GI branding boosts produce sales, raises living standards

Promotion and protection

To boost sales of Junshan's GI agricultural products, the local market regulation administration cooperated with tourism agencies and encouraged outsiders to visit the district and purchase goods, according to Zhou, the administration's director.

On average, 350 visitors have purchased products every day since July, with each spending about 300 yuan, sending daily revenue to 105,000 yuan, he said, noting that the sales are expected to bring the district annual revenue of 30 million to 50 million yuan.

Junshan now has four GI-labeled products and moves are underway to extend the status to goods such as grapefruits, oranges, lotus roots, lotus seeds, rice and chiles.

"We hope to have another five to 10 GIs within five years. On that basis, we want to build one or two leading brands into enterprises worth more than 5 billion yuan. We believe these steps will accelerate the development of agriculture and the district's agricultural produce processing industry," Zhou said.

Tan, from Yanling's yellow peach association, said while many fruits in Hunan and other provinces have sold poorly, sales of Yanling yellow peaches have risen, thanks partly to protection of the fruit's intellectual property rights.

"Customers believe in the quality of well-known brands. They love Yanling yellow peaches," he said, adding that the sales rise reaffirmed the power of branding to the growers and industry insiders.

To ensure long-term development, Tan said the association is paying greater attention to IPR protection and has obtained funding of 200,000 yuan from the Hunan Intellectual Property Administration for that purpose.

It has also cooperated with e-commerce associations and industry and commerce departments in Yanling and Zhuzhou to crack down on infringements of the Yanling yellow peach name.

In 2018 alone, the name was infringed more than 550 times and 375 types of counterfeit packages were detected.

Last year, the association began issuing licenses to business owners who sell the peaches online or offline. Only those who have obtained the association's license are allowed to sell the product, and violators face IPR infringement charges and being punished by the courts if found guilty.

Last year, 3,704 online or offline stores obtained licenses from the association, and at least 4,300 licenses have been issued so far this year, Tan said.

"These moves have helped protect the image of Yanling yellow peaches and boosted sales," he said.