China's agricultural products seeking breakthrough

Introduction: This year is the first year of China's accession to the WTO China will realize the main commitments of opening up the agricultural product market to the outside world: gradually increase the market access of major agricultural products such as grain, cotton, sugar, etc during the transitional period; implement tariff quota management for important agricultural products; reduce import tariff rate; cancel export subsidies for agricultural products; restrict domestic support, etc The realization of these commitments will undoubtedly make the problems of agriculture, rural areas and farmers in China "worse" When it comes to China's agriculture, General Secretary Jiang Zemin has repeatedly said, "I often can't sleep." Premier Zhu Rongji also said frankly that after China's accession to the WTO, "my biggest worry is about agriculture." In the past four years, China's total grain output has continued to decline, which is significantly lower than the current production capacity In 1998, China's total grain output reached a peak of 512.3 million tons In 2001, it dropped to 45 million tons, which is lower than the level in 1993 The average annual reduction is 12.45 million tons, a cumulative decrease of 12.2% From our reporter's reports from the main production areas of wheat, corn, soybean and sucrose, the situation is grim After China's accession to the world trade organization, the grain import provinces in the South directly increased the grain import volume, reduced the purchase volume from the main grain production areas in the north, resulting in the continuous decline of domestic grain production The continuous decline of agricultural product price index also directly affects the per capita agricultural income of farmers Even so, the price of agricultural products in China is still 20-40% higher than that in the international market At present, the production capacity of China's agricultural products has ranked first in the world, and the domestic structural supply is relatively surplus Even if China does not reduce the import tariff rate of agricultural products, under the situation that the supply of international and domestic agricultural products exceeds the demand and the price continues to decline, generally speaking, China's agricultural products are not competitive, and the possibility for farmers to increase agricultural income is becoming less and less It's gratifying that we get an important information from the reports from the main production areas The main production areas of agricultural products have begun to deal with the challenge of "entering WTO" several years in advance We have carried out reform and adjustment in many aspects, such as planting varieties, planting structure, management mode, scientific and technological investment, marketing mode, etc we can't easily conclude that China's agriculture has adapted to the reform and adjustment The challenge of "entering WTO", but we have taken an important first step This year is the first year of China's accession to the WTO According to the commitment of access to important agricultural products, China's wheat import quota will reach 8.45 million tons this year, equivalent to 8.5% of the domestic output, about 22% of the wheat commodity volume, more than four times the total wheat import volume in the past three years Since 1997, there has been a structural surplus of wheat in China The market price has fallen by nearly 40%, and a large amount of wheat has been overstocked There is a situation of "unable to sell and save" What kind of impact will the expansion of Wheat Import bring to China's wheat production, especially the emerging high-quality wheat production? Henan is the largest wheat producing area in China Since 1998, in response to China's accession to the WTO, Henan has made a large-scale adjustment to the quality structure of wheat This year, the special wheat planting area for high quality and strong gluten has reached more than 21 million mu, accounting for 30% of the wheat planting area in the province Wheat "high quality" has improved the market competitiveness of Henan wheat, not only alleviated the passive overstock of wheat for several years, but also produced high quality wheat in some areas In recent three years, the area of high-quality wheat in Xinxiang City has increased from 800000 Mu to 3.28 million mu, which has been sold out for two consecutive years This year, most of the new wheat is also reserved by processing enterprises However, some experts also pointed out that the development of high-quality wheat in China in recent years is realized under the condition that the import volume of wheat has been kept at a low level for three consecutive years, and it is a "closed door" adjustment This year, domestic high-quality wheat will face real impact and test Compared with imported wheat, what is the quality of domestic high-quality wheat? In recent years, a large number of comparative tests have been carried out by authoritative scientific research departments in China The conclusion is that some excellent varieties have reached or are close to the quality of imported wheat But flour processing enterprises, the end-user of wheat, don't think so The annual wheat processing capacity of Zhengzhou Jinyuan Flour Industry Co., Ltd is more than 600000 tons, said Chang Jian, director of the company's quality control department Although there are more than 20 domestic high-quality wheat varieties at present, there is still a certain quality gap compared with the imported wheat, which is manifested in two aspects: incomplete quality and unstable quality The common problem of domestic high quality wheat is that some single indexes are very high, and the comprehensive indexes are short legs Second, the quality of the same variety is not stable When they used a domestic high-quality wheat this year, they found that some batches had a stable time index of 12 minutes, while others had only a few minutes In order to produce special flour with good quality, they used several methods of mixing and matching domestic wheat to complement each other in quality On the contrary, the quality of imported wheat was much more stable It is understood that Jinyuan company uses 200000 tons of high-quality strong gluten wheat every year This year, it has obtained 13000 tons of import quota index, and has adjusted 20000 tons Chang Jian said that to produce high-grade flour, we have to rely on imported wheat There is a gap between domestic wheat and imported wheat in quality, but there is an obvious advantage in price comparison According to Liu Zhengmin, the information center of Zhengzhou grain wholesale market, the largest grain wholesale market in China, the price of imported wheat is slightly lower than that of domestic wheat in terms of the price of the place of origin, but the cost of overseas transportation has increased significantly, and China's high-quality wheat has the advantage of price comparison at the "door of home" At present, the price of imported wheat within the quota enjoying 1% tariff is between 1650-1850 yuan per ton CIF China, while the price of domestic high-quality wheat is between 1200-1450 yuan per ton As for the wheat outside the quota with 71% tariff, the CIF China price is between 2500-2800 yuan per ton, losing the advantage of price comparison Lin Zuoji, a wheat expert at Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that due to different consumption habits, domestic high-quality wheat has market advantages as well as price advantages At present, the market demand for high-quality strong gluten wheat is not all for making bread, most of which are used to mix other wheat to make convenient flour, dumpling flour, ramen flour, etc Henan Zhenglong Food Co., Ltd., which produces "Baixiang brand" instant noodles, has an annual processing capacity of 300000 tons of wheat Its products mainly face the rural market and urban working class Yao Zhongliang, chairman of the board of directors, said that their annual consumption of strong gluten and high-quality wheat is about 200000 tons, all of which are domestic high-quality wheat The reason is that the price is cheap, and the quality of domestic high-quality wheat can basically meet the taste requirements of this level of consumer groups Will a large number of wheat imports have an impact on the price of domestic wheat which has been depressed for nearly four years? Liu Zhengmin believes that at present, the world wheat trade volume is about 100 million tons If China imports a large amount of wheat, it will certainly drive the wheat price in the international market From 1987 to 1989, China's wheat imports exceeded the previous imports for three consecutive years, making the U.S wheat FOB price rise from $115 to $171 In 1999, China's wheat imports were only 450000 tons, and the U.S wheat FOB price fell to $121 per ton Li Changxuan, general manager of Zhengzhou branch of China Grain Reserve Management Corporation, said that after several years of bumper harvest, in 2000, China's wheat price fell to the bottom of the valley, and the wheat price in the rural market once fell to 0.7 yuan per kilogram Since this year, the price of wheat in the rural market has risen to the level of 1 yuan per kilogram due to two consecutive years of production reduction At present, China's wheat inventory is very large, which leads to the high cost of storage pressing wheat 70% of Henan's wheat inventory costs 1.38 yuan per kilogram, so it is impossible to sell it at a reduced price Therefore, China's wheat price will not fall sharply after China's accession to the WTO China is the largest country of wheat production and consumption in the world For a long time, wheat has been a "gap" food variety with a small amount of imported supplementary adjustment In the middle and late 1990s, with the strengthening of agricultural infrastructure construction and the large-scale application of practical science and technology, China's total wheat output leaped, realizing the surplus of supply and demand In recent years, there has been a serious backlog and a large amount of surplus in the wheat market In June 2001, there was a backlog of 25 million tons of commodity wheat in Henan Province, which exceeded the total annual wheat output of the whole province Until this year's wheat harvest, the amount of wheat under storage was still 19.5 million tons, accounting for more than one fifth of the national wheat output last year Guo Tiancai, deputy director of the National Wheat Engineering Technology Research Center, said that the current "surplus" of wheat in China is a low-level, structural "surplus" The main reason is that for a long time, in order to solve the problem of food and clothing, China's wheat production and scientific research have been doing articles on high yield Although the yield has gone up, but due to the neglect of quality improvement, only a large number of common medium gluten wheat varieties can be produced, few strong gluten and weak gluten wheat are produced, and no special wheat base is developed In countries and regions with developed flour manufacturing industry, there are as many as 60 or 70 kinds of special flour for wheat varieties, and as many as 100 kinds in the United States All flour products on the market have corresponding special flour, and the output of special flour accounts for 95% of the total flour output However, there are only dozens of special flour in China, accounting for only 5% of the flour output Another reason for wheat overstocking is the lack of processing capacity It's a bit like people's "stomach" If you don't eat it, you can't digest it if you eat more At present, the total output value of China's food processing industry is only 40% of the total agricultural output value, while that of some European and American countries is 200% Guo Tiancai said that the major wheat producing countries in the world, such as the United States, Canada and Australia, have been paying close attention to China's huge wheat consumption market They are studying the dietary structure of the Chinese people in order to produce wheat for the Chinese market Not long ago, at an international wheat seminar held in Beijing, an official of the Australian wheat bureau said, "Australian wheat is produced in front of the mouths of people all over the world We are not afraid that we will not produce wheat suitable for you, just afraid that you will not ask for it." It is understood that Australia's export of wheat alone can be divided into 45 market levels Two thirds of the country's wheat is used for export, and wheat has become an important export earning industry While studying the special wheat market in China, the adjustment of wheat quality structure in China appears the phenomenon of rushing to attack the strong gluten wheat A large agricultural city in South Henan has a mild and humid climate, which is suitable for developing medium gluten wheat However, they have followed the trend and planted 3 million mu of strong gluten wheat As a result, no Jin of wheat meets the standard The "high-quality wheat" planted by farmers can only be sold as ordinary wheat Gao Yiwu, vice mayor of Xinxiang City, said that due to the rapid development of strong gluten wheat, there was a situation of competitive price reduction in the market In Xi'an, the traditional market area of high-quality wheat in Xinxiang, the price of strong gluten wheat fell from 1.4 yuan per kilogram to 1.26 yuan Li Changxuan, general manager of CSSC Zhengzhou branch, said that there is a "strong gluten wheat" fever in wheat production and scientific research, while the traditional quality improvement of gluten wheat mainly consumed by Chinese people has been ignored In fact, the market space for special gluten wheat is wider After China's accession to the WTO,