Fruits with rich categories and good quality have now become an indispensable part of people’s diet. However, the reporter’s investigation found that some unscrupulous merchants turned their minds to the field of fruit sales and made profits through over-packaging and poor information. Insiders suggest that more diversified supervision and management measures should be adopted to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.
"Fake exquisiteness" or "Really fooled"?
A row of exquisite wooden boxes are packed neatly. After opening, all kinds of decorative fillers are filled in it, but the actual content is only one strawberry. The store told reporters that such a "Japanese snow strawberry" can sell for nearly 100 yuan in festivals. "Little couples give gifts, who cares about the taste?"
The reporter opened the online shopping platform and found that the sales of similar "exquisite fruits" were not small. All kinds of fruits such as cantaloupe and avocado were exquisitely packaged, and then they were labeled with import labels, which could mark the price of several hundred yuan.
In a shop, the asking price of a strawberry marked with Japanese varieties was as high as that of 99 yuan. When a reporter asked if it was really imported from Japan, the store ignored him and only said that "all the products consulted are in stock". When the reporter asked whether the imported strawberries could be kept fresh, the store simply gave up the reply.
In another store, there are also honeydew melons marked as imported varieties, and the price of a single one is about 500 yuan. However, the industry insiders told reporters that related varieties were not allowed to be imported many years ago, and the platform sold either illegal imports or "counterfeit goods". "There are also some fruit varieties introduced locally, but some merchants will lead consumers to mistakenly think that they are imported fruits, thus raising prices."
The reporter saw that only this variety of honeydew melon has thousands of sales, and many other "imported fruits" and "exquisite fruits" in the store have at least hundreds of sales results.
In the message area of shops selling similar exquisite fruits, the reporter found that some netizens print pictures to show that the packaging is exquisite "with face" and "I like it when I receive gifts", but some netizens bluntly said "IQ tax, don’t buy it".
The reporter’s investigation found that the special demand of some consumers for packaged fruits is one of the reasons for the formation of high-priced fruit market. "Valentine’s Day is high-end, and it also makes people feel valued." In the comment area of online stores selling such goods, similar statements are common. Some interviewees said that on many social platforms, you will see such exquisitely packaged fruits, which makes people "can’t help but want to be exquisite". In the face of comments and doubts about the "IQ tax", some netizens responded that what they bought was "face value", regardless of the higher price.
Some shopkeepers bluntly said that in order not to look shabby and "human feelings are passable", luxury packaged fruits have always been available during the holiday season. "There will be customers who think it is too expensive, but they always bite their teeth and buy it."
According to industry insiders, in the fruit sales market, the profit difference of different categories will not be too high. In order to earn more, some unscrupulous merchants have used "crooked brains", such as adding boxes and stamping, and the profit rate can reach a big step.
Some commodity sales links are fraudulent.
The reporter interviewed people in the industry and learned that some inferior fruits in production links flowed into e-commerce and live broadcast platforms. Wang Biao, CEO of Fresh Bee (Beijing) Network Technology Co., Ltd. told reporters that all kinds of fruits produced in orchards are generally classified according to letters. "The worst quality in our industry is generally called ‘ E-commerce fruit ’ 。” Wang Biao explained that damaged and defective products are generally difficult to sell in traditional channels, and are generally resold to some merchants on e-commerce platforms at very low prices.
"This kind of fruit has no warranty by default in the industry, so it doesn’t matter if it is sold." Wang Biao said that the orchard and the purchasing merchants have a "tacit understanding" on such fruits, and will not inspect the proportion of good products of related fruits. "If consumers buy bad quality, first, it is difficult to obtain evidence for fresh complaints; Second, most people feel that tens of dollars are not worth it, so in the end they often end up with the result of not pursuing it. "
There is also fraud in the intermediate wholesale link. Jiang Liancheng, deputy general manager of Tianjin Food Group Trading Company, told reporters that in the wholesale link, some unscrupulous merchants racked their brains to seek profits. "For example, there is a common way for fruit to gain weight, that is, industrial products such as lime are filled in the gap between cardboard compartments in the box."
Jiang Liancheng said that shoddy is also a common problem. "Open the box big in the upper, small inferior in the lower. However, it is impossible to disassemble all the goods for inspection, which will increase the cost. " Take apples as an example, the average selling price can be higher than 20% if they pass off as high-quality apples from Gansu or Shandong. "Non-professionals are hard to identify at a glance."
Under the poor information, the retail side should not be taken lightly. Wang Biao said that it is also a common method to sell inferior fruits at a high price by using the information gap in the sales process. "For example, durian is repeatedly frozen and thawed, and the pulp will turn white or even deteriorate. Consumers will buy it at normal prices if they don’t know."
"fruit freedom" looks forward to more complete protection
The mandatory national standard "Food and Cosmetics for Restricting Overpackaging of Commodities" approved by the State Administration of Market Supervision will be officially implemented on September 1, 2023. Zhang Yuhua, a lawyer of Shanghai Jintiancheng (Tianjin) Law Firm, said that after the implementation of the new standards, attention should be paid to the new application problems in law enforcement practice, and supervision and management should be strengthened in view of some new packaging forms and varieties that may exist in the current fruit sales field.
Jiang Liancheng suggested that the promotion of national certification standards such as "three products and one standard" in fruit sales should be strengthened, and the registration and rights protection of local marks should also be strengthened for some characteristic products. The regulatory authorities can increase the crackdown on problems in the sales field such as shoddy goods and "impersonation" and increase the illegal cost. "Activities such as lectures on fruit purchase knowledge can be carried out, starting with increasing consumers’ ability to identify."
In addition, in view of the characteristics of online platform fresh trading supervision and rights protection is not easy, some people in the industry suggested that the review of fresh e-commerce platform merchants should be intensified and a more long-term accountability mechanism should be established. According to the 2022 China Fresh E-commerce Consumer Complaint Data and Typical Case Report released by the E-commerce Research Center of NetEconomy & Society, the high-incidence complaints of fresh e-commerce are the nonstandard labeling of commodity information, deterioration, damage and odor of commodities, and the inconsistency between the goods in kind and publicity. "Some complaints about bad reviews can be brushed down by themselves, and some are re-put on the shelves with another name." Wang Biao suggested that the e-commerce platform should set up a more perfect evaluation and merchant withdrawal mechanism in conjunction with the regulatory authorities to promote consumers’ participation and continuously optimize the e-commerce fruit market.