Advancing Modern Agriculture Through Brand Strategy
On March 9, the second plenary meeting of the third session of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was held at the Great Hall of the People. Zhu Baocheng, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and president of the China Agricultural Products Development and Service Association, on behalf of Niu Dun, former vice minister of the Ministry of Agriculture, Liu Pingjun, chairman of the China Brand Building Promotion Association, Liu Shenli, chairman of China Agricultural Development Group Co., Ltd., and Xue Liang, president of the China Vegetable Association, delivered a joint speech to the congress titled “Implementing Brand Strategy to Develop Modern Agriculture,” putting forward many suggestions on formulating agricultural brand development plans, support policies, standard systems, brand directory systems and other aspects.
Zhu Baocheng said that General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to brand building and has stated that “brands are the condensation of credibility,” that “we must vigorously cultivate food brands and use brands to ensure people's confidence in product quality,” and that we must “promote the transformation of Chinese products into Chinese brands.” This year's No. 1 Central Document made important arrangements for vigorously developing famous, special, excellent and new agricultural products and cultivating well-known brands. Implementing the agricultural brand strategy has become an urgent task for promoting the transformation of agricultural development modes, adjusting the structure, and accelerating agricultural modernization.
⟦NL> Zhu Baocheng analyzed that in recent years, China's agricultural brand building has made some progress, but still faces many problems and constraining factors: First, the understanding of brand agriculture is still inadequate. Management departments, business entities and farmers have not yet fully understood the strategic position and role of brand building in modern agricultural development, and new thinking, new methods and new means for promoting brand-based development are insufficient. Second, the institutional system for brand cultivation and protection is lacking. The degree of standardization in agricultural product production and processing is low, quality varies unevenly, investment in brand cultivation and protection is insufficient, and brand development lacks unified, systematic planning, organization and guidance. Third, brand influence urgently needs to be expanded. The influence of agricultural product brands remains limited to local regions, with few crossing provinces or regions; the social trust in brands is not high, internationally well-known brands are few, and the state of agricultural brands is not commensurate with the status of a major agricultural product country. Fourth, the concept of regional public brands needs to be popularized. The building of regional public brands has not yet been planned as a whole, brand resources have not been well integrated, the public brand institutional system has not yet been established, and national-brand agricultural products representing the country's image have not yet been formed.
Zhu Baocheng said that China's agricultural product brand building is relatively lagging, and the space and potential for development are enormous. To this end, he put forward the following suggestions:
First, formulate an agricultural brand development plan. According to different production regions, economic conditions and development stages, classify and stratify agricultural products, and include the goals and measures of agricultural brand development in the “13th Five-Year Plan.” Include products with high technical content, large market capacity, high added value and low energy consumption in the strategic plan, establish and improve the industrial chain, value chain and supply chain of brand agriculture, enhance the influence of brand agriculture, and guide it to become bigger and stronger.
Second, establish and improve support and protection mechanisms. Establish supportive policies for agricultural branding. Establish and improve rules and mechanisms for key links such as agricultural brand certification, promotion, identification, extension and domestic and international evaluation and release, and form a whole-process management system for agricultural brands. Improve preferential policies in industry and commerce, taxation, quality inspection and other aspects for “three products and one label” and famous-brand agricultural products, increase support for the production and circulation of branded products, use legal means to strengthen brand protection, and form a good policy environment.
Third, establish and improve the brand standard system. Incorporate pre-production, mid-production and post-production links into standardized management, and gradually form a standard system aligned with international, national and industry standards; form a quality standard system for segmented markets according to market access standards, famous and excellent agricultural product standards and export standards, and strengthen supervision of the behavior of relevant entities. Consolidate the foundation for agricultural product brand development, promote the “leading enterprise + standardization + farmers” production and operation model, and achieve large-scale production of high-quality agricultural products.
Fourth, explore the establishment of an agricultural product brand directory system. Study and establish a collection system, review and recommendation system and value evaluation system for agricultural product brands and regional brands, classify agricultural product brands by variety, target market and so on, regularly release directories, conduct dynamic management, improve, standardize and strengthen activities such as promotion, selection and recommendation of excellent agricultural product brands, gradually establish a third-party evaluation mechanism, and encourage agricultural product enterprises to improve quality and build good brands.
Fifth, promote the building of regional brands for specialty agricultural products. Protect superior variety resources and the environment, inherit local traditional production and processing techniques, develop historical, cultural and folk resources, expand the reputation of traditional production areas, innovate emerging industrial clusters, and strengthen the integration of brand management resources. Strengthen the management and protection of products that have obtained geographical indication status for agricultural products, and establish a quality traceability system for geographical indication product brands. Tap the potential of brand resources and build agricultural product brands with international competitiveness.