Why can't the agricultural product processing industry be separated from the fields?

The agricultural product processing industry is connected to the fields at one end and reaches toward the consumer market at the other. This characteristic of linking primary, secondary and tertiary industries determines the special importance of the agricultural product processing industry to agricultural regions. To some extent, it is an important lever for accelerating the transformational development of agricultural regions and the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries. Yueyang City in Hunan Province is a major agricultural city in the central region. Over the years, it has persistently intensified its efforts in the field of agricultural product processing, which has not only promoted the extension of the agricultural product processing industry both upstream and downstream, but also driven the integrated development of modern agriculture and the processing industry, providing a vivid example of how traditional agricultural regions can transform and develop in step with the times.

⟦NL> The agricultural product processing industry cannot be separated from the fields, otherwise it becomes water without a source and loses its effective driving role for local agriculture, rural areas and farmers. From this point of view, the development approach of “based in agriculture, benefiting farmers, and benefiting rural areas” is highly realistic and targeted for advancing the agricultural product processing industry. Specifically, cultivating and strengthening new types of agricultural operating entities is currently a major theme in agricultural development under the new situation. How to guide new types of operating entities to continuously make breakthroughs in standardized and large-scale production -- modern agricultural product processing has a direct and powerful leading role in this. Because only when the processing industry is strong and robust can the source of planting and breeding become a river of living water.

So, under the new situation, how can the integrated development of the agricultural product processing industry with primary, secondary and tertiary industries be promoted? Building standardized industrial bases becomes the first foothold for the development of the agricultural product processing industry. This foothold requires all localities to proceed from the actual conditions of regional industries, find their advantages in optimizing regional layout, highlight their characteristics, and ultimately reflect their distinctive features. For example, Yueyang City is located along the Yangtze River, and the waters of Dongting Lake are a natural production base for distinctive agricultural products. To this end, relying on this broader trend, Yueyang City has gradually formed an advantageous industrial pattern of “one belt, two lines and multiple blocks.”

The building of standardized industrial bases must also be combined with innovation in agricultural organization. China's agriculture has long been a small-scale production mode involving millions of households, and this production mode is difficult to directly connect with the standardized production required by agricultural product processing. How to link the development of the processing industry with innovation in the way farmers are organized requires local governments to play a role in organizational coordination, regulation and guidance. It is necessary both to let processing enterprises organize farmers through methods such as land transfer and contract production, and to play a role of encouragement and supervision in this process, promoting the effective combination of various production factors that can achieve win-win outcomes for agricultural enterprises, and realizing the true modernization of the processing industry, planting and breeding industries, and farmers. In the past, Yueyang City had many and mixed varieties of agricultural products such as high-quality rice, live pigs, fruits and vegetables, and rapeseed, with a low rate suitable for processing. Now, business models such as “processing and distribution enterprises + specialized cooperatives + bases + farmer households” are profoundly changing this situation.

While promoting the innovative development of agricultural organization, the focus of agricultural product processing industry development lies in the industry itself. Resource endowments, industrial characteristics and traditional culture differ across localities. If the processing industry tries to cover everything, it may create a situation with piles of generic products, leading to low-end competition and homogenized competition. This is a problem commonly faced by the agricultural product processing industry at present. Therefore, limited funds must be used on key points, that is, highlighting key industries, key enterprises, key brands and key parks. By highlighting these key points, one industry can drive the prosperity of many, and related supporting industries can also thrive.

Over the years, Yueyang City has developed in exactly this way. In terms of cultivating advantageous industries, in the past Yueyang City had many and mixed agricultural products, with nothing particularly prominent. Now, its advantageous industries are concentrated in areas such as grain, feed, oil crops, vegetables, tea, and poultry and livestock. In terms of cultivating leading enterprises, Yueyang implemented the “1351” leading enterprise development plan, focusing on building a group of large processing leading enterprises with large scale, strong strength, high technological level and long industrial chains among 49 leading enterprises at or above the provincial level. In brand integration, Yueyang City, with 27 well-known agriculture-related brands as leaders, promoted the clustering of similar products toward well-known brands and promoted the cultivation of 1 to 2 backbone brands for each leading agricultural industry. In concentrating industries into parks, following the principles of reasonable layout, industrial clustering, supporting functions, prominent characteristics and intensive development, Yueyang has already formed parks such as the Xiangyin Yangshahu Industrial Park and the Pingjiang Wushi Industrial Park.

The other end of the agricultural product processing industry is the downstream market. The broader the downstream market, the more active the development of the processing industry. In the traditional pattern, agricultural product processing lacked both the ability to develop products and, even more, the ability to open up markets. If modern agricultural product processing is to become a platform for the integrated development of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, it must break out of this traditional pattern and stay closer to consumption and trends in product development and market development. At present, the agricultural product processing industry is facing such a rare opportunity. The tertiary industry, represented by leisure agriculture, is showing an increasingly active trend, providing new and huge space for the development of the agricultural product processing industry.