Agriculture going global must both reach out and stay steady

“The Government Work Report proposed accelerating the implementation of the going global strategy, enabling Chinese enterprises to reach out and stay steady, to strengthen their sinews and bones in international competition and grow stronger. At the Central Rural Work Conference and the National Agricultural Work Conference held at the end of last year, as well as in the No. 1 Central Document issued earlier this year, it was also stated that we should make full use of both international and domestic markets and both types of resources, develop our modern agriculture, and advance agricultural modernization. I think agriculture going global is very necessary.” Wu Peiliang, a deputy to the National People's Congress and director of the Jiangsu Provincial Agricultural Commission, told reporters.

Why emphasize making full use of both international and domestic markets and both types of resources? Wu Peiliang told reporters that China has been a member of the WTO for more than ten years, and agriculture has become increasingly internationalized, with markets becoming more and more open. “What we have advantages in should go global, and what foreign countries have advantages in should come in, so that everyone can benefit in international trade, achieving a two-way flow and mutual benefit. This is also an important part of agricultural structural adjustment and mode transformation. Modern agriculture's structural adjustment and mode transformation must indeed take into account both international and domestic markets and both types of resources.” Wu Peiliang said.

Wu Peiliang believes that although agricultural products going global and agriculture going global are not new topics, under the current new circumstances they have new practical significance, and for China's developed coastal regions, they are even more urgent. Jiangsu is a major agricultural province and a major industrial province, with total grain output ranking fifth in the country, but its per capita resources are very scarce, with per capita arable land of only 0.9 mu, and the utilization of these resources is already relatively high. At the same time, Jiangsu's agricultural modernization needs to align with international standards, so whether agricultural products are competitive in the international market is a very important test.

“If the international market competitiveness of agricultural products is not strong, then it cannot be said that agricultural modernization has been achieved. Therefore, we must do some things and not do others, export what has competitive advantages and import what does not, so that Jiangsu agriculture can truly be internationally competitive.” he said.

Wu Peiliang told reporters that Jiangsu agriculture going global mainly includes three aspects: agricultural enterprises going global, agricultural products going global, and agricultural talent going global.

“Limited by resources, industrial and commercial capital, including agricultural enterprises, has limited room for development domestically and needs to develop abroad, using foreign land, water and other resources to develop agriculture, and the agricultural products produced can also be sold in the international market.” he told reporters. On February 27 this year, the Jiangsu provincial government held a New Spring Exchange Meeting for foreign affairs agencies stationed in Shanghai, with export-oriented agriculture as the theme, attended by agricultural enterprises and foreign affairs departments from within the province, and participants generally gained something from it. “Jiangsu has a lot of private capital and many leading agricultural enterprises. Our agricultural enterprises going global to develop agriculture not only carry out China-Africa agricultural cooperation, but also go to some developed countries to run farms.” Wu Peiliang said.

Agricultural products going global means agricultural products need to be exported. Jiangsu has been conducting overseas promotion of agricultural products for more than ten consecutive years, arranging more than 10 million yuan in provincial fiscal funds each year to subsidize exported agricultural products, with relatively obvious results. The province organizes more than a hundred enterprises every year to bring their own agricultural products to participate in local agricultural product trade fairs in some traditional and emerging countries with prospects for agricultural product export markets. If you do not take the initiative to go global, it is difficult to get orders, and at the same time, going global to see how others' agricultural products and enterprises operate is also very beneficial for agricultural product exports. Jiangsu's agricultural product export value last year was 3.5 billion US dollars, not a large total, ranking fifth in the country, but the growth rate was higher than the national average and also higher than the province's other foreign trade income, so the potential for agricultural products going global is still considerable, because some of the province's high-quality agricultural products still have strong export advantages.

“While agriculture goes global, we must also introduce advanced foreign agricultural science and technology and management experience, including introducing capital, and at the same time we can increase imports of agricultural products that we lack. Only with both imports and exports can we effectively make up for our resource shortages.” Wu Peiliang said.