Centralized distribution of pesticides at zero markup saves farmers over 5 million yuan
"This little box hasn't been used for many years, and now it has come in handy again." Yesterday, Chen Yinlong, owner of the trustworthy agricultural supplies direct-sales store in Longnan Village, Gaoqiao Town, pointed to a box on the counter holding "jiao coins" and said that since Tongxiang implemented zero-markup sales of basic pesticides this year, the "jiao coins" that had rarely been used in commercial transactions have made a comeback, and ordinary people are enjoying more and more real benefits.
In Chen Yinlong's shop, many pesticide prices now include "jiao." At the entrance of Old Chen's shop, a "Zero-Markup Pesticide List and Price Table" catches the eye: quinclorac at 6 jiao per pack, bensulfuron-methyl at 3 jiao per pack, imidacloprid at 4 jiao per pack, carbendazim at 1 yuan 9 jiao per pack... A rough count shows 39 types of pesticides with prices ending in "jiao." Even if a customer buying medicine forgets to bring jiao coins, the seller still has to keep jiao coins ready for change, and the little box for "jiao coins" has now become standard equipment in pesticide shops.
"Originally, pesticide prices on the market were generally only precise to '5 jiao' at most. After zero-markup sales were introduced, agricultural supply prices are much more affordable than before." Uncle Chen, a villager from Longnan Village, did the math: a bag of imidacloprid used to sell for more than 1 yuan, but now sells for only 0.5 yuan. Calculating 9 bags of pesticide per mu of field, this alone saves 5 yuan.
Starting in May this year, Tongxiang included 36 types of commonly used pesticides in 67 different specifications in the "zero-markup list," among which 39 specifications of commonly used pesticides are priced in units of "jiao," and 31 have prices whose last digit is not "5 jiao." A total of 120 pesticide retail stores across the city joined the "zero-markup system," selling zero-markup pesticides to the farmers they serve, so villagers can basically buy trustworthy and affordable agricultural supplies without leaving their villages.
Advancing the implementation of "zero-markup" pesticide sales truly benefits farmers. According to reports, because there are now too many pesticide retail stores, most of them small in scale, and the average service coverage area per store is not large, the wholesale-retail price gap for pesticides has been relatively large in order to ensure total profit. After the implementation of "zero markup," the price farmers pay for medicine is the ex-factory price of the pesticide manufacturer, with no markup from any intermediate link, causing pesticide prices to drop significantly. For example, pymetrozine, which sold for 2 yuan or 3 yuan per pack in previous years, now costs only 8 jiao, and chlorantraniliprole, an environmentally friendly new pesticide vigorously promoted by technical departments, dropped directly from 180 yuan to 110 yuan...
After half a year of trial operation, Tongxiang's "centralized distribution and zero-markup sales of basic pesticides" has achieved results in standardizing sales channels, purifying the market, improving the rate of technology adoption, ensuring agricultural production safety, and reducing agricultural expenditures. So far, the municipal agricultural supplies company has distributed 18 million yuan worth of zero-markup pesticides, and farmers, at the same level of pesticide use, have saved more than 5 million yuan in pesticide costs.