How can the agricultural film industry grow from big to strong?

To meet the needs of agricultural production, after years of technological innovation and scientific research and development, China's agricultural plastics products industry has created several world firsts: the world's number one in agricultural film production; the world's number one in agricultural film coverage area, of which plastic mulching film coverage area is 380 million mu, 1.6 times the total coverage area of all other countries in the world. China's agricultural plastics products industry took only 27 years to complete the entire process from imitation to independent development, turning a country that could only produce blank greenhouse film and blank mulching film made from resin into a major country of agricultural plastic films and products with more than 10 resin varieties and more than 40 product names.

This achievement was truly hard-won and is also a source of pride, but on calm reflection, now is really not yet the time for celebration. At the just-concluded annual meeting of the Agricultural Film Professional Committee of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, Cao Jian, executive vice chairman of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, pointed out: although China's agricultural film output ranks first in the world, accounting for 60.5% of the world's agricultural film output, and can be called a major agricultural film country, that is all. China is not a major agricultural film brand country, still less an agricultural film power. The agricultural film industry still has a long way to go to grow from big to strong.

Achievements: output firmly ranks first in the world, and industry technological progress is obvious

Cao Zhiqiang, director of the Agricultural Film Professional Committee, told a China Chemical Industry News reporter that 2014 was a year of relatively rapid development for China's agricultural film industry, with the national total agricultural film output reaching 2.6 million tons. Of this, greenhouse film was 1.18 million tons, with a coverage area of about 61.6 million mu; mulching film was 1.42 million tons, with a coverage area of about 380 million mu, ranking first in the world in both output and coverage area. The application of agricultural film has made tremendous contributions to increasing land output, enhancing agriculture's disaster resistance, and promoting the optimization of planting structure, and is playing an increasingly greater role in agricultural modernization and the building of a new countryside.

It is understood that the current development of China's agricultural film industry shows three characteristics.

First, output has returned to a high-speed growth trend. Before 2012, China's agricultural film output grew at a high rate of more than 10% for 3 consecutive years; affected by the international financial crisis, the agricultural film output growth rate fell to 7.74% in 2012; 2013 was a year of emerging from the trough, with the growth rate rebounding to 13.6%; entering 2014, the agricultural film industry maintained strong vitality, with the growth rate reaching 15.7%, returning to a high-speed growth trend, which continued into 2015; in the first quarter of this year, agricultural film output grew by nearly 20% year on year.

Second, agricultural film enterprises in central China are rising and growing rapidly. At present, Henan's agricultural film output is close to, and may even exceed, that of Shandong, playing a pivotal role in balancing the pattern of China's agricultural film industry.

Third, for the first time, the agricultural film output of major provinces in central and western China is higher than that of the eastern coastal provinces, and the center of gravity of China's agricultural film output is gradually shifting toward the central and western regions.

Of course, the rapid growth of production and sales in the agricultural film industry is closely related to the support of external environmental conditions. First, the overall domestic and international environment has provided good conditions for the rapid development of the agricultural film industry. Second, years of practice have made farmers realize that increasing production and income and getting rich depend on agricultural film. There is a well-said jingle: plant one greenhouse, and you escape poverty that very year; sell two greenhouses of melons, and you drive a car home; with three greenhouses of vegetables per household, you can even build a small building. This expresses farmers' recognition of agricultural film and their sense of achievement after increasing production and income, and is the enduring source of strength for the agricultural film industry. Third, compared with industrial modernization, the degree of agricultural modernization is much lower. Because the base level is relatively low, especially since the level of popularization in the central and western regions is not particularly high, the growth rate is relatively high in the initial stage, which has driven the rapid development of the agricultural film industry.

Tian Yan, deputy secretary-general of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, said that in recent years China's agricultural film industry has shown a vigorous development trend. It is expected to exceed 2.8 million tons in 2015.

Tian Yan said that in recent years, China's agricultural film industry has made many achievements.

First, the product structure has been optimized and the number of varieties has doubled. At the end of the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan", the proportion of high-grade, mid-grade and low-grade agricultural film products was 2%:38%:60%; by the end of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", this proportion will reach 5%:45%:50%, with both high-grade and mid-grade products increasing their share and low-grade products reducing their share by 10%. While the product structure was further optimized, agricultural film varieties increased from 20 at the end of the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" to more than 40 by the end of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan", doubling.

Second, industrial concentration has increased and excess capacity has been somewhat reduced. In 2010, there were only 30 backbone enterprises in the industry with an annual output of more than 10,000 tons, and only 50 enterprises with an annual output of 3,000 to 10,000 tons; at present, the numbers of these two types of enterprises have reached 42 and fewer than 100 respectively, and industrial concentration has increased somewhat.

Third, the industry's energy consumption per ton of product has dropped by more than 15%. During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, the share of mid- and high-grade agricultural film products increased from the original 40% to 50%, and the newly added 10% of products had their service life increased from less than 1 year to 2 to 3 years, or even longer. This means that with the same energy consumption, the equivalent of more than about 15% more products was produced, reducing the energy consumption per ton of product for the entire industry by more than 15%.

Fourth, scientific and technological achievements have been abundant, and breakthrough progress has been made in the research and development of high-end products. In 2014, the agricultural film industry received a total of 22 awards of various types from the China Plastics Processing Industry Association and the China National Light Industry Council, and these projects represent the advanced level of industry development. In addition, China has reached the world's advanced level in coating liquids, coating devices, and industrial production of coated films, among which the rapid detection method for anti-drip performance, thin weather-resistant functional films, and the development and industrialization of light-conversion films all rank among the world's forefront.