Agricultural Brand Building Bears Abundant Fruit, Achievements Remarkable

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of agricultural branding, regarding the strengthening of brand building as an important strategic measure for accelerating modernisation. In recent years, agricultural departments have focused on the main line of work of “stabilising grain production, increasing income, adjusting structure, improving quality and efficiency, and transforming the development model”, and in accordance with the development concepts of standardised production, industrialised operation and branded marketing, have accelerated the cultivation of agricultural brands with distinctive features, diverse types and strong core competitiveness, achieving phased results.

Planning top-level design and making institutional arrangements for agricultural brand development. In order to review the results of agricultural brand work in recent years, summarise good experience and practices, and lay a solid foundation for the work, the Ministry of Agriculture carried out basic research and top-level design in agricultural branding, pointing out the direction for agricultural brand development. In 2014, experts in the field of agricultural branding were organised to research and compile the "Research Report on the Brand Development of Chinese Agricultural Products". In 2015, experts were organised to summarise grassroots brand development experience and compile the "Outline for the Development of Chinese Agricultural Brands", aiming to achieve a strategic deployment for agricultural brand development.

The certification and registration of “Three Products and One Standard” has been continuously improved, and the degree of brand standardisation has been significantly enhanced. By the end of 2014, there were 8,700 green food enterprises nationwide, with 21,153 products. There were 814 certified organic product enterprises, with 3,342 products. The national green food standardised production base covered 160 million mu, with 17 organic agriculture demonstration bases, covering a total area of 10 million mu. Certified pollution-free agricultural products reached more than 70,000, and the total number of registered geographical indications for agricultural products reached 1,588.

Brand publicity and promotion activities took diverse forms and achieved notable results. Strengthening promotion and publicity is an important means for agricultural brands to continuously grow bigger and stronger. This year the Ministry of Agriculture carried out a public welfare publicity activity for 100 agricultural product brands from 100 cooperatives nationwide. On 7 November, during the 13th China International Agricultural Trade Fair, the “Press Conference for 100 Agricultural Product Brands from 100 Cooperatives Nationwide” was held. During the same period, the selection of gold award winners of the 13th China International Agricultural Trade Fair and the selection of 50 influential regional public brands were also held.

Agricultural brand building has attracted widespread attention, and a platform for experience exchange has been set up. Relying on the China International Agricultural Trade Fair and related activities of national-level large markets, agricultural brand conferences were convened, widely drawing in people from all sectors to study and discuss matters of agricultural brand building, fully exchanging experience, and promoting agricultural brand building to flourish in all regions.

Local enthusiasm for developing agricultural brands is high, and the momentum of brand building development is rapid. On the basis of the Ministry of Agriculture's overall planning, localities increasingly attach importance to developing agricultural brands and have carried out a series of agricultural brand building efforts with local characteristics. Guangdong Province has for many consecutive years carried out selection and promotion activities for famous, special, excellent and new agricultural products. In 2013, Hainan Province issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of Brand Agriculture". Starting from 2014, the Hainan Provincial Government has established a special fund of 100 million yuan per year for brand agriculture development, awarding agricultural product business entities that obtain for the first time a China Well-Known Trademark, a national geographical indication certification trademark, a national geographical indication protected product, as well as a Hainan Province Famous Trademark and Famous Brand Product, forming a sound interactive pattern of “government promotion, enterprise initiative and market pull”.