Minimum purchase price procurement of early indica rice launched first in Jiangxi and Hunan
On July 28, Hunan launched the early rice minimum purchase price execution plan throughout the province, marking the fifth time in three consecutive years that Hunan has activated the minimum purchase price plan.
As market prices have remained sluggish, in order to protect the interests of grain farmers, the relevant national authorities decided to launch the "2015 Early Indica Rice Minimum Purchase Price Execution Plan" in Jiangxi Province, with the specific implementation period running from July 28 to September 30.
This year Jiangxi Province enjoyed a bumper harvest of early indica rice. According to statistics, the province's early rice planting area this year was 20.8724 million mu, with total output expected to be around 16.2 billion jin, basically flat compared with last year. To do a good job in this year's early indica rice minimum purchase price procurement work, Jiangxi focused on several areas.
First, comprehensively prepare procurement warehouse capacity. In recent years the central government has continued to increase investment in building warehouses in Jiangxi Province, and local governments and relevant departments have actively supported the central government's warehouse construction projects, handling special matters with special procedures and urgent matters urgently, effectively increasing warehouse capacity supply. At the same time, the province's grain system adopted measures such as relocating urban warehouses to the suburbs, repairing old warehouses, promoting sales to free up warehouses and consolidating within counties to resolve the contradiction of insufficient warehouse capacity. According to the Provincial Grain Bureau, apart from a few main production areas, the province's early rice warehouse capacity this year can basically meet procurement needs.
Second, comprehensively guarantee the supply of procurement funds. According to data provided by the Agricultural Development Bank of China Jiangxi Provincial Branch, the province prepared 10 billion yuan in procurement funds, ensuring that money follows the grain, guaranteeing that money waits for grain and preventing grain from waiting for money, and eliminating the phenomenon of issuing “IOUs” to farmers.
Third, comprehensively provide quality services. To make it convenient for farmers to sell grain nearby, Jiangxi in the first batch established 562 entrusted procurement warehouse points throughout the province. Later, entrusted procurement warehouse points will be appropriately increased depending on procurement progress. The Jiangxi Provincial Government requires all minimum purchase price procurement warehouse points to provide warm and quality service to grain-selling farmers, actively promote “one-stop service”, complete quality inspection, weighing, warehousing and settlement in one go, minimize the waiting time for farmers selling grain and settling grain payments, and let grain-selling farmers sell “worry-free grain”.
Fourth, comprehensively maintain good procurement order. Encourage the reasonable flow of grain sources and prevent disorderly scrambling for grain sources.
All localities will do a good job in accepting reports and investigating and handling grain-related cases during the early rice procurement period, and severely crack down on all kinds of behavior that disrupt grain market order. Governments at all levels will organize and guide farmers to sell grain by appointment and at staggered times, prevent situations such as farmers forming “long queues” to sell grain and “overnight grain”, and ensure farmers sell grain in an orderly manner.
On July 28, Hunan launched the early rice minimum purchase price execution plan throughout the province, marking the fifth time in three consecutive years that Hunan has activated the minimum purchase price plan.
“Affected by the weak rice sales market, the price of early rice hovered around 123 yuan per 100 jin as soon as it came on the market, so minimum purchase price procurement is the general trend.” said Shen Zhiqiang, chairman of Hunan Ningxiang County Huaming Grain and Oil Food Co., Ltd. At present, the price at which local farmers sell early rice to enterprises is 125-128 yuan per 100 jin, while the lowest price at which China Grain Reserves Corporation purchases early rice for rotation is around 135 yuan per 100 jin. Private enterprises mainly focused on processing in early-stage procurement, processing new rice to supply the market first, but affected by rainy weather, they could not carry out large-volume procurement, and market procurement was somewhat flat.
Data from the Hunan Provincial Agricultural Commission shows that this year the province's early rice planting area was 22.1 million mu, an increase of 300,000 mu over last year, up 1.4%. On July 27, China Grain Reserves Corporation Hunan Branch, the Hunan Provincial Grain Bureau and the Agricultural Development Bank of China Hunan Provincial Branch held a press conference on early indica rice procurement in Changsha, initially confirming 368 storage procurement points and arranging special funds for early rice minimum purchase price procurement to openly purchase from society.