In 2013, the e-commerce transaction value of China’s agricultural products exceeded RMB50 billion (US$8.17 billion), said Chen Xiaohua, China’s Vice Agriculture Minister. Informatization has great influence on accelerating transformation of agriculture and developing modern agriculture in China.
China has made positive progress in agricultural informatization in recent years. China agricultural information service system involves over 40,000 agriculture-related sites and 12316 hotlines, covering one third of Chinese farmers.
As of 2013, 3G network covered all towns in China and 91% incorporated villages. In China’s rural areas, over 47 million families have access to broadband with 177 million Internet users. Every household on average owns two mobile phonesin rural areas. It is said that there are over 3,000 agricultural e-commerce platforms set up in China.
Besides, growth in online shopping in counties and villages in China has outpaced those in cities, becoming a new engine that is further driving China’s domestic consumption, according to research from Alibaba Group.
Alibaba plans to invest RMB10 billion ($1.63 billion) in the next 3 to 5 years to establish 1000 county-level operation centers and one million village-level service stations covering one-sixth of rural China.
Also read: PHOTOS: How China Internet Companies Advertise in Rural Areas
