Chinese consumers drive up sales of Australian produce

Sales of fresh Australian produce boomed during the Chinese Lunar New Year period, with tech-savvy Chinese buyers using online retailers to plug the gap left by supermarket closures over the busy holiday period.

Online shopping giant JD.com Inc reported a sharp increase in sales of online goods over the weeklong holiday at the end of January and the start of February, with the sale of imported goods such as Australian beef, cherries and kiwifruit increasing by up to fourteen-fold.

JD told Australia's News Corp that, in the long term, it expects "a continued boom in imported food sales as Chinese palates become more sophisticated, and customers become increasingly aware".