'Super veggies' spread their sales routes

At 8 am, on the glistening waters of Erhai Lake, in Yunnan province, harvesting begins on schedule for a prized vegetable growing in popularity among Chinese diners.

By noon, the freshly picked Ottelia acuminata — kept submerged in water to protect their fragile stems — are rushed into cold storage for initial processing.

That same afternoon, the aquatic plants are flown to Shanghai, which is 2,500 kilometers away. By the next morning, still carrying the lake's moisture, they appear neatly on the "digital shelves" of fresh-grocery e-commerce platform Dingdong Maicai and later in the kitchens of urban consumers.

Behind this tightly choreographed 24-hour race against time to deliver them fresh to consumers' tables, is three years of preparation. Jiang Lichuan, head of spring produce at Dingdong Maicai, and his team worked relentlessly to make the seemingly impossible viable.

Once considered a local specialty, Ottelia acuminata is now available in multiple big cities across China, mainly through online sales.

Advances in agricultural technology, combined with wider sourcing by e-commerce platforms, are enabling once region-bound and highly perishable seasonal ingredients to traverse mountains and rivers to reach diners across the country.