Kiwa Bio-Tech Products Group Corp (fka KWBT)

[operating_line]

Alibaba, Pinduoduo Fight Against China’s Looming Food Crisis

“The battle to supply 1.4 billion people with fresh fruit and vegetables is taking China’s e-commerce companies into the country’s hinterlands, where they are attempting to revolutionize centuries-old agricultural practices to secure future supply for their burgeoning online grocery businesses.

Agriculture is a critical area supported by the Chinese government,” said Liu Yue, an analyst with market research firm EqualOcean. With rural youths flocking to cities for better jobs and food safety increasingly threatened by pesticides and outdated farming methods, the country’s tech champions are eager to lend Beijing a hand, she said.

The driving force behind the e-commerce platforms’ push into smart agriculture is the boom in online groceries, which is expected to double to about 820 billion yuan ($127 billion) by 2023 from last year, according to iResearch. The category overtook consumer electronics as the biggest contributor at JD.com in the first half last year, while Alibaba is making a bigger push into the business by taking a larger stake in hypermart Sun Art Retail Group Ltd."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-21/alibaba-pinduoduo-join-fight-against-looming-china-food-crisis