Agricultural Product Branding Urgently Needs Top-Level Design

Agricultural branding is a label of the level of modern agricultural development. The first "Research Report on the Brand Development of Chinese Agricultural Products" recently released by the Ministry of Agriculture proposed that the government should give full play to its public service functions in the process of brand cultivation, plan the top-level design of agricultural branding, establish and improve the policy system for brand development, and explore the establishment of an agricultural product brand directory system.

Brand awareness is constantly increasing and brand value is rising, but well-known brands are still few

“The state of China's agricultural product brand development can be described in 9 words: late start, rapid development, great potential.” said Zhang Hecheng, Director of the Market and Economic Information Department of the Ministry of Agriculture. In recent years, the brand awareness of agricultural production and operation entities has been constantly enhanced, and enthusiasm for registering trademarks has been rising. Registered trademarks for agricultural products grew from 600,000 in 2008 to 1.25 million in 2012, doubling in 4 years. However, because of the late start and poor foundation, many products are relatively uncompetitive, and the influence of most brands remains limited to local areas. There are not many cross-provincial or cross-regional brands, and even fewer internationally known brands.

This was confirmed at the National High-Quality Agricultural Products Exhibition and Sales Week that opened on December 7. Thousands of products from more than 10 provinces and municipalities including Zhejiang, Sichuan, Yunnan and Shanxi were a dazzling array, from high-quality rice to specialty vegetables and fruits, and then to various deeply processed products, all of superior quality and beautifully packaged, but most of these brands are regional and not widely recognized. Beijing resident Aunt Yao hesitated for a long time in front of a company's “loquat puree” beverage display stand, picked up two bottles and put them down again, and asked the reporter in a low voice: “Have you heard of this brand? I don't know how it actually is. Can I drink it with confidence?”

The "Report" pointed out that although people's brand awareness is constantly increasing, in brand cultivation, many local governments, agricultural enterprises and others still lack new thinking, new methods and new means for creating and developing brands. Some places sell raw materials as products and sell local specialties as brands. Raw materials and products, local specialties and commodities, commodities and brands are all mixed together.

Lu Juan, the author of the report and a professor at China Agricultural University, said that from the perspective of the types of agricultural product brands, most existing branded agricultural products in China are fresh agricultural products and primarily processed agricultural products, and there is a lack of deeply processed products with secondary value-added processing, which is not conducive to the further development of agricultural product brands.

In addition, the institutional system for the cultivation and protection of agricultural product brands in China has not yet been established. Some brands that originally had advantages, due to an unsound protection mechanism, are buffeted by counterfeit and shoddy products and find it difficult to maintain sustained influence.

“Brands are of great significance to the transformation of agricultural development methods and the increase of farmers' income. They can also effectively safeguard consumers' interests and improve the quality and safety level of agricultural products. The process of branding is the process of achieving regional layout, specialized production, large-scale planting and breeding, standardized control, and industrialized operation.” said Zhang Hecheng.

Talent, funds and policies are all lacking, and government coordination and guidance are urgently needed

Brand building is so important. As the main body of brand building, what do agricultural operators think?

“We also know the importance of brand building, but for small and medium-sized enterprises like ours, creating a brand is too difficult. Talent, funds and policies are all lacking.” said Zhang Wei, legal representative of the Xinke Agricultural Technology Service Professional Cooperative in Yiyuan County, Shandong Province. In order to build the brand of Yiyuan Red SOD apples, they tried every possible method. “To build a brand, you need packaging, planning and publicity, all of which require a large amount of funds, and also professional brand marketing talent. The cooperative has no capital accumulation. At the beginning, I had to do several jobs at once and run around. I really hope relevant service agencies can give us a hand.”

“Agricultural product brands are different from the brands of industrial enterprises. Their regional, exclusive and public characteristics are very obvious.” said Lu Juan. If a regional public brand is compared to an umbrella, then enterprises' own brands will receive support and shelter from this “umbrella.” The creation and management of agricultural regional public brands differs from enterprise brands and has a very strong public welfare nature, requiring overall planning and leading promotion by agricultural authorities.

Gannan navel orange, for example, is a regional public brand with relatively high recognition in China. In 2013, the brand value of Gannan navel orange reached 4.811 billion yuan, ranking first among citrus brands nationwide. Wen Xinliang, chairman of Jiangxi Aoshuai Agricultural Development Co., Ltd., said that thanks to the high recognition of Gannan navel orange, he saved a lot of effort in building the “Aoshuai” brand. “When we established the brand in 2008 and built sales channels, as soon as we said we were from the main production area of Gannan navel orange, people recognized your products relatively easily.”

Zhang Hecheng said that there must be a correct understanding of the roles played by the government and the market in the process of brand cultivation. The government should give full play to its public service functions, plan the top-level design of agricultural branding, and establish and improve the policy system for brand development. Promoting brand building should follow the basic principles of market guidance, enterprise as the main body, government promotion and social participation, and accelerate the guidance of various enterprises, including farmers and farmers' professional cooperatives and other market entities, to strive to build modern agricultural enterprises with brand value as the core.

“From design, registration, publicity and protection to finally forming an advantageous brand resource, an agricultural product brand requires a large amount of funds, and this is exactly what China's agricultural industrialization lacks.” Lu Juan said that in developed countries and newly industrialized countries and regions, the process of agricultural product branding has all been protected and supported by policy finance with high efficiency, low prices and long financing terms to support the development of agricultural industrialization. She suggested that the government should improve financial support for brand development and establish a reasonable and scientific fiscal subsidy mechanism for agricultural product enterprises.

Establish an agricultural product brand directory system and strengthen brand protection and supervision

According to reports, many developed agricultural countries generally regard brands as a national strategy for participating in global agricultural competition. Japan introduced its Japan Brand Strategy in 2003 and implemented the “Japan Brand Development Support Project,” specifically protecting brands as an important part of intellectual property. The United States mainly implements policies such as subsidies, tax reductions and loans for branded agriculture. France's Red Label system certifies that agricultural products differ from other general products in production and manufacturing processes and have better quality than other similar products.

“We should fully draw on international experience, study the uniqueness of China's agriculture, tap the rich humanistic value of agricultural products, integrate national forces to achieve an effective combination of top-level design and branding, create China's national brand, and improve the international competitiveness of agricultural products.” said Zhang Hecheng.

As an important part of creating a national brand for agricultural products, the report clearly proposed exploring the establishment of an agricultural product brand directory system. Its focus includes four systems, namely the agricultural product brand collection system, the brand review and recommendation system, the brand evaluation system, and the brand cultivation and protection system.

According to reports, the Ministry of Agriculture will classify agricultural products according to brand types and variety types, classify them according to level of influence and scope of influence, systematically sort out product varieties and brand types, form a directory, include the most influential and most valuable brands in the national brand directory, and implement regular release and dynamic management.

In addition, developing agricultural product brands also urgently requires improving the mechanism for cultivating, protecting and supervising agricultural brands, while establishing and improving the legal protection system for agricultural product brands.

Lu Juan suggested establishing a layered agricultural product quality standard system, which is the foundation for developing agricultural product brands. The government should bring the pre-production, mid-production and post-production stages of China's agricultural product production into the track of standardized management, and gradually form a standard system compatible with international, national and industry standards.