Grain enterprises in Shanxi team up with e-commerce giants to promote millet products from the province. [Photo/IC]

Some of the leading grain enterprises in Shanxi have teamed up with e-commerce giants to promote millet products from the province, as an effort to make agricultural products, in addition to the robust coal output, another economic pillar for the area.

Supported by the regulators of Shanxi province, which is known as the best place for planting millet in China, a brand promotion association, formed by officials at the Shanxi provincial bureau of grain and 12 top grain enterprises in the province, has reached agreements on Tuesday with JD and Baidu in Beijing, to integrate internet technologies, such as e-commerce platforms and big data, with millet sales.

According to the agreements, both internet giants have vowed to join hands with the association to further promote Shanxi millet products and ramp up efforts to diversify selling methods for the enterprises.

So far, flagship stores have been established for the association selling millet products from member firms on JD online stores, marking the first stage of the promotion plan.

"The internet is providing more opportunities for enterprises located in inland provinces like Shanxi, and also helping the enterprises to further upgrade their business model, which as a result will enable Shanxi agriculture to better serve the development of the area," Chen Yongqi, vice-governor of Shanxi province, said at the signing ceremony.

Being an inland province used to heavily relying on its natural resources output, the development of Shanxi is faced with challenges of product sales and a substandard transportation system, which partly accounts for its increasing efforts in high technology to tackle the problems.

Back in the August last year, village cadres began offering farmers a seven-day tutorial that introduced WeChat and e-commerce channels, helping the locals with the product sales. Since the first group completed the crash course, over 100 villagers from Lingtou village in Shanxi province — the village is home to about 400 —have received training and launched WeChat stores. A few enjoy annual sales of up to 50,000 yuan.

In addition, earlier in May, the province also became home to Asia's largest single intelligent greenhouse, located in Taigu county, the Agricultural Valley of Shanxi province.