Quzhou city in East China's Zhejiang province signed a strategic cooperation agreement in early August with Hema Fresh -- a fresh food chain backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba -- and on Nov 8 an opening ceremony for an agricultural demonstration zone was held in Duze town, in the city's Qujiang district, local officials reported.

They said the demonstration zone covers an area of nearly 1,333 hectares, which is the largest Hema Village in China. Hema Village, which produce agricultural products to serve the needs of all offline Hema stores, have been constructed throughout China and are now being built overseas.

The newly opened agricultural demonstration zone boasts 1,700 square meters of cold storage, a 900 sq m sorting operations area and six production lines. They said the adoption of Hema standards and digital technology will further strengthen the quality control and safety management of its agricultural products.

Phase I of the demonstration area includes an aquatic vegetable plantation covering 733 hectares in Duze. Aquatic vegetables are all crop species growing in paddy fields, pools or lowlands and have a very long cultivation history in China.

According to the plans, to date 69.53 hectares of vegetables, including 11 vegetable categories, have been planted. Phase II of the planting is expected be completed before Dec 30, and the third phase will be completed before Aug 30, 2021.

"This is very different from the traditional extensive planting and sales philosophy, which requires more detail, with not too large or too many pictures," said Yao Jianzhong, deputy general manager of the Quzhou Shanding Agricultural Development Co Ltd.