HONG KONG, July 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- National Agricultural Holdings Limited ("National Agricultural", or together with its subsidiaries, the "Group"; stock code: 1236.hk) has announced that the "One Card, Two Accounts" system for fund settlement and consumption jointly operated by the Group and UnionPay Network Payment Co. Ltd. ("UnionPay") was launched for the first phase of a pilot run on 30 June. With strong support from UnionPay's "Fu Nong Card" program as well as efforts on the part of National Agricultural, the Group aims to give full support to the development of rural finance initiated by parent company Hebei Supplying and Marketing Cooperative ("Hebei SMC") and the nationwide SMC system. On the day of launch, a large number of first-class wholesalers from over ten cities -- including Shijiazhuang, Baoding, Qinhuangdao and Dezhou -- registered online. The fund settlement and consumption system was launched at 2:30pm on 30 June, and recorded a transaction volume of over RMB10 million as of 5pm that day.
Hebei SMC, National Agricultural's parent company, together with its nationwide SMC system, have laid a solid foundation for the development of the "One Card, Two Accounts" system jointly operated by the Group and UnionPay. The SMC system in Hebei Province achieved total transaction turnover of RMB203.3 billion in 2013. National Agricultural is also exploring opportunities in fund settlement and consumption for trading in agricultural means of production and major agricultural products.
Meanwhile, the "One Card, Two Accounts" system will also be applied to the collaboration programs between the Group and Guangzhou Exchange Group Co., Ltd., including the settlement and consumption processes of the agricultural product trading business and rural land property rights transfer business. The Group stresses the promising potential in China's agricultural product trading business -- according to China Co-op Group, sales of its agricultural means of production increased 13.1% year-on-year to RMB666.4 billion, while sales of its major agricultural products surged 28.4% year-on-year to RMB629.5 billion.
Meanwhile, China's rural land transfer business is also sizeable. Data from China's Ministry of Land and Resources shows that the volume of land transferred amounted to 270 million acres by the end of 2012, accounting for 21.5% of the total volume of farmland under the household responsibility system.
