In 2014, grain purchases by grain enterprises exceeded 700 billion jin for the first time

        Ren Zhengxiao, director of the National Food Administration, revealed on the 8th that in the whole of 2014, grain purchases by all types of grain enterprises exceeded 700 billion jin for the first time, with the total reaching 729.8 billion jin, an increase of 40.9 billion jin year on year.

Ren Zhengxiao made the above remarks at the national grain circulation work conference held there. He said that in 2014, under the circumstances of great pressure on grain purchase and storage in major producing areas, production and sales areas worked in unity and cooperation, and actively adopted multiple measures such as promoting sales to reduce inventories, building warehouses to expand capacity, inter-provincial inventory transfers, and production-sales coordination, effectively easing the contradictions in grain purchase and storage.

⟦NL> “In the past year, special actions were carried out to inspect and rectify grain and oil inventories and to address ‘circulating grain’, supervision over policy-based grain purchase and sales out of warehouses was strictly enforced, and grain-related cases were seriously investigated and handled, effectively protecting the interests of grain farmers and safeguarding the safety of grain inventories.” Ren Zhengxiao said that various localities, through measures such as raising prices to support the market, increasing purchases, paying higher prices for higher quality, and reducing post-production losses, promoted an increase in grain farmers' income of more than 55 billion yuan.

The reporter also learned at the meeting that in 2014, new industrial models and business formats such as farmers' community grain stores, public staple food kitchens, assured grain and oil supermarkets, and grain and oil e-commerce online shopping developed rapidly. In 17 provinces including Jilin, Hebei, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Henan, 350 “grain banks” were developed, playing a positive role in new urbanization and agricultural modernization.

At the same time, new grain storage technologies, bulk grain transportation, and moderate processing were further promoted, and new results were achieved in saving grain and reducing losses. In 2014, 1.4 million sets of scientific grain storage equipment were provided to farming households, bringing the cumulative total to 8.17 million sets. The informatization of grain continued to advance, and the Internet of Things application demonstration project for grain storage and transportation supervision achieved phased results.