Starting next month, customers will be able to pick up cheaper domestic and foreign fruit and vegetables from 10 major local supermarkets, including Hualian, Jingkelong, Meitehao and Yonghui.

The stores signed a deal on Monday with the Xinfadi wholesale produce market to buy the items through its new international environmental logistics zone.

Zhang Pengyi, vice-president of Xinfadi wholesale produce market, said the international environmental logistics zone will officially open in early July.

It will provide the stores with nearly 200 types of fruit and vegetables from 26 countries, including Chile, Japan and Thailand.

"We now have plentiful storage for those supermarkets," said

Zhang, who added that fruit and vegetables provided by the market will be of the high standard demanded by the import and export industry.

Zhang said all products will have safety labeling and a two-dimensional bar code. By using scanners provided at the supermarkets, shoppers will be able to tell where the product originated and how it was produced.

"We hope to supply the public with much safer and better fruit and vegetables," Zhang said.

Because the new arrangement will cut out middlemen, Zhang said prices should also be kept down. He predicted savings of as much as 20 to 30 percent.

Zhang said the products will, however, only be available in the large supermarkets and not at convenience stores.