China's rural cooperatives report sales growth in 2020

Villagers collect cauliflowers in a green house in the agricultural base at Dongping Village in Xindian Town of Yuping Dong Autonomous County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Nov. 15, 2020. (Xinhua/Yang Ying)

BEIJING, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's rural supply and marketing cooperatives saw their sales expand 14.2 percent year on year to 5.3 trillion yuan (about 818.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020, the latest data showed.

The profit of these cooperatives totaled 51.79 billion yuan, up 11 percent from one year earlier, according to the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives.

Cooperatives nationwide purchased farm produce worth 272.6 billion yuan from impoverished areas last year, up 14.1 percent year on year. Their sales of farm produce grew 19.5 percent year on year to 2.2 trillion yuan.

These cooperatives launched 3,152 poverty-alleviation projects in 2020, lifting 1.13 million people out of poverty.

China's network of supply and marketing cooperatives serves as a key platform for the distribution of agricultural products in the country's rural areas. ■