China urged to improve agricultural produce markets
( 2003-11-11 22:41) (Xinhua)
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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