business capabilities, and the company must take steady steps. He requires that each industrial module must be profitable, rather than blindly rushing into business.

At the same time, Duotianmi's upgrade path will first explore the most familiar Chinese market, and then gradually expand overseas on the basis of minimizing risks. From Made in China to Created in China, in the field of beekeeping that is not well known to the public, from exporting products to providing overall solutions . The whole process, as Meng Shaowei said, is like the value of leisure beekeeping to modern people, which is to gain fun in challenges, accumulate experience, get feedback, and then successfully upgrade.

Meng Shaowei mentioned that he hopes that Alibaba International Station ’s future policies will take better care of small and medium-sized enterprises. This is also what Alibaba International Station is currently doing. Helping small and medium-sized enterprises to go overseas through cross-border e-commerce may be cultivating small giants in future market segments .

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