Woolworths has closed a deal with UnionPay to accept the Chinese company's debit and credit cards at its supermarkets.

UnionPay, the world's largest payment card company according to number of cards issued, has issued more than 6 billion cards worldwide and is the dominant card provider in China. Visa is the biggest provider by transaction value.

Woolworths is not only offering the standard EMV chip payment to UnionPay cardholders but also QuickPass payment, the specialised UnionPay contactless mobile payment service. A phone registered to the UnionPay customer is used to swipe for payment.

Woolworths will accept China UnionPay credit cards

Outside of the China, Australia has the largest number of point of sale terminals accepting the mobile QuickPass payment method, UnionPay says.

While only Woolworths supermarkets are accepting the card initially, the supermarket chain says it plans to roll out UnionPay acceptance to other group brands, such as liquor retailer Dan Murphy's and discount department store Big W.