A national blueprint for building the agricultural product market system
Reported by our reporter Li Yuyang: In order to scientifically plan the layout of the agricultural product circulation network and accelerate the building of an agricultural product market system compatible with new industrialization, informatization, urbanization and agricultural modernization, recently 10 departments - the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Agriculture, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration of Taxation, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the Standardization Administration of China and the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives - jointly issued the National Agricultural Product Market System Development Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Plan).
Based on factors such as the economic and social conditions, transport locations, population distribution and agricultural product circulation foundations of various regions across China, and in conjunction with national strategic arrangements such as the “Belt and Road” initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei coordinated development, as well as the distribution of major national commercial functional zones and advantageous agricultural product production and marketing areas, the Plan lays out 100 backbone agricultural product wholesale markets and 8 market clusters in areas of concentrated agricultural product production, distribution and consumption across the country. Relying on the market clusters, it forms a “three vertical and three horizontal” national backbone network for agricultural product circulation, which connects with regional agricultural product circulation networks, creating a national agricultural product market system that combines national and regional networks, public-interest and market-oriented operations, physical and virtual networks, and wholesale and retail networks.
The Plan sets out key tasks for building China's agricultural product market system in 6 areas: strengthening the construction of agricultural product circulation infrastructure, cultivating and expanding agricultural product market entities, improving the agricultural product production-marketing linkage system, advancing the informatization of agricultural product circulation, maintaining the safe and stable operation of the agricultural product market, and establishing a mechanism for realizing the public-interest nature of the agricultural product market. It also proposes 6 measures to ensure the smooth implementation of the Plan, covering areas such as establishing and improving the legal, regulatory and standards system, reforming and innovating investment and financing methods, continuously improving the mechanism for guaranteeing construction land, striving to reduce the tax and fee burden on enterprises, giving full play to the role of industry associations, and effectively strengthening the organization and implementation of the Plan.
In addition, a major highlight of the Plan is that, for the first time, based on factors such as industrial resource endowments, population distribution and consumption capacity, and in conjunction with the national agricultural product market system planning layout, it proposes to plan and build a number of national public-interest agricultural product wholesale markets as well as regional public-interest agricultural product wholesale markets and retail outlets, forming a public-interest agricultural product market circulation network composed jointly of wholesale markets and retail outlets.
The release of the Plan will help improve the agricultural product market system and optimize the layout of the agricultural product circulation network; help accelerate the process of circulation modernization and improve the efficiency of agricultural product circulation; help enhance the capacity to serve “agriculture, rural areas and farmers” and promote agricultural development and increase farmers' incomes; help raise the level of public services and better satisfy the consumption needs of urban and rural residents; and help coordinate the development of both domestic and international markets and boost the competitiveness of the agricultural product circulation industry.