What drives the improvement of rice quality? High standards force out good rice
Japan, which produces its own high-end rice, and Singapore, which enjoys a global reputation for food safety, both have very demanding market access standards. Japan has 579 inspection indicators for rice imports, and Singapore requires 3 additional heavy metal tests and 11 pesticide residue tests on top of compliance with Chinese standards. Despite such high thresholds, they have not blocked Jilin rice from entering these two high-end markets, and it is also exported to more than a dozen countries and regions overseas. How does Jilin rice spread its fragrance far and wide? Recently, an Economic Daily reporter joined the National Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine Administration's "Visit Quality Inspection, Enter Enterprises, Look at Quality" interview team and went to the Jilin City Export Food and Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Demonstration Zone to find out.
Grasping quality in the fields
Located in the Northeast Plain, one of the world's three major black soil belts, and in the world's golden rice belt at 43° north latitude, with the beautiful Songhua River winding through, Jilin's rice cultivation can be said to have favorable timing and terrain. But this alone is not enough; the method of cultivation is equally crucial.
For a long time, Jilin practiced scattered household-by-household planting. Due to a lack of standardized technical guidance, seed selection and the amounts of pesticides and chemical fertilizers applied varied from household to household. In Xiakan Village, Chaluhe Town, Yongji County, 58-year-old rice grower Tang Qingqin returned home after military service and has grown rice for 30 years. He said that in the past, to increase yields, fertilizer was applied until the seedlings burned, pesticides were sprayed until there were no insects left, and large amounts of herbicides were used to save labor, so rice quality varied greatly. Rice produced this way was often returned when exported abroad because indicators failed to meet standards.
"Good rice is produced, not tested." said Liu Weihua, director of the office of the Jilin City Export Food and Agricultural Products Quality and Safety Demonstration Zone. How can scattered farmers be made to grow high-quality rice? The Jilin Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau signed a cooperation agreement with the Jilin City government to create a national-level export food and agricultural products quality and safety demonstration zone, exploring a "company + cooperative + farmer" model, and grasping quality from the fields.
In midsummer at the rice planting base of COFCO Rice (Jilin) Co., Ltd., everything in sight is green. In 2014, COFCO Rice selected Xiakan Village as a rice planting base, and Tang Qingqin became a contracted farmer for the company. With unified seed selection, unified planting, unified fertilization and pesticide application, unified harvesting, and unified purchasing, and with the "five unifications" field management guidance, Jilin rice quality has steadily improved.
"Compared with farming before, because fertilizer use is restricted, yields have decreased somewhat, by three to four hundred jin per mu, but because the rice quality is better and the purchase price is higher, income has not fallen but risen. Now growing 1 mu of rice can increase income by 1 times, to about more than 3,000 yuan." Now that he grows rice scientifically, Tang Qingqin has more and more energy for it.
At the same time, COFCO Rice (Jilin) also gained both "fame and profit." Company general manager Li Chengjun said the enterprise produces 720 tons of finished product per day, sales in domestic and international markets continue to grow, and from 2013 to 2015 it cumulatively exported 54,000 tons of rice.
Strict requirements in the processing stage
If the planting stage fundamentally determines rice quality, then the production and processing stage must ensure that quality does not deviate.
Entering the fully sealed dust-free processing workshop of COFCO Rice (Jilin), the windows are bright and clean, without a speck of dust. In the central control room, several workers keep a close eye on display screens for real-time monitoring. Li Chengjun introduced that from the selection of high-quality rice-producing areas, base planting, rice processing, to logistics and transportation, COFCO Rice's specific control measures can be summarized in three words: "select," "inspect," and "control."
At COFCO Rice, turning a grain of paddy into plump, lustrous rice requires 29 processes, of which hulling alone requires 6 processes, and ultimately it must pass through pipelines totaling 1 kilometer in length. "Inspect" refers to the screening process of removing the coarse and selecting the fine, and removing impurities and selecting the superior. "It is like a 'beauty contest,' where every grain of rice is carefully selected: the length grading process must sort rice into long-grain and short-grain according to height, plumpness, and slimness; the color sorter 'looks at appearance' and, based on differences in the optical characteristics of rice, uses photoelectric technology to automatically sort out discolored grains from the rice, thereby achieving the effect of removing impurities." Wang Quan, deputy general manager of COFCO Rice (Jilin), explained with a smile.
One tree does not make a forest. The Jilin City Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau actively collects and studies the technical standards and mandatory regulatory requirements of exporting countries, conducts training for enterprises in management and technology such as food hygiene and quality safety and microbiological testing, establishes and improves eight major systems including organizational safeguards, quality and safety standardization, and agricultural chemical input control, and establishes a strict social credit system. "All individuals or units engaged in food production and business activities, if they violate relevant food safety regulations and produce, process, or sell unsafe or substandard food, will be permanently barred from engaging in business activities related to the food industry within the food zone." Liu Weihua said.
High standards give rise to good returns: the ex-factory price of rice outside the demonstration zone is about 2.6 yuan per jin, while rice from planting bases inside the demonstration zone can sell for 3.5 yuan per jin. Since last year, Jilin "Guanghe 43° North Latitude Fragrant Rice" has become popular in the Singapore market. Jia Lifu, director of the administrative department of Sino-Singapore Jilin Food Zone Development and Management Co., Ltd., said that this year the first batch of "Guanghe 43° North Latitude Fragrant Rice" exported to Singapore is expected to reach 80 tons.
"One standard, two markets" boosts sales
Last year, a news story about Japan's "sky-high-priced" rice sparked heated discussion. According to reports, the Japanese rice "Hitomebore" that Chinese tourists bought at 150 yuan per jin was actually rice grown in Panjin, Liaoning, according to Japanese planting models, management techniques, and operating procedures, and exported to Japan. The minimum retail price of this kind of rice in Panjin is 6 yuan to 15 yuan per jin.
Behind this embarrassing fact is consumers' distrust of domestic food quality. Under the background of supply-side structural reform, can standards be raised to reshape the market image of domestic products? The Jilin (City) Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau actively collects and studies the most advanced standards, technologies, and production concepts at home and abroad, helping leading enterprises in the demonstration zone adopt the same set of the world's strictest standards in production. At the same time, it raises funds to build a food zone testing center laboratory, providing third-party inspection and testing services for enterprises in the Jilin City national-level export food and agricultural products quality and safety demonstration zone and the "Changjitu" development and opening pilot zone, saving enterprises a great deal of time, manpower, and testing costs, and enhancing the demonstration zone's core competitiveness and influence.
"Originally many people grew rice for themselves to eat, but now more and more are buying rice from rice shops." said Dai Jibo, head of the COFCO Rice Shop Jilin High-tech Zone store. The rice shop, which has been open for only two years and covers an area of 300 sq m, has gradually won recognition from domestic consumers with its reputation for excellent rice, with sales last year of nearly 8 million yuan.
Liu Weihua told reporters that rice produced and processed according to international standards has strongly boosted domestic sales. At present, Wanchang rice, Shulan rice, Guanghe 43° North Latitude Fragrant Rice, and others from the demonstration zone are already selling well in many provinces and cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
"With the promotion and application of the concept of 'one standard, two markets' in the demonstration zone, leading enterprises in the demonstration zone have shown a good trend of improved quality awareness, improved quality control capability, higher export product prices, more foreign trade orders, and enhanced deep-processing capability." said Li Dongchun, deputy head of the demonstration zone creation leading group and director of the Jilin (City) Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.
After years of demonstration and leadership, the industrial radiation effect of the demonstration zone is now also expanding. Liu Weihua introduced that around key industries such as organic rice and perilla, projects in the demonstration zone such as the Haiwang Health Products Base, the International Logistics Park, and the CP live pig breeding project are being actively advanced. The 26 newly built and continued projects have a total investment of 7 billion yuan, covering green disease-free breeding and planting bases, safe and healthy food processing parks, warehousing and logistics centers, and R&D and talent training bases, among other aspects.
"By creating a national-level export food and agricultural products quality and safety demonstration zone, Jilin City has not only raised the overall level of food and agricultural product quality and safety in the demonstration zone, but also promoted the standardized, industrialized, and large-scale development of Jilin's distinctive industries." said Huang Junsheng, director of the Food Inspection and Supervision Division of the Jilin Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.