A survey of agri-food e-markets of China: A functional evolution perspective

How to build efficient e-markets for agricultural products has been a concern of China. This paper is to explore the agri-food e-markets of China from the aspect of evolutional functions, so as to shed light on the sound development of e-markets. A functional matrix is built based on the literature review of e-markets, and a survey of Chinese agri-food e-markets is conducted. It is concluded that agri-food e-markets of China show a binary scheme, with ordinary e-markets still in a preliminary stage, and bulk e-markets being in a priority to provide most functions. Future development of the ordinary e-markets should focus on providing solutions for settlement and after-sales phases. Bulk e-markets need to make efforts in providing collaborative process management.