Report on the 2014 Summer-Autumn Agricultural Products Online Purchase and Sales Matching Conference

The Ministry of Commerce's 2014 Summer-Autumn Agricultural Products Online Purchase and Sales Matching Conference concluded successfully on September 25. With the close cooperation and careful organization of commerce departments at all levels and the distance education offices of Party committee organization departments, over the course of one month, commerce departments in 625 counties (cities and districts) across 27 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government) nationwide reported nearly 1.49 million pieces of agricultural product supply and demand information, covering more than 1,000 varieties of agricultural products, and facilitated agricultural product transactions of nearly 1.15 million tons worth more than 5.5 billion yuan. Among the regions with outstanding information publication and transaction volumes were: Hunan, Henan, Chongqing, Hebei, Jiangxi, Ningxia, Guangxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Jiangsu. The main features of this matching conference were:

1. Strong organizational leadership

This matching conference coincided with the conclusion of the Party's mass line education and practice campaign, and also served as a practical test of the important achievements of the campaign over the past year. Before the matching conference, the Ministry of Commerce specially held a training course focused on the operation and use of the National Agricultural Products Business Information Public Service Platform, providing specific guidance for localities to carry out online agricultural product purchase and sales matching through the national platform by relying on the Party member distance education network. Provinces including Hunan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Shandong, and Hainan held training courses or mobilization meetings to unify thinking and understanding, strengthen departmental coordination, and clarify divisions of responsibilities. Commerce departments of Henan, Shanxi, Ningxia, Guangxi, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps established joint leadership working groups to strengthen the organizational command and unified coordination of the matching conference, and made clear provisions on the construction of township (town) and village information stations, work responsibilities, and the assessment of information officers. Rudong County of Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, combined local realities to set quantitative targets for the matching conference and incorporated the completion of these targets into the assessment of commerce and circulation work for towns and districts, while intensifying guidance for township work, ensuring the smooth implementation of the matching conference.

2. Continuous innovation in service methods and content

In order to better leverage the advantages of the matching conference in agricultural product circulation, the matching conference made full use of the normalized matching functions of the national platform, highlighted the collection and reporting of large-volume procurement information from enterprises, and through the agricultural product procurement matching zone, achieved new results in online agricultural product purchase and sales matching on the original basis.

First, displaying by five zones - fruit, vegetables, livestock, grain, and comprehensive - on the dedicated platform. Each zone focused on displaying merchant, supply and demand, and regional agricultural product information, helping both production and sales sides connect while enhancing the visibility and brand value of regional agricultural products. At the same time, through cooperation with the Fujian Mintai Agricultural Products Trading Market, a special column for promoting Taiwan agricultural products was jointly launched, and well-known e-commerce enterprises were invited to participate in the Cross-Strait Agricultural Products Order Fair to carry out on-site matching cooperation. To alleviate the "difficulty in selling" and unsold inventory of agricultural products caused by the large-scale marketing of local bulk fresh agricultural products and poor information flow, the matching conference specially set up promotional topics for fresh agricultural products including lilies from Guanzhuang Township, Liling, Hunan, and fennel cabbage from Zhanshang Town, Xiyang, Shanxi.

Second, increasing the enrollment of agricultural product procurement enterprises and strengthening matching with agricultural product e-commerce enterprises. Relying on the agricultural product procurement matching hall channel, the matching conference established a procurement matching zone, focusing on displaying the agricultural product procurement needs from chain supermarkets, wholesale markets, and e-commerce enterprises. It also regularly promoted to purchasers in the procurement hall through "electronic posters" and other forms. Among these, the Shanxi Department of Commerce recommended and registered as many as 26 large-scale procurement enterprises on the national platform. National platform partner enterprise Beijing Benlai Workshop Technology Co., Ltd. (Benlai Life Network) actively participated in the matching activities, successively reaching transactions of more than 50 tons of Pinggu peaches and golden pears with Beijing Linmiao Organic Fruit and Vegetable Planting Co., Ltd., and more than 10 tons of Chadian Muscat Hamburg grapes with the Tianjin Fengchun Grape Professional Cooperative, and reached long-term purchase and sales agreements.

Third, adding information reporting channels via mobile terminals. During the matching conference, more than 200 pieces of agricultural product supply and demand information were published through mobile phone terminals, which not only increased user channels and interactive windows for publishing agriculture-related information, but also met the needs of the rapid development of agricultural product e-commerce under new circumstances and the service improvement of government public information service platforms.

3. Work was well implemented

Commerce departments at all levels and the distance education offices of Party committee organization departments closely combined with local realities, firmly seized the favorable opportunity of the matching conference, strengthened leadership, and organized rigorously to ensure that all work was carried out effectively. The Guangxi Department of Commerce, in order to enable merchants to grasp the procurement demand information of purchasers corresponding to the agricultural products they supply, specially arranged for the matching conference working group to collect and search on the national platform, and sent more than 50 pieces of procurement information to merchants at irregular intervals free of charge through the "Department of Commerce mobile SMS platform." The Henan Department of Commerce actively sought special funds for rural informatization, planned and built the Henan Rural Business Information Service Mobile Application Platform ("Henan Nongshang" mobile publishing terminal), helping local farmers achieve effectiveness and convenience in publishing and querying agricultural product information. Fengcheng City, Jiangxi Province, made full use of information service stations to comprehensively understand farmers' needs, carry out targeted services, and achieve outstanding results. For example, Lei Yingguo, a "national major grain producer," sold "Xiushi Qilin selenium-enriched rice" through the matching conference to Guangdong, Shanghai, and other places, with transaction amounts reaching more than 20 million yuan. Among these, the "colorful rice" variety increased from 17 yuan per kilogram in the past to 32 yuan.

This matching conference achieved remarkable results, but there were also some problems and shortcomings: First, individual provincial and municipal commerce departments did not pay sufficient attention, lacked effective communication and coordination with the distance education offices of Party committee organization departments, had unsound working mechanisms, and basically stagnated in information services; Second, although some regions were highly motivated and reported a large quantity of agricultural product supply information, the quality was not high, which affected matching results; Third, a few regions did not carry out sufficient publicity and training for the matching conference, farmers had weak awareness and low enthusiasm for publishing information online, and the number of users who independently registered on the platform was even smaller. In addition, some provinces and municipalities did not timely report their matching conference work summaries.

It is hoped that commerce departments at all levels, in accordance with the unified deployment and requirements of the Ministry of Commerce and the National Distance Education Office, will further raise awareness and effectively enhance their sense of responsibility for doing a good job in rural business information services. They should take carrying out rural business information services by relying on the Party member distance education network as an important channel for promoting agricultural product circulation and alleviating the "difficulty in selling," and as an important lever for closely linking Party-mass and cadre-mass relations, enhancing Party-mass and cadre-mass sentiments, and improving Party and government conduct. They should adapt to local conditions, sum up experience, pioneer and innovate, and vigorously implement measures, striving to improve the quality and efficiency of the matching conference and making greater contributions to realizing the goal of "Party members and cadres receiving education, and farmers and the masses benefiting in real terms."