China has released the National Supply and Marketing Cooperatives’ 15th Five-Year Plan, outlining 18 key tasks aimed at strengthening food security and supporting rural revitalization. By 2030, the plan calls for the construction or renovation of about 100 national strategic agricultural-input reserve facilities and 1,000 county-level agricultural-input distribution centers.
The plan would further expand the role of the supply-and-marketing cooperative system in agricultural machinery services, farmland management, agricultural processing, warehousing and distribution, and other agricultural services. The system currently has about 37,000 grassroots cooperatives and 856,000 business and service outlets nationwide. In some regions, cooperatives have also been incorporated into high-standard farmland management, county-level commercial networks, and emergency supply systems, while affiliated companies participate directly in procurement, wholesale, retail, logistics, and asset management.
Supply and marketing cooperatives were once a central part of China’s rural planned economy, controlling much of the distribution of fertilizer, pesticides, seeds, daily necessities, and agricultural products. Their influence declined after market reforms opened rural commerce to private businesses, but the system has been expanding again in recent years.
Critics warn that the expansion could increase state control over rural distribution and squeeze out private businesses, leaving farmers and consumers with fewer private alternatives and increasing their dependence on state-controlled distribution networks.
Source: Radio Free Asia, August 4, 2026
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/zhengzhi/2026/08/04/china-supply-and-marketing-cooperatives-great-canteens-planned-economy/