A series of WeChat accounts and mobile applets have recently been launched in Hai'an, a county-level city in Nantong, allowing convenient sales and purchase of agricultural products.

After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, agricultural products cultivated by local farmers sold poorly due to travel restrictions which meant urban residents could not buy fresh vegetables and fruit.

With help from the local bureau of agriculture and rural affairs, the new system was set up to enable residents to purchase agricultural products such as mushrooms, chickens and strawberries in groups, and to share supply and demand information through WeChat accounts and applets.

According to Bao Yuanhong, manager of a Hai'an's mushroom cooperative, the group has received a growing number of orders and mushrooms have been in high demand since the mobile applet was launched.

The mushroom cooperative currently involves 11 households and around 800 baskets of mushrooms can be produced every day from the 100-mu (6.67-hectare) field they contracted.

"In only a few days, nearly 400 chickens and several hundred kilograms of eggs have been sold through the mobile applet," said Liu Guanghua, the owner of a local family farm.

Local farms also cooperate with China Post to provide quick delivery of agricultural products. The specialized delivery platform can help ensure the freshness of products, and farmers are now confident about online promotion of agricultural products.

A number of family farms and cooperatives in the county-level city have joined together and over 300 kinds of agricultural products are available online. To date, more than 30,000 orders worth over 1 million yuan ($141,770) have been completed.