Origin Agritech announces Origin e-Commune Network and a new joint venture

Origin Agritech Ltd. (NASDAQ: SEED), ("the Company" or "Origin") an agriculture technology and rural e-commerce company, recently announced that the Company has started Origin e-Commune Network and entered a new joint venture in Hubei Province with five major agriuralcult product distributors in the province. Origin holds 51% of equity in this new joint venture. This joint venture, Hubei Aoyu Agricultural Technology Limited (Hubei Aoyu), will provide broad agricultural products and services in addition to the corn seed products from Origin Agritech in Hubei province. This JV will be the first of several similar joint ventures Origin is in the process to form in the central China agricultural provinces.

The establishment of Hubei Aoyu marks a major milestone for the Origin's rural e-commerce strategy. With Hubei Aoyu and other similar JVs, Origin is now creating an Origin e-Commune Network based on e-commerce technologies and Origin's strong brand equity across rural China. Origin e-Commune Network is founded in the backdrop of the changing rural business environment as the result of new directions for Chinese rural development, fast growing technologies in e-commerce, expansion of 4G communication network, and modernization of rural logistics system recently.

This e-commune network philosophy is expected to revolutionize the Chinese agricultural industry as the new e-commune network could provide integrated and customized technology solution to the farmers to increase the total economic value per acre of land. Such e-commune network will not only offer farmers with the agricultural input products, but also provide much broader pre- and post-harvest services. Furthermore, the Origin e-Commune Network creates a system where distributors and farmers will participate as partnership rather than middle level distributorship and end-users in the current distribution system.

The celebration of the joint venture formation was held in Xiangyang, Hubei, a historical and major agricultural city. Dr. Gengchen Han, Executive Chairman of Origin Agritech, attended the celebration and has outlined Origin e-Commune Network philosophy to create a strong agricultural cooperative entity. "The agricultural market in China is experiencing a new growth directions and we believe that Origin e-Commune Network will enable a new form of cooperation between products and service providers and farmers. With its strong brand name and over 20 years of serving the farmers, Origin is in a great position to initiate such innovative business model as we're entering a new technology era for the Ag industry in China," said Dr. Han. More than 40 major distributors in Hubei province have attended this event.