A local takes products he bought on the Xun Wei Ben Di platform from the shelf at a designated pick-up site. [Photo/ntfabu.com]

A self-service pick-up grocery service developed at the start of 2020 by the agriculture and rural affairs bureau of Hai'an – a county-level city administered by Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province – is said to really be making a difference.

It was established to solve difficulties being encountered by farmers to sell their products and for residents to buy them amid the COVID-19 epidemic.

The service is available as a standalone WeChat mini program called Xun Wei Ben Di (寻味本地) – meaning "seek flavors locally" – through which buyers can place their orders direct for fresh farm produce. The products are then supplied by family farms, planters and agricultural product processing businesses and distributed by e-commerce leaders of different sub-districts and towns. Buyers are able to pick them up at designated sites the following day.

The pick-up sites are all equipped with refrigerated cabinets, shelves, humidity controllers and air conditioners for storage and preservation – to minimize the loss of agricultural products. They are also equipped with remote video and access control monitoring.

After nearly two years of operation, the grocery service's influence is said to have expanded considerably, with 10 pick-up sites set up in Hai'an and four in Nantong's urban area.

At present, there are 103 Hai'an-based farms involved with the platform, supplying over 130 kinds of products such as rice, vegetables and fruit.

Moving forward, plans are for the Hai'an agriculture and rural affairs bureau to further improve the functions of Xun Wei Ben Di, invite more farms to participate and expand the product varieties to satisfy consumer demand, according to Zhou Wei, a senior official at the bureau.