Land transfer was a bit fast in the Year of the Sheep; in the Year of the Monkey, plug the loopholes steadily

“2015 was a bumper year for our cooperative. That year the cooperative accomplished two major things: first, it transferred 500 mu of land, expanding the land scale to 1970 mu. Second, it secured a national geographical indication trademark for Gaoqing cucumber. But at the same time, because the pace of land transfer was too big, the cooperative exposed quite a few loopholes.” Zhang Weigang, chairman of the Shandong Gaoqing Minsheng Vegetable Cooperative, summed up the year that had passed.

In 2015, the Minsheng Vegetable Cooperative had 1100 mu of land planted with wheat and corn, 570 mu planted with millet, and 286 mu in greenhouses, with a total grain harvest of 1370 tons. Of this, 200 mu of wheat was for improved seed breeding for the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, which bought it back at 0.1 yuan per jin above the market price, locking in a portion of profit. Annual sales of melons and vegetables reached 9 million yuan, up 14.6% over the previous year.

“A brand is the cooperative‘s ‘face’. We gave our products a very pleasant name——Lüshan Shu. Now the Minsheng Cooperative‘s ‘Lüshan Shu’ series products have entered 13 Inzone supermarkets in Zibo, Dongying and other places, achieving direct farm-to-supermarket supply.” Zhang Weigang said proudly of his own progress.

Gaoqing cucumber is the most famous of the brands. The Minsheng Cooperative, which grew premium cucumbers and took part in applying for the Gaoqing cucumber geographical indication trademark, obtained the qualification for exclusive use of the Gaoqing cucumber trademark. Right now, the price of Gaoqing cucumber keeps rising, reaching 30 yuan/kg in supermarkets.

But when taking stock at year’s end, no matter how the accounts were calculated, they looked profitable, yet few coins actually ended up in the pocket. Zhang Weigang felt there was a problem in management——the cooperative‘s pace of land transfer was too big, but its operations and management had not kept up.

“We are farmers, and when we first started the cooperative, we didn’t understand modern management. Although we were busy all day, loopholes were everywhere——members fell back into the ‘big pot rice’ mentality, and some showed up but did not put in effort; leaks and waste in vehicles and office expenses increased, invisibly raising production costs; although there was a lot of land, what really made money was the greenhouse base. For grain crops, after deducting transfer fees, agricultural input costs, labor costs and so on, there was basically no money to be made, and some even lost money.” Zhang Weigang calculated one by one.

“In 2016, our target task is to plug loopholes, shore up weaknesses, and build the brand.” Zhang Weigang said.

Shore up weaknesses in production management. The cooperative plans to hire one manager and several technicians, revise and improve the cooperative‘s rules and regulations, and keep the cooperative moving on the right track of development.

Plug loopholes in market operations. Implement a market-based trusteeship mechanism, “entrusting” land or greenhouses to members. The cooperative is responsible for facility investment, agricultural input investment, and technical services. As long as the products produced by members pass inspection and testing, they are bought back at above-market prices; implement “official vehicle reform,” subcontracting vehicles to departments, with commissions based on load capacity.

Plant crops according to local conditions. Continue cooperating with the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and expand the improved seed breeding area to 500 mu.

The cooperative has contracts for trusteeship and documents for outsourcing, thus firmly binding members and the cooperative together into a community of shared interests.

In the new year, Zhang Weigang hopes that the national policy for pledged loans using land management rights certificates will be fully implemented, so that it is no longer difficult for cooperatives to get loans. Second, agricultural support should support the excellent and strengthen the strong, develop brand agriculture, brand enterprises, and brand cooperatives, and let agricultural brands become the leader driving Chinese agriculture forward at full speed.