What should the government focus on when developing agricultural product e-commerce

In the recent national rotation training for directors of major agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery counties organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, agricultural product e-commerce became a hot topic. The directors believe that through e-commerce, agricultural products can go directly from production through logistics to consumption, reducing intermediate links and achieving smooth sales and value-added of agricultural products. But in concrete implementation, how to use e-commerce platforms and what role government departments should play remain controversial.

The directors reported that farmers and agricultural enterprises are enthusiastic about e-commerce. "In 2014, 36 of our agricultural products obtained relevant certifications, and we want to use e-commerce platforms to promote our agricultural products as quickly as possible," said Zang Jiamin of the Jinan Military Region Base in Hekou District, Dongying City, Shandong Province. Many local government departments are also vigorously promoting the integration of agricultural product production and sales with the "express train" of e-commerce. Wang Xingtian, director of the Zhaoyuan Agriculture Bureau in Yantai City, Shandong Province, introduced that Zhaoyuan City is planning to cooperate with third-party platforms and is negotiating with Alibaba and Taobao.

At present, joining third-party e-commerce platforms is the main method of online trading of agricultural products, which helps save costs. But selling agricultural products through e-commerce platforms has a "threshold." Han Hao, director of the Boxing County Agriculture Bureau in Shandong Province, said that Boxing County has two Taobao villages, Wantou Village and Gujia Village, with an annual transaction volume of about 400 million yuan. Farmers opening online stores on e-commerce platforms must pay fees after the free period ends. "Our primary agricultural products have relatively low added value and do not have that much profit margin. Moreover, after a few months of trial operation, if sales do not pick up, you may be kicked out." For this reason, he raised a question: "Is it possible for multiple places to cooperate in building a regional agricultural product e-commerce trading platform so that farmers can open stores for free?"

Niu Xiangyong, director of the Juye County Agriculture Bureau in Heze City, Shandong Province, believes that once agricultural product quality problems arise after agricultural departments build their own platforms, it is easy for responsibilities to become unclear. Zang Jiamin believes that e-commerce is a market behavior, that there are some drawbacks in the early stage, and that constraints and supervision are needed. Under the condition that agricultural product e-commerce development is not yet mature, he suggests that the government participate more in early-stage supervision and overall coordination.

Li Tiehu, director of the Changli County Agriculture Bureau in Hebei Province, proposed that agricultural departments should do early-stage work well, such as brand support and the construction of "three products and one label," "The added value of agricultural products is low, and their profit is not very high. In this regard, agricultural departments should provide more support. We manage production and manage products, and should not participate too much in sales."

Indeed, in developing agricultural product e-commerce, matters that the market can solve should be left to the market, while the government should do a good job in planning, formulate rules, and consolidate the foundation for agricultural product e-commerce development. But how to "borrow a boat to go to sea" in the use of e-commerce platforms is indeed a question that must be considered from the central level to the local level. Last year, the Ministry of Agriculture discussed cooperation with large e-commerce enterprises such as Alibaba and JD.com, carried out strategic cooperation on establishing a data-sharing mechanism, and at the same time strengthened the construction of agricultural product trading standards, quality traceability and the credit system of business entities, increased the disclosure of government information such as agricultural product certification and quality inspection, supported and guided various industry associations in carrying out offline agricultural product marketing organization work, and conducted research on aspects such as e-commerce application skills training. This may provide some ideas for local agricultural departments in handling agricultural product e-commerce work.