Slow Sales of Corn Leave Farmers Anxious, Highlighting the Difficulty of Selling Grain
“Why is such beautiful corn not being bought by anyone?” A reporter went deep into rural areas of the northern Huang-Huai Plain for interviews and saw many farmers looking sorrowful and helpless in front of corn covering the ground and filling their homes. “This year the price of corn is too low; now it can only sell for six or seven jiao per jin.” said Niu Hongxun, a farmer from Mei'an Village, Fuli Ji Town, Suzhou, Anhui. His family has 13 mu of land, and each mu yielded more than 1,300 jin of corn. But because the price is low and no one comes to buy it, he has no choice but to dry the corn and store it, hoping to see whether the price can rise back by the Spring Festival.
On the one hand, there is a large bumper harvest of corn; on the other hand, the purchase price keeps falling. Niu Hongxun said that this year agricultural inputs generally rose in price, and the investment in growing one season of corn increased by more than 200 yuan compared with the same period in previous years. Farmers had hoped to sell more to “offset” the rise in input prices, but unexpectedly corn has remained unsold and the price has fallen again and again.
“A small number who sold to grain brokers before October 10 got about 1.65 yuan per kg for dried corn meeting standards. After October 10, even high-quality corn could hardly sell for 1.4 yuan per kg, and the longer it went on, the less anyone wanted it. Yet in previous years, this kind of corn would sell for at least 2.32 yuan per kg.” said Yao Yuan, a farmer from Zhangzhuang Village, Caocun Town, Yongqiao District, Suzhou. Because the corn price kept falling, the more it fell, the fewer people came to buy corn. Not only state-owned grain depots and agricultural product processing enterprises did not buy it, but breeding farms and feed mills also did not buy it. Sales depended entirely on grain brokers purchasing and selling it elsewhere. However, in the face of a sluggish market, grain brokers arbitrarily lowered grades and pressed down prices, and the phenomenon of “difficulty of selling grain” unseen for many years appeared again.
Compared with smallholder farmers, large growers were even more anxious. Although wheat had already been planted in harvested fields, the corn filling the warehouses had still not been sold as hoped. Li Qingwu, chairman of the Huaihe Agricultural Machinery Professional Cooperative in Yongqiao District, Suzhou, was very anxious. He told reporters that this year he transferred more than 2,000 mu of land and harvested more than 3.6 million kg of corn. Before October 10, he sold a small portion to grain brokers at 1.65 yuan per kg, and currently still had 3.5 million kg of corn stored in warehouses.
However, the corn price was dropping day by day, making him extremely worried. “Based on cost calculations, if this year's corn sells for less than 2 yuan per kg, I will lose money. If I sell at a low price now, more than 1 million yuan will be thrown away.” Li Qingwu said that he and some nearby large grain growers discussed the matter and, to avoid losses, decided not to sell for the time being, hoping the market would improve later. However, they said doing so carried great risk. Once the market did not improve, losses would be even greater. But things having come to this, now they could only “take a gamble.”
Why has corn become difficult to sell? The reporter learned in Suzhou that, unlike the widespread market-support purchases in summer, in corn purchasing only Northeast China has market-support purchases nationwide. This autumn, state-owned grain depots in Suzhou did not purchase farmers' corn. In the past, the main channel for farmers to sell corn was agricultural product deep-processing enterprises such as Fengyuan Chemical and Ante Liquor Industry. However, this year, due to the sluggish economy, these enterprises either did not start operations or greatly reduced purchase volumes. Many breeding enterprises and breeding households also scaled down breeding. Even more serious was the impact of imported corn. A person in charge of a liquor company in Suzhou revealed that this year the landed price of imported corn was less than 1.2 yuan per kg, and this corn had a long growth cycle and better quality than corn produced by farmers in the province. Agricultural product processing enterprises and large feed mills that previously mainly consumed local corn were more willing to purchase this kind of cheap and high-quality imported corn.
In today's rural areas, most farmers' homes do not have storage and drying conditions, so corn must be sold as soon as possible after harvest. Many people, once finished with farm work, still have to go out to work and cannot delay. Large growers especially urgently need funds to be realized so they can invest in the next season of agricultural production. If the pressure of unsold goods exceeds what they can bear, it can easily lead to a sharp increase in the default rate on land transfers, and the farmers who transferred the land will suffer direct harm. During interviews, farmers expressed the hope that government departments would introduce corresponding measures as soon as possible, and also hoped the media could call on grain purchasing enterprises and agricultural product processing enterprises to come and buy, helping farmers get through the difficulties.