Taste of growing e-commerce sweet for farmers

BEIJING -- May is the time for fresh, sweet cherries, and also an occasion for cheering Wang Xiaojing, a part-time online retailer from Yantai city of east China's Shandong province.

The 27-year-old woman helped her relative, who owns a cherry farm, to sell fresh cherries online via e-commerce platforms such as yhd.com and WeChat.

Meanwhile, the express service giant SF Express rolled out a customized service for cherry buyers. The freshly picked cherries can be sent to them in 24 hours thanks to streamlined packaging and transportation process.

Wang told Xinhua that she has received online pre-orders worth sixty thousand yuan ($9,812) by Thursday, four days after she put the business online.

Wang is one of the millions of Chinese taking to e-commerce to seek new business opportunities as total e-commerce transaction volume reached more than 13 trillion yuan, creating 10 million jobs.

The State Council, China's cabinet released a guideline on e-commerce development Thursday to foster new growth drivers amid the economic slowdown.

The government pledged to create a favorable environment for e-commerce by cutting redtape, easing market access and lowering taxation.

Efforts will be made to strengthen resource sharing, online security, financing, infrastructure and credit system services, according to the guideline.

"The e-commerce sector has become a new engine to power Chinese economy by creating new jobs, pushing industrial upgrading and stimulating consumption," said Lin Nianxiu, deputy head of the country's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission.

"It also offers new platforms for the government and private investment to make public service such as medical care more accessible, customized and convenient," Li added.

Now, Chinese e-commerce giants are racing to tap the growing market, especially in the under-developed rural areas where agriculture is a primary source of income.

Industry leader Alibaba Group signed an "Internet plus rural area" agreement last month with the central province of Henan to implement a plan to develop rural e-commerce.

It is expected to provide rural residents much easier access to industrial products, but is also an important channel for sales of farm produce.

"E-commerce is an effective way to boost employment and encourage innovation and entrepreneurship as it is diversified, flexible and expansive," said Bai Ming, a senior researcher with a think tank of the commerce ministry.

China will gradually regulate market practices to secure a fair competitive environment for startups, with the aim of building a unified and orderly e-commerce market by 2020, according to the guideline.