2015 summer grain minimum-price purchase volume down 25% year on year

A reporter learned on September 2 from Sinograin that, in accordance with the provisions of the national minimum purchase price implementation plan, Sinograin launched the wheat minimum-price purchase at the end of May in Jiangsu, Hubei, Anhui, Henan and Shandong, and launched the early indica rice minimum-price purchase at the end of July in Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan and Hubei. The purchase work has been steady and orderly and is now drawing to a close. As of August 31, a cumulative 18.9 million tonnes of wheat had been purchased at minimum price, down 25% year on year, and a cumulative 2.35 million tonnes of early indica rice had been purchased at minimum price, down 24% year on year. The decline in minimum-price purchases was mainly due to unsound kernels exceeding the standard in wheat in Hubei, Anhui and parts of Henan, to sprouted and shrivelled grains in Jiangxi and other places being more numerous than in previous years, and to local supplementary reserve stockpiling.

⟦NL> A relevant person in charge at Sinograin told the reporter that in this year's summer grain minimum-price purchase, Sinograin, as the policy implementation entity entrusted by the state, acted in accordance with the requirements that Sinograin branch companies, provincial grain administrative departments and provincial branches of the Agricultural Development Bank jointly designate entrusted purchasing and storage depots, jointly organise acceptance inspection, jointly take responsibility for the quantity, quality, inventory management and sale and delivery of the purchased grain, and jointly implement the minimum purchase price policy. Throughout the whole process it strictly enforced the state-set purchase quality standards, such as the unsound kernel content of wheat being within 10%, strictly supervised entrusted depots so that they would not depress grades or prices to harm farmers' interests, nor arbitrarily relax purchase standards to harm the state's interests, and implemented a system under which inspection personnel at each depot must hold certificates to work. At the same time, relevant directly affiliated enterprises of Sinograin strengthened policy publicity and explanation and guidance for farmers, extended services to agriculture, actively provided farmers with technical guidance on separate harvesting and separate storage and on protecting grain during the rainy season, used their own customer resources to help farmers sell grain that exceeded the standards, and helped farmers reduce losses caused by disasters.

It is learned that, in response to wheat with unsound kernels exceeding the standard in some areas, the relevant state departments issued a notice a few days ago requiring the relevant provinces, in the spirit of the provincial governor responsibility system for food security, to organise special purchases to solve the problem of farmers finding it “difficult to sell grain”, and at the same time to strengthen quality and safety supervision over the purchase, processing and sale of wheat with unsound kernels exceeding the standard, so as to prevent wheat that does not meet food safety standards from entering the grain ration or feed market.