Ordering fresh meat and vegetables on an online direct sales platform has become the new purchasing habit for some residents in Shucheng County, Lu'an City, East China's Anhui Province, during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

"The vegetables are delivered to the community, and residents are able to get their purchases at the door without any person to person contact. The meat and vegetables are very fresh and of good quality," said a woman surnamed Zhang, who had ordered vegetables several times for her parents. 

"This might be another option for my parents who are senior people to buy vegetables when the epidemic ends," Zhang added.

In early February, the Women's Federation of Shucheng County learned that many local farmers were facing poor sales of agricultural products caused by blocked logistics transportation, while families in urban areas found it difficult to buy fresh vegetables.

Therefore, it decided to do something to bridge the gap between supply and demand.

Knowing that the fresh meat and vegetables of a local family farm, also one of the national women's agricultural demonstration bases, were not selling well, the federation took immediate action to help it build an online direct sales platform to sell the farm products.  

Through ordering online and free delivery offline, all the agricultural products on the platform were sold directly from the field. 

In addition, the federation promoted the platform through WeChat, a popular instant messaging app in China, drawing much attention from families and residents. 

Nearly 700 people have joined the two WeChat groups in only one week. As of now, the farm has received nearly 500 orders from communities.

On the platform, nearly 20 food varieties, including pork, vegetables, fish and eggs are supplied daily. They are priced no higher than the market price of similar products of the same quality and are sold through group orders. 

The farm guarantees the quality of the supplies, while the federation helps coordinate the supply and sales in a timely manner, and supervises and traces product quality and services.

"The customers on the platform gave positive feedback on the current mode of 'delivering vegetables to home,'" said an official of the federation.

"It helped lessen the frequency of residents going out and reduce risk of cross infection so as to strengthen the COVID-19 prevention and control," she added.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)