Live-streaming sales of crystal products in Donghai County, Lianyungang City, July 19, 2023. (CFP Photo)
Rural online sales in Jiangsu Province amounted to 151.14 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 8% year-on-year, according to the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress on August 14.
The robust growth comes after the expanding of rural e-commerce pilot programs. Up till now, the province has 35 counties recognized in the national rural e-commerce initiative along with 45 e-commerce demonstration counties, 125 demonstration towns, and 410 demonstration villages at the provincial level.
Data showed that Jiangsu's rural online retail sales in 2022 reached 300.05 billion yuan, securing second place countrywide, and online sales of agricultural products hit 122.6 billion yuan.
Jiangsu has recognized 103 township-level e-commerce parks (subdistricts) featuring specialty products, such as seafood in Ganyu District of Lianyungang, crabs in Nanjing's Gaochun District, flowers and trees in Shuyang County, crystal products in Donghai County, and crayfish in Xuyi County.
The increased improvement of infrastructure has contributed to the booming development of rural e-commerce. For example, by the end of last year, Jiangsu had built nine county-level express delivery industrial parks and 8,082 rural logistics service points.
Since 2021, the province has built more than 1,000 facilities to preserve farm produce, cold storage spaces with a total volume of more than one million cubic meters, and eight storage and distribution centres at the production sites.
In 2022, Jiangsu's 6,746 agricultural product processing enterprises above the designated size registered a total annual revenue of 1.25 trillion yuan. The province saw the fast growth of new processing businesses, such as "central kitchens" engaged in preparing meal components and "3R food" (ready to cook, ready to heat, ready to eat). There are more than 5,800 companies specializing in 3R food in Jiangsu, among which nine have been recognized as national best industry practices.
