A farmer surnamed Cai from Huzhou's Daixi town poses for a photo with dried bamboo shoots. [Photo/hz66.com]

Huzhou in East China's Zhejiang province recently launched an online shopping festival to help farmers sell their agricultural products.

The move is part of the local government's efforts to increase sales of agricultural products for local farmers amid sporadic COVID-19 outbreaks.

Nantaihuhao, an app developed by the local government, will be the main venue for the shopping festival, which is slated to run until May 14.

To boost sales, Huzhou has also issued coupons allowing people to save up to 25 yuan ($3.85) if they spend at least 100 yuan on the platform.

Agricultural products from the city can also be ordered on other platforms, including WeChat mini-programs and Tmall.

To date, about 38 kinds of agricultural products have been put on shelves on these platforms, leading to aggregate sales of over 600,000 yuan.

A farmer surnamed Cai from Huzhou's Daixi town said that dried bamboo shoots he made enjoyed strong sales in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai in previous years.

However, sales of the once popular product dropped drastically this year due to the suspension of express delivery services in these places following the COVID-19 outbreaks.

Cai called on the local government for help and his bamboo shoots sold out shortly after being put up on Nantaihuhao.