Online farm products platform to open in Greater Bay Area

An online platform for the trade of agricultural products will soon launch in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, in an effort to improve the quality of foods in the region, according to the government of Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

"Agricultural products to be supplied in the Greater Bay Area market will be under higher quality standards, meeting the quality level of foods that are currently shipped to Hong Kong and Macao," said Li Zhongkai, deputy director of the Guangzhou Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau.

According to Li, all agricultural foods to the Greater Bay Area will be monitored via the platform's system, which will be operated no later than October this year.

"Providers and distributors, which have already obtained certificates for supplying foods to Hong Kong and Macao, will be allowed to conduct their business on the platform," Li said.

Also, buyers -- including those from supermarkets, government, companies, hospitals and starred hotels -- are all allowed to purchase foods via the online platform, according to Li.

The launch of the platform is in accordance with the Vegetable Basket project, a program initiated by the city's government to improve supplies of agricultural products in the Greater Bay Area market.

"The program will help boost business growth of the agricultural industry," Li said.

According to the local government, Guangzhou's agricultural output grew year-on-year by 2.4 percent to 18.66 billion yuan ($2.63 billion) in the first half of 2019.