The inaugural Zhejiang Agriculture Commercial Livestreaming Contest concluded in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, in early November.

The three-month-long event spotlighted the province's rapidly growing number of agricultural entrepreneurs who promote their products via live broadcasts. Among them are fruit farmers, college graduates, former urban residents, and even local officials.

Wang Jianjun, a participant of the livestreaming contest, is deputy head of Xinzhai town in Wuyi county administered by Jinhua city. Xinzhai, with an average altitude of 560 meters and a forest coverage rate of 84 percent, is home to nearly two thirds of the county's mushrooms.

Mushroom farming is the largest industry in the county. However, local farmers previously relied on conventional sales channels and would simply await the arrival of a wholesaler, holding no bargaining power in terms of either purchasing quantity or sales price.

Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the first few months of this year saw the number of visits by wholesalers to Xinzhai drastically diminish, prompting locals to explore new sales channels. Wang, who is in charge of the local agriculture sector, decided to set up a personal channel on short-video platform Douyin to promote local mushroom products via livestreams.

Encouraged by Wang, a dozen local farms soon followed suit. More than 400 livestreamers are now involved in mushroom e-commerce, generating a tremendous amount of orders.

Not long ago, a dining company found out about Xinzhai-made mushrooms and signed a deal to transport 5,000 kilograms of fresh mushrooms from the town every day.