Farmers' grain payments are in arrears: who should be held responsible?

On one side are the grain-selling farmers who have not received their money; on the other side is Sinograin, which has already paid the grain payments. Recently, the incident of farmers' grain-selling payments being in arrears in Dingyuan County, Chuzhou City, Anhui Province, has drawn attention from all sides. Where exactly did the more than 20 million yuan in grain-selling payments go? And how should the grain payments owed to farmers be repaid? Reporters recently went to Dingyuan and Chuzhou to investigate.

Sinograin has paid, but farmers have not received the money

In 2014, the Sinograin Chuzhou Direct Warehouse rented the warehouse of Minsheng Rice Industry Co., Ltd. in Yongkang Town, Dingyuan County, to store state policy grain. Farmers in Hulu Village, Shandong Chen Village, Datang Village and other villages in Yongkang Town sold wheat and rice purchased at the state protective price to Minsheng Rice Industry, either themselves or through grain brokers.

Farmer Zhang Zhiyin sold rice to Minsheng Rice Industry on October 14 last year and has not received a single cent so far, "more than 23,000 yuan in total, I am extremely anxious, and I have gone to Minsheng Rice Industry many times to demand it."

Grain broker Chen Fang said: "There is still more than 1 million yuan in grain payments I have not received. I bought grain from farmers and sold it to the grain depot. This money is not mine, it is the money of more than 100 farming households." Chen Fang told reporters that he was not even owed the most; one grain broker was owed more than 3 million yuan.

Zhang Xinsheng, deputy general manager of Sinograin's Anhui Branch, said that according to the bank transaction records obtained and the local investigation, the Sinograin Chuzhou Direct Warehouse had already transferred the grain payments to the settlement cards of grain-selling brokers and farming households during the process of renting the Minsheng Rice Industry warehouse to collect grain, and had not issued "IOUs" or defaulted on grain payments.

The money has already been paid, so where did it go?

The investigation results from the Dingyuan County Grain Bureau in April this year show that in 2014, during its agency collection and storage business for Sinograin and COFCO (Xinliang Company), Minsheng Rice Industry owed payments to 21 grain brokers, amounting to 23,351,632 yuan, and to 138 farming households, amounting to 2,333,120 yuan, for a total of 25,684,752 yuan. It is understood that the 21 brokers involved more than 1,000 farming households.

Clearing arrears: a survey is currently being conducted to pay farmers their grain payments as soon as possible

How was the grain-selling payment that should have gone directly to farmers misappropriated by Minsheng Rice Industry?

Yang Fengping, deputy county magistrate of Dingyuan County, said that in the process of grain collection and storage, enterprises generally designate some large brokers, who first buy grain from farmers or small brokers and then sell it to the storage point. This is more convenient than each household selling grain itself, and there is no need to wait in long lines. These large brokers were designated by the person in charge of Minsheng Rice Industry, who would choose brokers with whom he had worked for a long time and had good relations, or even his own employees, to collect grain, and Sinograin ultimately transferred all the money to these people's cards. Yong Jun, the person in charge of Minsheng Rice Industry, used this grain payment that did not belong to him to repay loans and for capital turnover, originally hoping that after repaying the loans he could take out new loans to fill the funding gap, but the loan was not successful, resulting in a broken capital chain and the current situation.

After the incident of arrears in farmers' grain payments in Dingyuan was exposed, the relevant person in charge of the National Grain Administration rushed to Dingyuan to investigate. On July 16, the National Grain Administration issued the "Emergency Notice on Strictly Supervising and Seriously Investigating and Punishing the Practice of Issuing 'IOUs' to Grain-Selling Farmers," requiring relevant central grain enterprises to urge their directly affiliated enterprises and their warehouse-leasing grain storage points and entrusted collection and storage depots to strictly implement the state's grain purchase policy, take effective measures, strictly standardize the work processes of grain purchase and fund settlement, prevent any form of "IOU" problem, and effectively protect farmers' interests and their enthusiasm for growing grain.

On July 23, Yang Fengping told reporters that a working group composed of Sinograin and relevant Dingyuan County departments, with the assistance of the person in charge of Minsheng Rice Industry and some grain brokers, is currently checking the amount of grain payments owed household by household, and after clarifying the full amount, will clear the arrears as soon as possible. Sinograin confirmed this statement.

Farmers' interests have been harmed: who should be held responsible for this

A local grain enterprise executive who declined to be named said that the current situation was caused by Yong Jun, the person in charge of Minsheng Rice Industry, misappropriating other people's grain payments, but Sinograin also had supervisory omissions, which gave Yong Jun the opportunity to directly access and use these large sums of money.

In the Dingyuan County Grain Bureau's "Report on the Handling of the Arrears Owed by Anhui Minsheng Rice Industry Co., Ltd.," it was mentioned that the arrears were caused by reasons such as Minsheng Rice Industry privately reaching agreements with grain sellers and borrowing money from grain sellers.

Regarding the Grain Bureau's statement, reporters tracked down Yong Jun, who told reporters that it was true that he used the money, but there was no agreed loan or payment of interest. Yong Jun said that part of the arrears had been paid but not yet written off, and that the current arrears still amounted to about 20 million yuan.

As for the money owed to individual farmers, Yong Jun said that according to the practice of previous years, when farmers came to deliver grain, he would first advance cash himself, then take the farmers' red settlement slips to Sinograin for unified settlement. But last year, due to funding problems, after taking the farmers' settlement slips, he only gave the farmers an IOU. After he himself used the farmers' settlement slips to get money from Sinograin, he used it directly elsewhere and did not pay it to the farmers.

Zhu Qizhen, director of the Institute of Farmer Issues at China Agricultural University, said: "If farmers cannot get money for selling grain, it will inevitably affect their enthusiasm for growing grain. No matter which grain enterprise it is, it should understand that issuing 'IOUs' is a high-voltage line that must not be touched." Zhu Qizhen said that the problem that currently needs to be solved is to pay the farmers' arrears in grain payments as soon as possible. After subsequent investigation by relevant departments, it must be clarified whose responsibility it is, and it must be handled in accordance with the law and regulations, so that similar incidents harming farmers' interests cannot happen again.