Don't Let Scallions, Ginger and Garlic Become Internet Celebrities: Beware of Price Speculation
In recent years, minor agricultural products such as scallions, ginger and garlic have become "internet celebrities," acquiring eye-catching online nicknames like "chaoqian cong" (pricey scallions), "jiang ni jun" (ginger strikes you), and "suan ni hen" (garlic is ruthless). Whenever the seasons change or prices fluctuate - mainly when they rise - these playfully mocking nicknames flood all kinds of media.
Most consumers remain fairly rational about this sudden fame. Even the supermarket auntie who grumbles that garlic has gone up in price again just says, "It's only a few heads of garlic, how ruthless can it get? If it's more expensive, I'll just eat less," and leaves it at that. But people who make their living mainly from scallions, ginger and garlic see this as a distortion of their trade. A ginger farmer in Weifang complained: "People keep saying 'ginger strikes you,' but now that prices have fallen, nobody says a word." Yang Guihua, president of the Garlic Industry Information Association of Jinxiang County, said: "The moment garlic prices change, the internet spreads 'garlic is ruthless.' Why doesn't anyone calculate the rising costs and look at the falling output? This actually reflects a fixed mindset about agricultural prices - a habit of expecting agricultural products to be cheap."
President Yang's words hit on a certain social psychology. Undeniably, after many years of reform and opening up, the market has grown used to agricultural prices following the market. However, because we came through an era of the "price scissors" that artificially suppressed the price ratio between industrial and agricultural products, long-term low prices have made the market sensitive to rises in agricultural prices. At the same time, for many years agricultural products had neither brands nor packaging, and even when they followed the market, they always remained relatively cheap and good. As a result, being cheap and good has always been the main selling point of domestic agricultural products, and has even become the market's fixed positioning for them.
But great changes have taken place in the market in recent years, causing the cost of farming to rise rapidly and steeply. For example, in the past, hiring someone to farm just required providing two meals a day plus a pack of cigarettes or a towel, and that was that. Now hiring a male worker for 300 yuan a day is not unusual. Moreover, most young laborers in rural areas have gone out to work, and those who stay behind either cannot do the work or pursue a easier and more comfortable life, preferring to hire people rather than do everything themselves. These are rigid, explicit costs that need to be calculated into agricultural prices. In the past, farmers did most of the work themselves, so this kind of labor cost was often ignored and underestimated.
Besides the rigid rise in farming costs, there is an even more important social factor: farmers' pursuit of a moderately prosperous and wealthy life has become more urgent. Farming - especially large-scale grain growing and the cultivation of minor high-efficiency agricultural products - is the realistic choice for most farmers. A garlic-farming household in Jinxiang has six people across three generations and six mu of land, with a yield of 1,500 jin of dry garlic per mu, at about 4.1 yuan per jin, plus 700 yuan per mu for garlic scapes, for a gross income of 42,000 yuan. With costs of 3,500 yuan per mu, the net gain is 20,000 yuan. Adding more than 10,000 yuan from a season of peppers or cotton, total farming income is more than 30,000 yuan. The husband and wife work away from home, earning more than 60,000 yuan a year. Thus the whole family of six has an annual income of about 100,000 yuan, just above the national average annual net income for farmers. This garlic-farming household is middle-ranked in the village. Even with this income, and without counting reduced output or falling prices, achieving moderate prosperity is still a tough battle for them.
Moreover, scallions, ginger and garlic do not always enjoy good years; they also have up-and-down cycles. This year's garlic purchase price was unprecedented for Jinxiang garlic farmers. In the winter of 2010, garlic prices soared, but by then the garlic farmers had no stock left. In the following years, garlic remained at a state of breaking even with a slight profit, and only this year did garlic farmers truly make money. For them, the price of agricultural products is the core factor that directly determines income. This has also been true historically: since reform and opening up, the years in which farmers' incomes grew relatively fast were all times when agricultural prices were relatively good. To build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2020, price remains one of the decisive conditions for farming households to reach a moderately prosperous level.
Saying this does not mean that price rises in agricultural products like scallions, ginger and garlic are reasonable. Rather, it is to clarify a trend: judging from the situation and conditions of economic and social development, agricultural prices have already entered an upward channel. What we need to do is not to shout and make a fuss, or even panic, whenever prices rise, but to distinguish the primary from the secondary and the appearance from the essence. There is no need to be overly nervous about reasonable increases, but price monopoly alliances and malicious manipulation that disrupt prices must be resolutely punished according to law. At the same time, we must persistently clear away all kinds of fees that directly increase the cost of agricultural products, such as market thresholds and circulation barriers. There are still too many links with their hands out and too many charging procedures.
As for farming at the source, various specialized farmers' associations are becoming increasingly refined in standardization and other areas. What the government needs to do is release information in a timely and accurate manner, and at the same time speed up exploration of a price insurance mechanism for agricultural products, so that farmers can farm with peace of mind. Of course, there is a great deal to be done, but as long as we keep at it and truly carry it out, results will be seen, and we will not have to face rises and falls every year with no countermeasures every year. The media, too, will not need to keep making an issue of scallions, ginger and garlic.