Shanghai will open 30 to 50 convenience stores next year selling fresh agricultural produces in a move to reduce the number of wet markets and improve food quality and safety.
Each less than 100 square meters in size, the stores will be scattered throughout the city's residential communities, Xia Bojin, an official with Shanghai Economic Commission, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
Products will range from vegetables to meat, aquatic goods and grains.
"To improve food quality and safety, chain stores such as hypermarkets, supermarkets and the new type of convenience stores are expected to replace wet markets as the major shopping venues for fresh agri-products," Xia said.
"The city is cooking up a series of support policies to develop the stores and will publish them next month."
Among the incentives for these privately owned outlets will be rent and tax subsidies provided by the government, he indicated. A few trial stores have already been opened in Luwan District, invested by a Zhejiang private company and a local private concern, he said.
Currently, 70 percent of the city's fresh farm products are sold through the city's 800 food markets. About 20 percent goes through supermarkets with the rest sold in hypermarkets, according to Shanghai Agriculture Commission.
Meanwhile, Shanghai is also encouraging the establishment of more fresh food supermarkets and giving preferential policies to select supermarket operators  to open such stores.