Chen Xiwen: grain prices and subsidies for farmers will be separated.

Zhongqing online, November 4 (China Youth Daily Zhongqing online reporter Hao Shuai) "the formation of grain prices should be close to the market, while taking into account the legitimate income of farmers." This is a very important principle for forming China's grain prices in the future. " At a news conference held by the Information Office of the State Council today, Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural work leading Group and director of the office, responded to the fact that domestic grain prices are higher than foreign grain prices, as well as lower domestic grain transaction prices.

Chen Xiwen said: the reason why domestic grain prices are higher than foreign grain prices is that our agriculture is not competitive enough. Second, our protection policy has made food prices higher and higher. Third, international grain prices are falling. And freight and exchange rate issues.

Chen Xiwen said: judging from the actual situation in China, in order to arouse the enthusiasm of farmers and ensure their reasonable income, the state has been appropriately raising the temporary purchase and storage price and the minimum purchase price in recent years, which is contrary to the trend of prices in the international market. We are constantly raising prices, and the international market is constantly falling. After this point, there will be higher grain prices in China than in the international market. Of course, this is the simplest analysis. In fact, the fact that China's grain prices are higher than those in the international market is not entirely due to the increase in domestic prices, because the increase in domestic prices is significantly lower than the decline in grain prices in the international market.

So, why did grain prices hang upside down? Chen Xiwen explained that there are other factors, including changes in the exchange rate, the RMB exchange rate has been generally strong over the years, which means that imported agricultural products bought with US dollars will be cheap.

For example, $500 a ton of soybeans is 4000 yuan RMB at the exchange rate of 1:8 in the past. Now the exchange rate is 1:6. For a ton of soybeans bought at US $500, there is only 3000 yuan left, which is 1000 yuan cheaper.

The second is the decline in global energy prices, leading to a sharp drop in global shipping prices. Agricultural commodities are basically traded internationally by sea. Compared with 2008, the cost of a ton of grain shipped in bulk from the Gulf of Mexico of the United States to Huangpu Port in Guangzhou, China in 2008 is about US $135-138. Now the freight per ton is 35 US dollars, which is 100 US dollars cheaper and more than 600 RMB cheaper.

In the face of the problem of grain prices hanging upside down, how to deal with it? For example, wheat and rice have maintained their price levels where the lowest prices have been implemented, and the minimum purchase price for wheat and rice implemented in 2015 has not increased and is under study in 2016, Chen Xiwen said. The price of corn was announced on September 18 this year that compared with last year, the temporary collection and storage price of corn in the main producing areas decreased by 0.12 yuan per catty on average. In the past, the temporary storage price of corn was 1.13 yuan per catty in Liaoning, 1.12 yuan per catty in Jilin and 1.11 yuan per catty in Heilongjiang, which dropped by 0.12 yuan on average this time, that is, to 1 yuan per catty. However, it should be noted that the temporary storage price of 1 yuan announced by the government this year, or the current market price, is still higher than that in the international market.

Chen Xiwen told reporters that in the future, prices will be separated from subsidies, and prices will mainly be formed by the market, so that the main body of the market will be active. In the past, when subsidies and prices were put together, the price was higher than the market price, so grain sellers and processing enterprises became inactive. After separating the price from the subsidy, the market can be activated, the farmers sell grain at the market price, and the operators receive the grain at the market price, thus invigorating the grain market. If the market price is too low, the government should adopt appropriate policies to directly subsidize farmers, but separate from the price. This is the basic principle, and the future trend is the same. "price compensation" is separated and close to the market price, and the price formation mechanism is close to the market.