The combined sales volume of China's supply and marketing cooperatives rose 14.75 percent year-on-year to exceed 1.23 trillion yuan ($180.8 billion) in 2009, the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (ACFSMC) announced Monday.
Despite the adverse effects of the global economic slowdown, the cooperatives' total retail sales of consumer goods rose 27.13 percent to 337.6 billion yuan from a year earlier.
The ACFSMC statistics indicated that the rural consumer market played an important role in last year's sales. Retail sales of consumer goods in rural areas rose 28.95 percent, 5.1 percentage points higher than the growth rate among the cities.
In order to boost the rural economy, the government approved a plan in November to push forward the reform and development of the country's supply and marketing cooperatives.
With a history of more than 80 years, China's supply and marketing cooperatives have served as a platform for the distribution of agricultural products in the rural areas.
