MANY Chinese farmers are shopping online for vital supplies as the spring planting season gets under way and the COVID-19 outbreak disrupts traditional supply chains, providing a huge boost to business for e-commerce platforms.

Fertilizers, chemicals, seeds and machinery are traditionally distributed to China’s farmers via a network of traders and local distributors.

But the virus, which originated in the central province of Hubei, jammed supply chains across the country through factory closures, residential quarantines and roadblocks.

Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo saw a near 1,000 percent jump in sales of farming products including seeds, fertilizer and sprinklers in February versus last year.

On Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace, February sales of farming machinery including tillers, seed drills and cultivators rose 78 percent year on year, while purchases of seeds and fertilizers gained over 100 percent. Animal feed sales notched up 233 percent.

“We have observed a significant trend that farmers are now relying on their smartphones to buy their equipment online,” said a Pinduoduo spokesperson, adding that more than 4.3 million agricultural producers bought farming essentials from its platform last month.

China has been encouraging e-commerce penetration in rural areas as part of a poverty alleviation drive. As of mid-2019, agriculture, forestry, livestock and fishery workers comprised only 8 percent of China’s Internet users. (SD-Agencies)