Stretching the industrial chain means farmers no longer worry about selling their grain

As soon as the autumn harvest season arrived, Liu Changming got busy. This farmer in his early 50s is the head of Jihe Rice Industry Co. in Hai'an County, Jiangsu Province, and the company processes 300,000 tons of rice each year. What does 300,000 tons mean? Hai'an County has nearly 700,000 mu of rice planting area, and even if all the county's rice were sold here, it still would not be enough for processing, so raw grain must be purchased from nearby Dongtai City and Rugao City; of course, the price Liu Changming offers is also higher, five or six fen per kg more than others. The company also set up a cooperative with more than 30,000 mu of planting area, growing the popular Nanjing japonica series, with order-based purchasing at about 0.20 yuan per kg above the market price. "These days, the workshop is processing 24 hours a day without stopping." He pointed to the canal at the gate and said that rice processed at night was loaded onto boats in the morning and shipped to supermarkets in Shanghai.

There are 65 grain processing enterprises of all sizes in Hai'an County. "Local rice is simply not enough for processing," said Lu Xuexiang, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of the Hai'an County Commerce Bureau. These processing enterprises need to buy large quantities of raw grain from elsewhere, so Hai'an has become a raw grain input area for parts of central and northern Jiangsu, and rice prices are clearly higher than elsewhere; the local 146 large grain-growing households basically do not have difficulty selling grain. To increase the added value of their products, processing enterprises attach great importance to brand building. For example, the rice processed by Jihe Rice Industry has become a famous trademark of Jiangsu Province and is sold exclusively by Metro supermarkets; other processing enterprises in the county have also gotten their products into major chain supermarkets. "In this way, the entire grain industry has formed a virtuous cycle."

There is another interesting phenomenon: in recent years, because rice harvesting has basically become mechanized and drying equipment has also increased a lot, mechanical harvesting and drying wear the rice husk and create husk-bran rice. Rice with excessive husk-bran cannot enter the state minimum-price purchase because long-term storage easily makes the rice heat up and then mold. But processing enterprises are not picky about this kind of rice. Because they buy and process immediately, enterprises can not only relax the moisture content requirements for rice, but also especially welcome rice with excessive husk-bran, because it can increase the rice yield.

When reporters recently interviewed on the front line of grain purchasing, one thing left a deep impression: wherever grain processing enterprises are developed and the industrial chain is stretched, farmers there do not worry about difficulty selling grain, and they can even sell it at a good price.

Jingjiang City has more than 300,000 mu of rice planting area. It has the largest grain logistics park in our province, but the grain in the logistics park is all from other places and other provinces. Jingjiang's local grain is generally sold to processing enterprises, because the city has 28 grain processing plants of all sizes, and local raw grain is not even enough for these enterprises to "eat." Therefore, when reporters rushed to interview a grain depot in Jingjiang that was on the minimum-price purchase list, they were told that it had not received a single grain of rice, all of which had gone to private processing enterprises. Baoying County is also a major grain-producing county. The county has a grain processing and sales enterprise famous both inside and outside the province, Baoliang Group. The group has formed a production-and-sales cooperation relationship with more than 680 large grain-growing households in the county, planting 152,000 mu of rice varieties with good taste and rich rice aroma. The enterprise not only guarantees purchasing above market price, but also provides free transportation and drying services, subsidizes agricultural insurance premiums for growers, and hires experts free of charge for regular guidance and soil testing and formula fertilization. Farmers who sell grain can also participate in a second round of dividends, so these farmers naturally do not worry about difficulty selling grain.

After lengthening the industrial chain, processing enterprises can also guide farmers to introduce fine varieties. Subei Grain and Oil Company in Sihong County has promised large grain-growing households that as long as it is Nanjing japonica 9108 rice, it will buy as much as they have, at a price 0.2 yuan per kg higher than ordinary varieties. The company has also set up a planting base of more than 10,000 mu in Yancheng to ensure the supply of high-quality raw grain. Feeling that the local area had relatively little high-quality rice planting area, Lu Huanzhi, director of the Jingjiang City Green Source Rice Factory, specially took the lead this year in establishing the Guanhua Rice Cooperative, with the aim of having members grow high-quality varieties and implementing order-based purchasing. "We have already opened the market in Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, and consumers there particularly favor Nanjing japonica 5055. Although the price is a bit more expensive, it does not affect sales at all."

Precisely because domestic grain prices have been sluggish in recent years, unprocessed raw grain is at a disadvantage in both sales and price, and some large grain-growing households have begun to extend the industrial chain. Wang Haibin, a large grain-growing household in Bieqiao Town, Liyang City, purchased rice processing machinery back in 2010. In addition to processing the rice he produced himself, he also bought raw grain from surrounding farmers for processing. Over several years, the pollution-free rice of "Haibin Rice Industry" has built a good reputation in Suzhou, Wuxi and Ningbo, Zhejiang, and has also brought him substantial profits. Influenced by Wang Haibin, another large grain-growing household in Liyang City, Tang Fangya, also purchased a rice processing line last year and processed 150,000 kg of rice, all vacuum-packed and sold locally and in Changzhou. "Last year, the rice quality declined because of too much rain, and it did not sell at a good price. But I earned more than 300,000 yuan in processing." Tang Fangya said that after this year's rice harvest began, the processing line started at the same time, and by the 16th it had processed more than 60,000 kg. Several supermarkets, both local and from elsewhere, took the initiative to find him and asked to sell his "Uncle Tang Rice."

A relevant official of the Jiangsu Provincial Grain Bureau believes that the high domestic grain inventory will not change in the near future, and storage capacity for purchasing and storing will remain tight; the quantity of imported grain has shown an upward trend for years running, and domestic and foreign grain prices are seriously inverted. Under such major premises, there is great pressure in minimum-price grain purchasing, and much grain needs to be digested through market channels, while market prices are often lower than the minimum purchase price. If farmers rely entirely on selling raw grain, it is very difficult for them to increase income, and their income may even decline. However, by extending the industrial chain, making the grain processing industry bigger and stronger, and directly connecting with the market, added value can be increased in the processing and circulation links, and the problem of farmers' difficulty selling grain is solved. "When local governments support the grain processing industry and circulation industry, they are in fact supporting grain-growing farmers," the official said.