Vegetable brand building becomes the pressing task for the world's largest vegetable-producing country

On December 7, with the support of the People's Government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the "First China Vegetable Brand Conference," jointly hosted by the China Vegetable Circulation Association and the Department of Commerce of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and co-organized by the Guangxi Agricultural Products Circulation Association, was held in Nanning. The conference lasted two days and was attended by about 300 people from government departments, research institutions and related enterprises, with a focus on discussing issues related to vegetable brand building in China.

China's vegetable output has increased from about 80 million tonnes in 1980 to 760 million tonnes in 2014, and per capita availability has risen from about 80 kg in 1980 to the current 500 kg. Although China is already the world's largest vegetable-producing country, vegetable brand building lags far behind. Nationwide, the vast majority of vegetables are still in a low-end supply situation, and even in some provinces that have already launched vegetable brand building work, the results achieved are not obvious. In particular, when comparing national vegetable brands with those of developed countries, there are many shortcomings in vegetable quality and safety issues, as well as in the grading, packaging, storage and deep processing of vegetables.

This conference proceeded precisely from the current situation of China's vegetables and the needs of brand building, adhered to "brand building" as the core, closely focused on the theme of "achieving brands, innovating brands," took actively promoting vegetable brand building as its orientation, aimed to establish a group of model brand enterprises, brand bases and brand products for the industry and to build a shared platform for the exchange of achievements among agricultural product enterprises, and actively organized a series of activities including the China Vegetable Industry Brand Award Ceremony, the China Vegetable Brand Building Summit Forum, visits and inspections of famous, special and excellent vegetable bases, and production-marketing matchmaking negotiations.

⟦NL> As the first industry event in China's vegetable circulation industry, this conference also won unanimous praise from all participating parties. Relevant experts attending the conference said that the convening of this conference will officially open the path of a "brand development strategy" for China's vegetable circulation industry and will play a positive role in promoting the development of China's vegetable circulation industry and improving the sustainable development of agricultural product circulation; at the same time, this conference will also become an important marker of China's vegetable circulation industry embarking on the path of brand-oriented development.

According to the organizer of this conference, those attending the conference were mainly relevant persons in charge from the governments of major national "vegetable basket" vegetable-producing areas, the governments of agricultural product production base counties (cities, districts), local commerce departments, and local agricultural bureaus (vegetable bureaus, edible fungus offices); relevant persons in charge from local e-commerce, financial services, and agricultural product (vegetable, edible fungus) industry associations; relevant responsible persons such as senior executives from national agricultural product wholesale markets, farmers' markets, vegetable wholesalers, national large supermarkets and hypermarkets, agricultural product e-commerce enterprises, and well-known vegetable circulation enterprises; and relevant persons in charge from national vegetable (edible fungus) production bases, farms (agricultural reclamation farms), and cooperatives.

At the same time, at this conference, on-site award plaques were also presented to the award-winning enterprises of "2015 China Top 100 Vegetable Brands," "2015 China Top 50 Brand Community Vegetable Stores," "2015 China Advanced Units in Vegetable Circulation," "2015 China Top Ten Hometowns of Vegetables," "2015 China Top Ten Brand Production Bases," "2015 China Top Ten Brand Vegetable Wholesale Markets," "2015 China Top Ten Brand Farmers' Markets," "2015 China Top Ten Brand Fresh Food E-commerce Companies," "2015 China Vegetable Circulation Brand Building Outstanding Contribution Award," "2015 China Vegetable Brand E-commerce Leading Figures," and "2015 China Gold Medal Vegetable Wholesalers."

In addition, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the host place of this conference, had a vegetable output of 2245 tonnes in 2014, and especially the development of autumn and winter vegetables has made Guangxi an important base for the nationwide "southern vegetables transported north" and the "back garden" for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region. At present, Guangxi has 68,258 valid registered vegetable trademarks, including 26 "China Well-Known Trademarks," 513 "Guangxi Famous Trademarks," and 30 "Geographical Indication Trademarks," laying a good foundation for Guangxi to take the path of a "brand development strategy."