China's agro-food processing sector continues to grow in the first seven months of 2022, according to a report from China Media Group (CMG), on Sunday.

From January to July, the operating income of agricultural product processing enterprises above a designated size reached 10.65 trillion yuan ($1.49 trillion), seeing a year-on-year increase of 5.1 percent, said CMG citing data from Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The accumulated profit was 652.86 billion yuan, it added.

This year, due to the combined effects of a global economic downturn and COVID-19, the pressure on the rural industry development has increased, the ministry said, cited by CMG. 

As a package of policy measures, which was rolled out in May to stabilize the economy, continued to take effect, China's rural industries have shown a steady and positive development trend, the ministry said.

Also, in the first half of the year, the national rural online retail sales increased 2.5 percent year on year, reaching 975.83 billion yuan, according to the report. 

The national online retail sales of agricultural products set in 250.67 billion yuan, were up 11.2 percent from the same period last year.