State Administration of Grain on Further Advancing the Industrialization of Staple Foods
Guo Liang Zhan [2012] No. 164
Guiding Opinions of the State Administration of Grain on Further Advancing the Industrialization of Staple Foods
and Enhancing the Capacity to Guarantee Staple Ration Supply
To the grain bureaus of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, cities under separate state planning, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and the General Administration of State Farms of Heilongjiang Province; China Grain Reserves Corporation, COFCO Corporation, China Hualiang Logistics Corporation, and China Zhongfang Corporation:
In order to earnestly implement the spirit of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on accelerating agricultural science and technology innovation and continuously enhancing the supply guarantee capacity of agricultural products, fully implement the Outline of the 12th Five-Year Development Plan for the grain industry and the 12th Five-Year Development Plan for the grain and oil processing industry, accelerate the transformation of the grain industry development mode, promote the transformation and upgrading of the grain and oil processing industry, and adapt to the new consumer demand of urban and rural residents for staple rations, this Administration has decided through study to further advance the industrialization of staple foods during the “12th Five-Year” period, and comprehensively enhance the capacity to guarantee staple ration supply for urban and rural residents. The National Development and Reform Commission attaches great importance to advancing the industrialization of staple foods, and together with this Administration has conducted joint research and put forward the following guiding opinions:
I. Fully Understand the Great Significance of Advancing the Industrialization of Staple Foods
Staple foods are the main grain finished products that urban and rural residents must consume in daily life, including both staple food products such as cooked rice, steamed buns, noodles, and coarse grains, as well as staple food raw materials such as rice and wheat flour. The industrialization of staple foods is a new mode of staple food industry development with Chinese dietary characteristics, formed in the process of building the entire grain industry chain from field to dining table, with the main features of base-oriented grain production, industrialized staple food processing, and socialized marketing and supply.
In recent years, China's staple food industry has gone through stages of initial industrialization, scale expansion, and accelerated industrialization development, initially forming a new development pattern featuring diversified entities, large-scale raw material products, diversified staple food products, integrated production-supply-marketing, technological processes, and distinctive brands. At present, the industrialization of staple foods is showing a good momentum of vigorous development. However, compared with the level of staple food industrialization in developed countries and regions around the world, there is still a large gap, and there are also problems that urgently need to be solved, such as a relatively low degree of industrialization, backward equipment and technology, staple food safety needing to be strengthened, and a low market share.
In the process of comprehensively building a moderately prosperous society in China, advancing the industrialization of staple foods is of great significance: First, it is an important “livelihood project” that adapts to the upgrading of the consumption patterns of urban and rural residents, guarantees the new needs of military and civilian food supply, and ensures the safety of staple grain and oil foods; Second, it is an important measure to promote the structural adjustment of the grain industry, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the grain and oil processing industry, and revitalize the grain industry; Third, it is an effective means to enhance the added value and market competitiveness of grain and oil products, and promote increased farmer income and improved enterprise efficiency; Fourth, it is an important way to transform the development mode of the grain industry, enhance the capacity to guarantee staple ration supply, and promote the coordinated development of new industrialization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization.
II. Guiding Ideology, Basic Principles, and Main Objectives
(1) Guiding ideology. Taking scientific development as the theme, accelerating the transformation of the economic development mode as the main line, safeguarding national food security and safeguarding and improving people's livelihood as the purpose, enhancing the capacity to guarantee staple ration supply and improving the quality of life of urban and rural residents as the goal, scientific and technological progress and equipment innovation as the guide, adhering to the path of new industrialization with Chinese characteristics, and using an industrialized operation model to accelerate the process of industrialization of staple foods represented by traditional steamed and boiled rice and flour products, and strive to build a diversified and multi-level modern staple food industry system.
(2) Basic principles. Adhere to the principles of market orientation, government guidance, and enterprise operation; adhere to the principles of mechanism innovation, diversified entities, and mutual benefit and win-win; adhere to the principles of high quality and nutrition, health and deliciousness, and economy and convenience; adhere to the principles of scientific and technological support, quality and safety, and advanced equipment; adhere to the principles of adapting to local conditions, highlighting characteristics, and steadily advancing.
(3) Main objectives. By 2015, the proportion of industrialized staple foods will increase significantly, with the proportion of industrialized flour-based staple foods increasing to about 30%, and the proportion of industrialized rice-based staple foods increasing to about 20%; optimize and improve traditional staple food production processes, with the self-sufficiency rate of processing equipment reaching over 60%; food safety levels will be significantly improved, and a number of well-known brands with high market share will be cultivated; cultivate and strengthen a number of large leading enterprises in staple food industrialization with strong independent innovation capability, high degree of intensification, and leading positions in the industry, and form a number of mutually supporting, functionally complementary, and closely connected staple food industrialization cluster demonstration zones; establish a military-civilian integrated, peacetime-wartime combined, suitable for both military and civilian use, and emergency support capable military grain staple food supply system. Make the finished grain emergency processing and supply system more complete, significantly raise the level of staple food industrialization development, and significantly enhance the capacity to guarantee staple ration supply.
III. Accelerate the Structural Adjustment and Development of the Staple Food Industry
(4) Accelerate the development of new staple food products and promote industrial upgrading. Vigorously develop the staple food processing industry, enrich varieties, increase the proportion of high-quality, new, and specialty products, promote the industrialization, convenience, and popularization of traditional rice, flour, and coarse grain staple foods, improve ready-to-eat characteristics, and ensure quality; accelerate the development of serialized, diversified, nutritious, and dedicated staple food raw material products, increase the proportion of dedicated rice for rice-based foods, dedicated flour for flour-based foods, whole wheat flour, and nutritionally fortified flour, vigorously advocate moderate processing, and promote scientific and healthy consumption; vigorously develop various flour-based staple foods such as steamed buns, noodles (dried noodles, fresh wet noodles), and dumplings, and upgrade product quality; actively develop rice-based staple foods such as instant rice, rice noodles (rice vermicelli), and rice porridge, and raise the level of large-scale production; actively develop quick-frozen and instant rice, flour, and coarse grain staple food products of various specifications and flavors, expand scale, improve processes, and raise the level of energy saving and consumption reduction.
(5) Implement the staple food industrialization project and give play to the demonstration role. Give play to the advantages of backbone enterprises, and build or renovate a number of high-quality flour-based staple food processing demonstration bases in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, and other places; build and renovate a number of high-quality rice-based staple food processing demonstration bases in the Northeast region and Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, and other places; develop staple foods and convenience foods based mainly on coarse grains in North China, Northwest China, Southwest China, and other regions. Realize the industrialization of staple food production, product standardization, and community-based distribution. Build and renovate a number of standardized, mechanized, and large-scale large staple food production and processing centers, support the establishment of pilot integrated staple food cold chain logistics distribution systems, and effectively enhance their processing, distribution, and quality and safety guarantee capabilities.
(6) Cultivate staple food industrialization enterprises and promote clustered development. Encourage leading enterprises to vigorously develop grain contract farming, establish production bases, drive the structural adjustment of high-quality and dedicated grain production, and form a whole-industry-chain development model integrating planting, procurement and storage, processing, and marketing. Guide leading enterprises to effectively connect with farmers and cooperatives, form stable purchase and sales relationships, and share development achievements. Support the formation of a number of large groups with core competitiveness through mergers, restructuring, acquisitions, holding, and joint operations. Make scientific plans, rational layouts, rely on large processing enterprises, strengthen the construction of public service platforms such as grain and oil food processing, warehousing, logistics facilities, quality inspection and testing, and information processing, build a number of modern staple food processing parks with distinctive features, and guide enterprises to cluster in the parks. Support major grain provinces in developing into strong grain provinces, support Henan and other provinces in building staple food industrialization cluster demonstration zones, cultivate industrial clusters, and advance intensive operation and large-scale development.
(7) Innovate circulation methods and improve the staple food supply system. Integrate grain industry resources, encourage staple food industrialization enterprises to combine with “reassuring grain and oil stores”, military grain supply stations, and grain and oil emergency supply points, make full use of existing supply outlets, increase outlet business operations, reduce site establishment costs, and achieve mutual benefit. With existing large staple food processing, wheat processing, rice processing, grain and oil warehousing enterprises, and military grain supply enterprises as the main body, fully tap and utilize resource advantages such as existing land, factories, talent, technology, and sales networks, and realize strong-strong enterprise alliances or low-cost expansion. Encourage existing advantageous staple food processing enterprises to build new logistics distribution networks and optimize outlet layouts. Explore new business models, innovate staple food circulation methods, and encourage vigorous development of chain operations, direct-sale stores, distribution centers, reassuring grain stores, reassuring staple food specialty stores, factory-store connections, school-enterprise connections, and e-commerce, and actively carry out direct sales and direct supply.
(8) Strengthen scientific and technological innovation and improve core competitiveness. Effectively integrate grain science and technology resources, establish collaborative innovation mechanisms, promote close integration of industry, academia, and research, face industry needs, and through major national science and technology projects for staple food industrialization, conduct in-depth research on the mechanisms by which raw material formulas, process selection, and process indicators affect the structure and quality of staple food components, focus on advancing innovation and industrialization of key technologies and equipment such as modern processing of traditional staple foods, whole grain food processing, anti-aging and freshness preservation, ultra-high pressure processing, extrusion processing, quality evaluation methods, and quality and safety traceability, and enhance the overall technical level of the staple food processing industry. Encourage leading enterprises to increase investment in staple food scientific research, establish enterprise research and development centers, and cultivate science and technology-oriented leading enterprises with strong market competitiveness. Strengthen the construction of innovation platforms and industrial innovation alliances such as national enterprise technology centers, national engineering laboratories, and engineering (technology) research centers for flour-based and rice-based staple foods.
(9) Accelerate enterprise technological progress and transformation and improve equipment levels. Encourage and support independent brand enterprises with a certain foundation to increase technological progress and technological transformation efforts, support the promotion and application of new processes, new technologies, new materials, and new equipment and the industrialization of new products, optimize production processes, appropriately learn from and introduce foreign advanced technology and equipment, and accelerate the improvement of enterprise processes, equipment levels, and core competitiveness. Support small enterprises in improving production conditions, raising technical levels, and developing “specialized, refined, distinctive, and novel” products. In the field of quick-frozen staple foods, accelerate energy-saving and emission-reduction technological transformation, and accelerate the promotion of new high-efficiency and energy-saving processes and equipment. Strengthen research and development of staple food equipment with independent intellectual property rights, accelerate the self-sufficiency of processing equipment for steamed buns, fresh wet noodles, instant rice, coarse grain staple foods, and quick-frozen staple foods, promote intelligent production processes and digital production equipment, improve automation levels, rely on backbone enterprises, and support the construction of a number of complete sets of staple food processing equipment manufacturing bases.
(10) Improve the staple food quality and safety guarantee system to ensure consumption safety. Improve the construction of the staple food quality standard system, accelerate the formulation and revision of staple food product standards, hygiene standards, safety production technical specifications, and testing method standards with Chinese characteristics, strictly implement grain and oil food quality standards, strengthen whole-process food safety control, and ensure product quality and safety. Strengthen the construction of staple food safety inspection and monitoring capacity, meet enterprises' needs for rapid testing of quality and safety indicators such as pesticide residues, mycotoxins, and heavy metals in raw and auxiliary materials, semi-finished products, and finished products, and build a staple food quality and safety guarantee system with complete institutions, controllable risks, and effective supervision. Accelerate the construction of grain and oil food safety risk monitoring and management systems and information networks, establish and improve grain and oil food safety databases and early warning systems, and prevent and control grain and oil food safety risks. Support the establishment of pilot staple food quality and safety traceability systems and recall and delisting systems, and comprehensively improve the level of staple food processing and circulation safety guarantees. Support demonstration provinces in carrying out industrialization staple food quality and safety guarantee system and supervision work centered on demonstration bases and grain and oil quality inspection institutions, and ensure product quality and safety.
(11) Implement the brand-driven strategy and enrich the cultural connotation of staple foods. Guide staple food processing enterprises to transform from making products to making brands simultaneously, with advantageous backbone enterprises as the main body, and through means such as independent innovation, brand management, trademark registration, and patent applications, cultivate a number of nationally known brands with independent intellectual property rights, core technologies, and strong market competitiveness. Give play to the brand diffusion effect and aggregation effect, promote brand integration, expand the market share of well-known brands, and enhance enterprise core competitiveness. Practice the concept of “seeking benefits for farmers and bringing benefits to consumers”, enrich and develop the scientific connotation of staple food culture, closely combine brand cultivation with product development and technological innovation, and increase brand added value.
(12) Improve the emergency supply system and serve macro-control. Combine the construction of the staple food industrialization system with the construction of the finished grain emergency processing and supply system, and strengthen the construction of supply channel outlets in large and medium-sized cities and key areas. Actively develop urban and rural markets, promote chain operations and carry out high-quality services, and guarantee staple food supply and food safety for urban and rural residents and the military. In mega-cities and provincial capitals in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, Chengdu-Chongqing, and other regions, as well as other key areas, rely on large processing enterprises, improve emergency processing, supply, and storage and transportation systems, rationally lay out emergency supply outlets, and ensure the effective supply of staple food products during emergencies.
IV. Vigorously Implement, Strengthen Organizational Leadership, and Coordinate Overall Planning
(13) Strengthen organizational leadership. Advancing the industrialization of staple foods is a government-guided livelihood project. The National Development and Reform Commission shall strengthen guidance and coordination of staple food industrialization policies. The State Administration of Grain shall be responsible for the organization and implementation of the guiding opinions, specific deployment, implementation of relevant policies, and solid advancement of various tasks. Provincial-level grain administrative departments shall strengthen communication, coordination, and support with development and reform and other departments in the implementation of the guiding opinions, effectively implement responsibilities, refine target tasks, and ensure the smooth completion of the target tasks of the guiding opinions. Grain administrative departments at all levels shall regard staple food industrialization as a major event with overall and directional significance in developing the modern grain circulation industry, vigorously seek the support of governments at all levels, effectively strengthen organizational leadership over staple food industrialization development, and incorporate staple food industrialization into the overall and special plans for local economic and social development. Establish and improve working mechanisms for inter-departmental communication and consultation, strengthen collaboration and cooperation, implement responsibility division, and form a work synergy. In conjunction with the implementation of projects such as the “Reassuring Grain and Oil into Villages and Communities Project”, “Staple Food Kitchen Project”, “Breakfast Project”, “Ten Thousand Villages and One Thousand Townships Market Project”, “Rural Compulsory Education Student Nutrition Improvement Plan”, and “Military Grain Supply Staple Food Platform Construction Project”, relevant departments shall form a strong collaborative mechanism, study and solve major problems in development, and ensure the smooth advancement of staple food industrialization.
(14) Implement preferential policies. Implement relevant national policies supporting the development of leading enterprises, screen a number of staple food industrialization enterprises, and recommend them for inclusion in the scope of key national agricultural industrialization leading enterprises. Increase financial support for staple food industrialization enterprises and industrial park construction. Actively guide social funds to invest in the field of staple food industrialization. Policy-based financial institutions such as the Agricultural Development Bank of China shall increase support for fixed asset investment, agricultural product procurement, and financing and credit granting of leading enterprises. Earnestly implement national tax preferential policies for agricultural product primary processing enterprises, and study and revise value-added tax policies for staple food processing.
(15) Strengthen industry guidance. The State Administration of Grain shall strengthen guidance, coordination, and services for the development of the grain and oil processing industry and staple food industrialization, organize and implement staple food industrialization demonstration projects, improve the national statistical survey system for the grain and oil processing industry, conduct special surveys on staple food industrialization, and provide a basis for studying and formulating industrial policies. Provincial-level grain administrative departments shall implement industry plans and these guiding opinions, coordinate the advancement of staple food industrialization, make scientific layouts, guide the construction of key projects and key parks through planning, conscientiously summarize and learn from the typical experiences of staple food industrialization in various places, and in accordance with the spirit of these opinions and in light of local realities, promptly study and formulate implementation opinions. Give play to the role of intermediary organizations such as grain industry associations and grain and oil societies, strengthen industry self-discipline, regulate enterprise behavior, and serve members and farmers. Grain administrative departments at all levels shall, together with relevant departments, strengthen publicity and guidance, create a good atmosphere in which the whole society cares about and supports the development of staple food industrialization and leading enterprises, and promote the healthy, coordinated, and sustainable development of staple food industrialization. All localities shall promptly report their local plans for advancing staple food industrialization, as well as new situations and new problems encountered in the implementation process, to the State Administration of Grain.
August 24, 2012