Analysis and Outlook of Future Development Trends in China's Agriculture
"A skilled warrior seeks advantage from the situation." If agricultural enterprises want to break through regionally, they must first judge and understand the situation, leverage favorable circumstances, formulate development strategies, and complete rapid transformation. China's agriculture is at a crossroads of economic transformation. The traditional agricultural development model of the past decades has reached a bottleneck, and the advantage of low labor costs is no longer obvious. Now let's take a look at the future development trends in China's agriculture.
Trend One: Organic Agriculture Will Usher in Major Development
As consumers place greater importance on food safety, organic food is gradually making its way onto the tables of high-end consumers, becoming a healthy lifestyle. Some business celebrities have also begun to venture into agriculture. Chu Shijian, former chairman of Hongta Group, grew "inspirational oranges"; Liu Chuanzhi, chairman of Legend Holdings, started selling "conscience fruit"; Liu Qiangdong, CEO of JD.com, began selling self-grown organic rice; and Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, also enclosed 5,700 mu of land in Yanqing, Beijing to build an organic agriculture park... Among these agricultural products, "organic" has become a major selling point.
Although the price of organic food is usually 20-50% higher than ordinary food, because the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides is prohibited, thereby reducing the harm of food to the environment and human body, it is favored by consumers worldwide. At present, the share of organic products in the international market is growing rapidly. According to statistics, China's organic food consumption is growing rapidly at a rate of 30-50% per year. China's organic food also has enormous international and domestic market demand.
Trend Two: Emphasis on Brand Image
With the transformation of the supply-demand relationship of agricultural products and consumers' lifestyles, consumers' requirements for agricultural products are no longer about quality and price, but about increasingly higher quality standards. In such a macro environment, entrepreneurs with vision and a sense of social responsibility have begun to attach importance to the issue of brand image. On the one hand, they strictly control product quality and prevent problems at the source; on the other hand, they pay more attention to product appearance design and increase promotional efforts, thereby shaping brand image and building consumer confidence.
At the same time, many small but beautiful and small but strong agricultural products have emerged in the agricultural sector, such as Zhangsheng Guli and Strawberry Manor, with high-end design, exquisite products, excellent quality and very distinctive features, injecting new blood into China's agriculture. The current agricultural product market has shifted from pure competition in product price or quality to competition in comprehensive strength dominated by brand, including visibility and reputation.
Trend Three: Building Resource Advantages Across the Entire Industry Chain
The squeeze from upstream raw material costs and downstream channel expenses has pushed enterprises to extend their industry chains upstream and downstream. Many enterprises have begun to integrate resources and lay out the entire industry chain. COFCO's reliance on resource advantages to build a full industry chain is a successful model.
Among the clients served by Zhiqi Weilai, there are also many such examples: sesame oil producers extending from sesame cultivation to deep-processed products, the meat industry starting from feed to building its own terminals, and e-commerce companies doing their own logistics. All enterprises should integrate based on their own resources, build industry chains as much as possible, and firmly grasp market initiative in their own hands. Therefore, in this sense, Zhiqi Weilai is very optimistic about the large food industry supported by agriculture, which has considerable long-term development potential.
Trend Four: Channel Layout Shifting from Large and Comprehensive to Small and Refined
Ever-rising channel costs have overwhelmed enterprises. Entering traditional channels such as supermarkets has become very cautious, and they have turned to seeking new, more unique, and more cost-effective channels. This new channel is not only about discovery, but also about innovation and integration.
Compared with the popularity of online stores and e-commerce, we see enterprises beginning to lay out new positions, while changes in some offline channels are happening more quietly. For example, Tuotuo Commune and Xianfengwang chose not to enter KA (key accounts) but instead to deeply cultivate channels, focus on building networks, integrate all convenience store and community store resources in a city, bypass the secondary wholesaler segment, and supply directly, greatly reducing channel costs, while achieving no small results.
Trend Five: More Widespread and Mature Use of New Media
In recent years, enterprises' advertising costs have been continuously increasing. The "entertainment restriction order" and "advertising restriction order" have made television advertising investment even worse. The power of traditional media is declining, while the role of new media is constantly rising.
New consumer groups and fashion-conscious groups are also major consumer groups. These groups are the "screen generation," and screens have become super terminals. Mobile phones and computers are their most frequent means of accessing information and interacting online. Enterprises' operations on new media will become more widespread, and the use of means such as Weibo, WeChat, short videos, and micro films is crucial.
Overall, the effectiveness of traditional marketing methods is diminishing day by day, while new thinking and new methods have begun to emerge. If enterprises can assess the situation and seize opportunities, they will certainly be able to achieve rapid transformation. Having endured the economic winter, they will surely welcome a new world.