Vegetable Village Opens Field-Side Market, Making It Easier for Growers to Sell Their Produce

Pick on the way back, sell on return

A few minutes at the market is enough to learn prices and purchasing standards, without delaying farm work, and it also saves on transport costs.

In early spring, Bao Qunyan, a vegetable grower from Gaogongzhuang Township, Wei County, Hebei, pulled a cartload of freshly harvested tomatoes to the field-side market at the entrance of his village. This market is located in the central area of Gaogongzhuang Township and 6 surrounding specialized vegetable-growing townships, built at the 352-kilometer point of National Highway 106, with convenient transportation.

"Wei County's tomatoes come onto the market after the Spring Festival, missing the peak season of Shouguang, which comes onto the market before the New Year, and Xushui, which comes onto the market in April, so they can fetch a good price," Bao Qunyan said. Inside the market, 8 trading sheds are lined up in a row, covering a total area of 10,000 sq m. On the electronic display screen opposite the trading sheds, real-time market purchasing prices for major melon and vegetable varieties from all over the country are being shown.

Bao Qunyan began growing greenhouse vegetables in 1998. In the past, when there was no field-side market, after the tomatoes were picked they were loaded onto a three-wheeler and he would set out before dawn to sell them at a vegetable wholesale market more than ten kilometers away. "Now the market has been built at the field edge of the village. It only takes a few minutes to go around the market to learn the prices and purchasing standards, then go back, pick, and come back to sell. It doesn't delay farm work, and it also saves on transport costs."

Bao Qunyan said they now bring vegetables over in advance and do simple sorting. Those with good appearance and large size are sold to dealers and often fetch a good price.

Vegetable dealer Zhang Fengshan, who came from Zhengzhou, told the reporter that in the past they had to go to the fields and visit households one by one to purchase, which was time-consuming and laborious. Now that the market has been built at the field edge, it is convenient for dealers to learn about farmers' production processes and product conditions. Knowing the product quality thoroughly gives dealers the confidence to achieve added value, so naturally they dare to purchase at high prices.

Guo Jinglu, a manager of the Gaogongzhuang Township field-side market, introduced that in peak season there are more than 50 dealers in the market, with a daily trading volume of more than 1 million jin, and last year's annual trading volume reached 960 million jin. Previously, agricultural products from Wei County could at most be sold to a few surrounding counties. Now dealers from all over the country in the market have sold Wei County's agricultural products to Beijing, Tianjin, the northwest, and more than 10 provinces and cities south of the Yangtze River.

In Yongqing, Langfang, Hebei, there are 5 field-side markets like this built in specialized vegetable villages. Vegetables traded through field-side markets in Yongqing County have already accounted for 80% of the county's vegetable output.

Production and sales linkage ensures the quality of agricultural products

Dealers gathered at the market bring demand information from sales areas to the field edge, which to a certain extent can guide farmers to set production according to sales

In the central control room of the Gaogongzhuang Township field-side market, the display shows last year's total trading volume of vegetables and melons, the daily trading volume, and how many agricultural products went unsold that day. Guo Jinglu told the reporter that analysts will analyze the reasons for unsold goods in real time and formulate solutions.

These data also provide a basis for decision-making by relevant departments. In 2014, the Wei County Agriculture Bureau judged from the data that the northern tomato market would become severely saturated, and promptly guided two villages to adjust their planting structure, switching from growing tomatoes to growing cucumbers, avoiding oversupply and low prices hurting farmers.

The dealers gathered here also bring market information from sales areas to the field edge, guiding farmers to a certain extent to set production according to sales, making the connection between production and sales smoother.

"Sixty percent of the county's vegetables are traded here. Once there is a quality and safety problem with agricultural products, it will affect the reputation of the entire market. In 2012, we established an agricultural product quality testing center to guide vegetable growers in carrying out standardized and scientific planting and improve the quality of agricultural products," Guo Jinglu said.

"In the past, when growing vegetables, how much fertilizer to apply and how much pesticide to spray all depended on experience. Now all melons and vegetables entering the market must undergo spot checks, and those with excessive pesticide residues are not allowed in," vegetable grower Li Shusen told the reporter.

To the north of the market there is a cold storage facility of more than 700 cubic meters. What large growers cannot sell that day can still be stored in the market's cold storage, solving the past problem of fresh agricultural products having to be sold cheaply if not sold out that day.

Dealer Li Rui comes here to stock goods and supplies them directly to major supermarkets in Beijing. "After I purchase goods, I contact merchants to clean, process, and package them before they can enter the supermarket," Li Rui said. "If the market could provide processing and packaging services, it would avoid the losses from bulk transport and repeated packaging, and reduce costs."

At the Wawuxinzhuang field-side market in Yongqing County, a vegetable merchant from Beijing introduced that he had been buying vegetables at this market for six or seven years, making one trip a day to transport more than 7,000 jin of vegetables to Beijing. The field-side market has revitalized rural commerce and farmers' employment near Wawuxinzhuang. Along the village road leading to the market, there are more than 40 agricultural supply stores, and the small restaurants are also doing brisk business.

Policy support still needs to be increased

Field-side markets not only suffer from problems such as backward infrastructure and low management levels, but also face the dilemma of declining returns from vegetable planting year by year

While making it convenient for farmers to sell vegetables and improving their bargaining power, field-side markets are also gradually guiding them to change their production methods. However, at present the functions of some field-side markets are still limited. To realize the goal of agricultural products being "transportable, storable, sellable, and profitable," support still needs to be increased.

In Yongqing, because the field-side markets are all public-benefit markets run by cooperatives, with limited funds, problems such as backward infrastructure and low management levels are common, restricting the realization of product collection and distribution, radiation and driving effects, information dissemination, and commercialization processing functions.

"Just these few sheds - we can only build one after earning some money. Without investment from big bosses and government financial support, it all depends on our own accumulation," said Chen Tingke, deputy secretary of the Party branch of Wawuxinzhuang Village.

In 2011, the Hebei Province Vegetable Industry Demonstration County Construction Project supported the Wawuxinzhuang market with more than 200,000 yuan; in 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture's field-side market demonstration project supported the market with 200,000 yuan. With government support, the construction of this field-side market is gradually unfolding.

The field-side market in Gaogongzhuang Township is "privately run and privately built." Owner Guo Jianqiu said that although returns in 2014 were still decent, market development still faces the worry of being "squeezed from inside and outside."

The internal factor comes from the development bottleneck encountered by the market itself. Guo Jianqiu's field-side market was built in 2001, entirely with personal funds, with cumulative investment of more than 20 million yuan.

Due to area limitations, the market currently trades only a few common vegetables such as tomatoes and eggplants. He wants to expand the area, but it is difficult to achieve. Over the years, land rent has risen from less than 100 yuan per mu at the beginning to 1,000 yuan now. "The price increase is not the main issue. The hard part is that even if the rent is higher, the land still cannot be rented," Guo Jianqiu said.

Another bottleneck is funding. Because the land is rented, it cannot be used as collateral, and Guo Jianqiu cannot get a bank loan. Over the years, he has invested a little whenever he earned a little. "When market returns are good, profits are only 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. Expanding the market scale to 200 mu would be quite difficult," Guo Jianqiu said.

The external factor is that the returns from vegetable planting have declined year by year, and the county's planting area has shown a decreasing trend. In Wei County, young people choose to go out to work, and those growing vegetables are all left-behind elderly people over 45 years old, with limited energy and relatively backward management techniques. Bao Qunyan's greenhouse covers 1.1 mu and had a net profit of more than 70,000 yuan last year. The returns are considerable, but 60-year-old Bao Qunyan said that after two more years he really will not be able to keep growing.

The market's profit model is to take 1 fen of profit for every 1 jin of agricultural products traded. "If vegetable production decreases, market profits will inevitably decline." It is precisely for this reason that Guo Jianqiu plans to add several more trading sheds, enrich the variety of traded goods, and strengthen risk resistance.

It is understood that the Wei County Agriculture Bureau plans this year to clean up idle vegetable greenhouses and attract large operators through investment promotion to engage in vegetable planting, ensuring that each township along National Highway 106 adds 300 mu of protected vegetables and 500 mu of open-field vegetables.