A total of 300 tons of vegetables from Hebei province was shipped to Beijing on June 14 to mitigate the anxiety caused by the emergent novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in the city’s agricultural products market.

Many places in Hebei have launched a coping mechanism to ensure the food supply to Beijing and allow residents of the capital to get fresh and trustworthy vegetables.

Its important agricultural county Dingzhou, 180 kilometers away from Beijing and known as the “Granary of the Central Hebei Plain”, opened more than 60 cold storages and transports 30,000 tons of vegetables, eggs and meat to the Beijing market every day.

The county has been supplying agricultural products to Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other metropolises since 1983, and has been entitled as a national-level agriculture demonstration zone by virtue of its mature supply channel and operating model.

It always saves a portion of fresh vegetables for a rainy day. At present, four hours will be enough to deliver the products to named places in Beijing.

“We are capable of continuously supplying the Beijing market for at least a month,” said He Ying’en, chief of the market division of the local urban management authority.

Another strong backup force comes from Yutian county, well-known throughout the country for its cabbages and dubbed the “Granary of the Eastern Hebei Plain”.

The county’s Huarui Cooperative, established in 2002, has more than 200 member farmers and more than 7,000 acres of planting area. In recent years, it has supplemented large-scale chain supermarkets in Beijing in a direct manner.

“Thanks to the green channels to targeted supermarkets, the epidemic will not have a great impact on our cooperative base,” said Wang Huaiyu, a responsible person from the cooperative.

In response to the circumstances of the past few days, the cooperative has increased its supply to Beijing from more than 20 tons per day to 30 to 40 tons. The co-operative mainly offers seasonal products such as potatoes and cabbage.

“We have a good foundation for cooperation,” said Wang. In fact, cabbages of the cooperative shouldered the demands of Beijing’s supermarkets earlier at the severest stage of the epidemic in January.

“We commissioned related departments to do tests before acquisition to ensure food safety,” added Wang.

Yutian has negotiated with farmers and guided them to keep prices up in the face of the epidemic to benefit more residents.