Agricultural and logistics experts Tuesday discussed the problems faced by agricultural markets, suggesting the traditional markets improve their facilities to cope with the increasing demand for high-quality produce.

At a forum on the marketing of agricultural products Tuesday, Min Yaoliang, secretary general of the China Association of Agricultural Products Markets, said that China's agricultural produce markets traditionally featured shabby facilities and irregular quality of goods.

But the improvement in Chinese livelihood necessitated high- quality products, said Min, adding that the entry of international commercial firms in recent years had challenged the survival of traditional markets.

Min acknowledged that the trend was towards the rapid development of chain stores. Statistics showed that in recent years, the number of chain stores and their sales volumes rose over 50 percent annually, compared with the 10 percent growth in general retail sales.

Jiang Ming, vice-chairman of the China Federation of Commercial Industry, also called for rapid development of chain stores, noting that China's chain stores were generally small and lacked expertise in the field.

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