Comprehensive Acceleration of Core Infrastructure Development for Internet Plus Agriculture
As one of the core elements of “Internet Plus”, the infrastructure development of agricultural internet is welcoming major policy support. The reporter recently learned from the National Development and Reform Commission that cold-chain logistics engineering construction in key agricultural product production areas, mainly in the central and western regions, will receive national funding support, and related construction projects have already entered the national major engineering package. Experts analyze that this move is expected to activate a market worth trillions of yuan in related industries and will have an obvious effect on stabilizing growth.
Data shows that modern agriculture has a very large demand for the logistics of bulk agricultural products, especially cold-chain logistics for fresh agricultural products, and it is in a channel of rapid growth. Taking 2014 as an example, in just one year the amount involved in national cold-chain logistics reached 3.74 trillion yuan, and the demand for cold-chain logistics reached 104.88 million tons, with a growth rate of 18%. However, China's agricultural product logistics is still in the early stage of development, with not only many circulation links but also high circulation costs, which is also the main factor currently restricting the development of rural e-commerce.
According to an investigation report by the Ministry of Agriculture, some rural areas are located in remote places, and the reach of logistics is not extensive enough. For example, people in the Taihang Mountain area of Huixian County, Henan Province, and the Qinba Mountain area of Baihe County, Shaanxi Province, report that after e-commerce receives orders and prepares local specialty products, no logistics company can be found locally, and vehicles must be organized to transport goods to the township or county seat, which increases e-commerce costs and is not conducive to the development of e-commerce enterprises, nor to connecting specialty products from remote areas with the large market. The development of the fresh agricultural product logistics industry is obviously lacking, such as gaps in preservation technology, storage capacity, and distribution strength, especially a relatively large gap in cold-chain logistics coverage.
Liu Xiaonan, deputy director of the Department of Trade and Economic Affairs of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that China's logistics industry is still a weak link in the economy. First, logistics infrastructure is relatively weak and cannot meet the requirements of modern logistics development. Second, the overall level of logistics informatization is not high. Some advanced network and information technologies have only just begun to be applied in the logistics industry, which is a factor restricting the development of the logistics industry. As important agricultural product production areas, many specialty agricultural products in the central and western regions currently have very poor circulation due to logistics constraints, and the problem of “difficulty in selling” is relatively prominent. In particular, cold-chain logistics development lags behind, enterprise scale is relatively small, and various links are not effectively connected, so rotting and deterioration during circulation are very likely to occur, which not only causes huge losses and waste, but also affects farmers' income growth and the consumption safety of urban residents.
“Compared with European and American countries where the cold-chain circulation rate can reach more than 90%, at China's current stage it can only reach 20% to 30%, and much of the so-called cold-chain logistics is not full-process cold chain.” Cui Xiaoqi, executive president of SF Best, said in an interview with the reporter that the operating process of full-process cold chain is very complex and the cost is very high, so many fresh food e-commerce enterprises make very large investments in this regard. At present, it seems that we can only look forward to the continuous improvement of China's overall cold-chain logistics in terms of technology, including the upgrading of warehousing facilities, so as to achieve the goal of reducing enterprise costs.
“In the implementation of the major engineering package for modern logistics, there are two important projects: first, the project to develop cold-chain logistics for agricultural products, and second, the project to develop urban and rural distribution. These two projects are very effective in improving the overall level of logistics, especially for the central and western regions, and can solve the two problems of ‘difficulty in selling’ and ‘expensive buying’.” Liu Xiaonan said. Not only that, given that the overall pressure on economic operation is still relatively large, most industries have excess capacity, and the potential market demand of the logistics industry is gradually increasing, increasing investment in the logistics industry also has an obvious effect on stabilizing growth.
The reporter learned that, in response to the development of rural e-commerce and its logistics industry, the government has frequently taken action recently and issued several heavyweight documents. Just two days ago, the State Council published the Guiding Opinions on Actively Promoting the “Internet Plus” Action, which proposed “Internet Plus” modern agriculture, building a new agricultural production and operation system relying on the internet, developing precise production methods, and cultivating diversified and networked service models. Five days ago, the Ministry of Finance issued guiding opinions on promoting moderate-scale agricultural operations, proposing to increase support for agricultural product circulation links, support leading enterprises in agricultural industrialization to develop warehousing and cold-chain logistics facilities, and extend production and marketing networks to townships and rural areas.
As for what specific measures should be taken to strengthen cold-chain logistics engineering construction, the Ministry of Agriculture pointed out in its investigation report that it recommends focusing on solving the logistics conditions for fresh agricultural products and giving policy preferences to enterprises engaged in the transportation of refrigerated and cold-chain agricultural products. It recommends issuing policies to encourage the construction of third-party public cold-chain logistics platforms and to effectively integrate and improve the utilization rate of logistics resources. For the logistics of bulk agricultural products, government transportation departments should give priority to scheduling and transport and provide appropriate subsidies for logistics costs. Agricultural product logistics vehicles for urban distribution should be given priority in handling relevant permits to facilitate temporary stops. Funding support policies should be issued to support the informatization development of cold storage. The scope of the Catalogue of Fresh Agricultural Product Varieties should be expanded to include frozen meat and aquatic products, and road and bridge tolls should be waived.