Building China's grain brands urgently requires making quality the core competitiveness
China's grain brand building is still generally backward, grain brands have not formed a joint force, and there are few brands with international influence. The grain industry is entering an era of large-scale circulation and large-scale integration. Cultivating large grain merchants requires great boldness. China should, from a strategic height, support the development of modern grain processing enterprises, guide enterprises to strengthen integration internally and strengthen alliances externally, promote industrial restructuring, and cultivate a group of large grain merchants with international competitiveness.
On the excellent foundation of China's consecutive grain harvests, how can we resolve the contradiction between the growth in grain quantity, the improvement of quality and safety levels, and the upgrading of consumer demand? Advancing grain branding has found us a practical and feasible path.
Regional grain brands are emerging
Through models such as government guidance, enterprise as the main body, market operation, policy support, and funding support, brand cultivation and integration have been advanced, and a number of regional grain brands have emerged.
Through years of grain branding, China has formed some regional grain brands, such as Beidahuang rice and Wuchang rice from Heilongjiang, corn from Gongzhuling City in Jilin, Panjin rice from Liaoning, Jingzhou rice from Hubei, and high-quality wheat from Hebei. Such grain brands have become important resources for regional economic development.
At Dongfu Rice Industry Co., Ltd. in Dahuangdi Village, Gudianzao Town, Changyi District, Jilin City, Jilin Province, the production workshop paved with floor tiles is spotless, and two rice processing production lines operate in full enclosure. Dongfu Rice Industry Co., Ltd. is a national-level key leading enterprise in agricultural industrialization with rice planting and rice processing as its main business, and the "Dahuangdi" it produces is a well-known brand of rice in Jilin Province. General Manager Liu Yanfeng told an Economic Daily reporter that their company has 4500 hectares of green rice planting base and 600 hectares of organic rice planting base. To ensure the quality of the rice, the company ensures the quality of paddy from the source. When many enterprises complain about the high minimum purchase price for paddy, Dongfu Rice Industry Co. purchases paddy at a price far above the minimum purchase price. "Our organic rice and green rice sell very well. Although the paddy price is high, the profit is still considerable, because we have a brand."
Taking the path of branding has become a consensus in the grain industry. Jilin Province is an important major grain-producing area. In recent years, Jilin Province has promoted rice brand building and integrated rice brands within the region. Rice brands represented by "Meihe Rice," "Yanbian Rice," and "Yushu Rice" have performed very strikingly in major sales areas such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Fujian. Today, with the help of "Internet Plus," Jilin rice has successfully launched on Taobao. It is understood that Jilin Province is currently stepping up the formulation of a rice brand building plan, and through geographical trademark certification, it will improve the reputation of Jilin rice.
Likewise, Hubei Province, a longstanding major grain-producing area, is changing its situation of having quality and quantity but no brands. Through models such as government guidance, enterprise as the main body, market operation, policy support, and funding support, brand cultivation and integration have been advanced. Well-known brands such as Fuwa and Qiaomi have continued to emerge, driving regional economic development and increasing farmers' incomes. "At present, Hubei grain is advancing toward branding. Our goal is to let Hubei people eat Hubei grain and let more consumers nationwide eat Hubei grain," said Xiong Guibin, deputy director of the Hubei Provincial Grain Bureau.
Grain quality is the core competitiveness
To establish a grain brand, the key is to ensure good grain quality control and minimize quality and safety risks from every link of grain production, storage, processing, and sales.
The establishment of the "Beidahuang" brand benefited from Beidahuang Group's strict control over quality. The reporter once interviewed Beidahuang grain bases, processing enterprises, scientific research institutions, and direct-sales product stores, and they strictly controlled quality at every link of the long industrial chain from field to table. In the grain production link, by developing contract agriculture, they uniformly provide farmers with seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides, and strictly control the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. In the processing link, from raw grain procurement and processing to rice warehousing and outgoing storage, strict quality inspections are carried out to ensure that warehoused products and outgoing products are 100% qualified. The person in charge of Beidahuang Group Yingchun Rice Milling Company said that the company's rice has as many as more than 100 inspection items from planting to processing, more than 60 items more than the national standard. In the sales link, the company established a market supervision department to conduct regular and irregular open and secret inspections in the market.
To establish a grain brand, the key is to ensure good grain quality control and minimize quality and safety risks from every link of grain production, storage, processing, and sales.
To control grain quality, many enterprises have chosen to extend the industrial chain upstream and establish grain source bases. Hubei Fuwa Group has now built more than 10,000 mu of organic rice production base, and in the next 3 to 5 years the ecological rice planting area will be expanded to 100,000 mu. The construction of ecological agriculture bases is the foundation for Fuwa Company to ensure rice processing quality and maintain core competitiveness.
In recent years, the domestic grain industry has fully implemented the "Safe Grain and Oil" project, scientific and technological innovation for grain quality and safety is flourishing, and a nationwide grain quality inspection and monitoring system has been fully established. A relevant person in charge of the National Grain Administration said that all grain and oil production and operation enterprises must assume the main responsibility for quality and safety and firmly hold the bottom line of grain quality and safety.
There is an urgent need to cultivate China's large grain merchants
To promote grain brand building, it is necessary to strengthen overall coordinated planning for grain brands, rely on advantageous industries, take advantageous products as the core, and build grain brands with Chinese characteristics.
As a major grain-producing country and major consuming country, China's grain brands still have very little influence in the world and lag far behind internationally renowned brands.
The main reason for this situation is that China's grain brand building is still generally backward. For example, grain brands have not formed a joint force, there is a lack of overall planning and policy support for grain brands, the market supervision mechanism is not sound, counterfeit and shoddy products seriously damage well-known grain brands, the grain brand marketing system is not sound, there are too many channel links, too many channel entities, and a low degree of channel organization.
Therefore, to promote grain brand building, it is necessary to give play to the role of enterprises as market entities and the government's role in supervision and guidance, and form a joint force for brand building. For example, in integrating grain brands, domestic grain brands are currently "many and miscellaneous," but their internal competitiveness is not strong and their external influence is relatively small. The market share of each grain enterprise brand is relatively low, and they are neither of scale nor conducive to publicity and promotion. In this regard, relevant departments should strengthen overall coordinated planning for grain brands, rely on advantageous industries, take advantageous products as the core, and build grain brands with Chinese characteristics.
Some major grain-producing areas rely on the construction of local grain markets, actively publicize local grain brands, broaden sales channels for grain products, and provide all-round services such as wholesale trading, display and direct sales, logistics distribution, e-commerce, and information release with advanced concepts and models, promoting the appreciation of grain brands.
At present, the grain industry is entering an era of large-scale circulation and large-scale integration, and the four major international grain merchants control 80% of global grain trade volume. Domestically, although the competitiveness of large grain enterprises such as COFCO Group, Beijing Grain Group, and Shanghai Grain and Oil is becoming stronger and stronger, overall China's grain processing enterprises are small in scale, scattered in layout, and have few influential brands. China should, from a strategic height, support the development of modern grain processing enterprises, guide enterprises to strengthen integration internally and strengthen alliances externally, and promote industrial restructuring; support qualified grain enterprises in "going global" and cultivate a group of Chinese large grain merchants with international competitiveness.