Fruit Day Co. Ltd., an e-commerce platform partly owned by JD.com that focuses on fresh fruit produce, plans to employ a new technology to help gauge the sweetness of different kinds of fruit, according to a report by China Daily.
The technology, called "light spectrum," is estimated to cost around $10 million. If successful, it will also be used to grade other fruit like apples and pears in the near future.
The company hopes that this move will attract more customers and increase its market share.
"Providing standardized, high-quality fruit to consumers will help us retain their loyalty," said Chen Jiajie, vice president of Fruit Day, in an interview with China Daily.
The light spectrum technology will help the company grade the sweetness of individual oranges in the company's new packing plant in Yunnan Province.
Once the oranges pass the state-of-the-art CompacInVision fruit screening process, they will be labeled according to their sweetness. This will allow online consumers to know their sweetness level prior to the purchase.
"Our decision to bring in this technology will exert more pressure on the growers to adopt standard cultivation techniques," said Chen. "This in turn will produce better oranges."
The first batch of oranges that will be graded and labeled will also be sold on JD.com, which has provided the company millions of dollars for financing.
"We hope we will become an open platform in the future," shared Chen. "We would like to open our supply chain and probably introduce other retailers on to our site as long as they stick to our standards. In this way, we will grow into an ecosystem rather than simply being an e-retailer."