Agricultural Fair Showcases Development Achievements: "Three Pillars" Drive Modern Agriculture to Speed Up
At the 13th China International Agricultural Trade Fair, which concluded on the 10th, novel, exotic, premium and specialty agricultural products drew numerous visitors, with crowds thronging the specialized exhibition areas for national modern agriculture demonstration zones, famous and premium fruits, and China State Farms. A reporter from Economic Daily found during a visit that informatization-driven development, intensive management and brand-based development became the standout highlights of this year's agricultural fair——
From November 7 to 10, the 13th China International Agricultural Trade Fair was held in Fuzhou, Fujian. On-site trade volume at this year's fair reached 49 billion yuan, and on-site retail sales reached 353 million yuan, both exceeding the level of the previous edition. Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu said that the agricultural fair, oriented toward building “marketization, specialization, internationalization, branding and informatization,” showcased in a concentrated way the achievements of China's agricultural and rural development.
Informatization Adds Momentum
Ordinary consumers may have seen cattle and sheep with QR codes on their ears, but it is relatively rare to see a turbot served on the dining table after being cooked with a QR code still attached to its gills. At the Liaoning fisheries pavilion, turbot attracted visitors who stopped to look, and many, while tasting it, took out their phones to scan the QR code. Li Ying, the pavilion manager, said the turbot on display came from Xingcheng, Liaoning. “Once a QR code is attached, the company puts a ‘tightening band’ on itself, and will strictly enforce input standards during the breeding stage as well.”
“Not many people understand Chinese medicinal herbs. We hope that by clarifying standards, improving credit evaluation and strictly controlling quality, even people who don't shop online can make purchases.” said Long Xingchao, chairman of Traditional Chinese Medicine World Network, in the informatization exhibition area. It is understood that this e-commerce platform is a demonstration base for agricultural and rural informatization of the Ministry of Agriculture, connecting more than 700 varieties of Chinese medicinal herbs, 200,000 growers and 300,000 members.
At the 2015 Agricultural Informatization Summit Forum held during the agricultural fair, Vice Minister of Agriculture Qu Dongyu said that to advance “Internet Plus” modern agriculture, it is necessary to accelerate the development of agricultural e-commerce and guide and support new types of business entities in connecting with e-commerce platforms; and to promote the application of agricultural Internet of Things technology in facility agriculture, livestock and aquaculture, and traceability of agricultural product quality and safety.
Intensification Promotes Growth
Entering the Shanghai pavilion, the first thing one sees is a touch screen. “This is the comprehensive agricultural machinery command and dispatch service platform, which conducts intelligent analysis of agricultural machinery work efficiency, helps cooperatives effectively dispatch machinery operators, and also allows large-scale growers to post demand for agricultural machinery operations.” Wang Jian, deputy general manager of Shanghai Nongyi Information Technology Co., told Economic Daily that the system requires an investment of less than 10,000 yuan, but for agricultural machinery cooperatives where a single large machine often costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, this undoubtedly means an improvement in management efficiency.
At this year's agricultural fair, farmer cooperatives, large-scale growers and family farms became active market entities, reflecting from another angle the continuous improvement of the level of intensification and organization in agricultural operations. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture show that currently, more than 3.4 million farming households nationwide operate cultivated land of 50 mu or more; the number of registered farmer cooperatives nationwide has reached 1.402 million, with 99.07 million households actually joining, accounting for about 38.1% of the total number of farming households nationwide; and there are more than 120,000 leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization of various types, whose agricultural products and processed products account for more than one third of the market supply of agricultural products.
Modern agriculture demonstration zones are the national team and vanguard of intensive management. The demonstration zone exhibition area is the largest at this year's agricultural fair, with nearly 1,000 units from 257 demonstration zones participating. According to Ye Zhenqin, director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, the grain produced by 283 demonstration zones accounts for 40% of the national total, and the proportion of high-standard farmland is 53%, both substantially higher than the national average. Data show that among the first two batches of 153 national modern agriculture demonstration zones, 44 have already taken the lead in entering the stage of basically realizing agricultural modernization.
“Along with the pilot projects for agricultural reform and construction, demonstration zones are continuously accelerating the building of a new agricultural operation system, innovating new ways of fiscal support, and exploring new mechanisms for building material and technical equipment. On this basis, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance and two other departments recently proposed that by 2020, more than half of the demonstration zones will enter the stage of basically realizing agricultural modernization.” said Vice Minister of Agriculture Yu Xinrong.
Branding Supports Development
Shanghai Guangming Group's Urban Vegetable Garden, Hunan State Farm's Yongxing rock sugar oranges, Guangdong State Farm's Yantang milk…… At the agricultural fair, various high-quality agricultural products from the national state farm system were favored by distributors. “The sweet and delicious rock sugar oranges also have an ID card. Scan the QR code on the packaging box with a phone, and information such as the place of origin and producer can be checked.” said Liao Bangwen, manager of Yongxing Fruit Industry Co., under Hunan State Farms.
At this year's agricultural fair, the “China State Farms” industry public brand made its first appearance. Sun Fajun, deputy director of the China State Farms Economic Development Center, said that 130 leading enterprises from 15 reclamation areas nationwide participated in the China State Farms Pavilion, bringing thousands of safe and high-quality agricultural products originating from the green ecological environment of the reclamation areas, meeting the requirements of “three classifications and one label,” with most products also carrying quality traceability labels.
“Many of China's agricultural products rank first in the world in total output, but we lack a group of agricultural product brands with competitiveness in the international market. To promote agricultural branding, it is necessary to better leverage the government's service role.” said Vice Minister of Agriculture Qu Dongyu, who noted that it is necessary to study the uniqueness of China's agriculture and form a combined pyramid of regional public brands, enterprise brands, product brands and farmer brands with multi-party interaction.
At present, more than 50,000 farmer cooperatives nationwide have registered trademarks, some of which have also obtained the titles of China Famous Trademark, famous brand and well-known trademark. More than 30,000 farmer cooperatives have passed pollution-free, green and organic product quality certifications, and a large number of agricultural product brands are already familiar to people.
As of the end of last year, there were 8,700 green food enterprises and 21,153 products nationwide. There were 814 certified organic product enterprises and 3,342 products. Certified pollution-free agricultural products reached more than 70,000, and the total number of registered geographical indications for agricultural products reached 1,588, marking a significant improvement in the degree of brand standardization.