Companies take special measures to ensure food supply in locked-down Pudong

Agriculture collectives, supermarkets and e-commerce platforms have implemented various measures to ensure timely food transportation for the millions of citizens who are living in Shanghai's Pudong, which was subjected to a phased lockdown on Monday as part of efforts to stem the spread of COVID-19.

The agriculture commission of Pudong district said that the 35 companies and agriculture collectives in the district have pushed their production to full capacity to provide 6,000 packages of vegetables every day for households in quarantine.

On Monday, a team of 159 people was assembled in Zhuqiao township to sort and bag the vegetables before transportation to 74 villages. Another team of 63 volunteers will deliver these packages to each household.

The Shanghai agriculture wholesale center, the biggest agricultural market in the city, has partnered with Pushang Group to transport tons of agriculture produce directly to different subdistricts and townships in Pudong.

Supermarket chain Lianhua, which operates 400 outlets in Pudong,  said it will keep those that have enough manpower open to process online orders.

Freshippo, Alibaba's grocery chain, said it will provide 1,800 tons of daily necessities to Shanghai citizens and will keep its outlets open for health workers and community volunteers to make offline purchases.

Dingdong Maicai, a fresh vegetable e-commerce platform, said its Jinliang warehouse in Pudong has been operating 24 hours and can process 700,000 parcels a day. It has also expanded the service area for community purchases so that orders from the same compound can be delivered together.