The corn quantity increases, the price falls, the grain does not make money, the big family transfers the land and then destroys the contract and abandons it.

The autumn harvest across the country is drawing to a close. As the main crop of autumn harvest, the yield of corn will increase again this year, but farmers in the main producing areas that usher in a bumper harvest will not be happy. A reporter from the "Economic Information Daily" learned in Hebei, Jilin and other provinces that the current purchase price of corn is significantly lower than in previous years, seriously dampening the enthusiasm of food and agriculture farmers to grow grain, and even some large grain growers in land transfer have begun to break their contracts and abandon their rents. At the same time, corn stocks remain high, constantly eroding the profits of the deep processing industry. A number of experts pointed out that there are many long-standing disadvantages in the price formation mechanism of several staple grains, such as corn, and it is necessary to speed up the improvement and reform of the current temporary storage policy and use the hands of the market to solve the problem.

The increase in the price of corn hurts the hearts of farmers

"the price is too low now. I'd like to wait before I sell it." Li Qing, a farmer in Donghuo Village, Xinyi Township, Chengan County, Hebei Province, said that the price of corn this year is too low, squeezing most of his profits. "I can't lose money, but the profits are gone."

At present, most of the autumn grain in Hebei has been harvested, and the autumn planting work is being carried out in an orderly manner. The reporter learned in an interview in Hebei that farmers reported that corn was growing well this year, with output rising steadily, but prices were steadily falling. Take the new corn as an example, the price has dropped from 1.1 yuan / jin on the market to 0.8 yuan / jin at present, and the price is significantly lower than in previous years, but also lower than farmers' expectations. Grass-roots farmers also reflect that the comparative efficiency of growing grain is already low, and in the event of a sharp drop in grain prices this year, the interests of farmers have been seriously damaged. As a result, large grain growers have to adjust the planting structure, reduce the planting area, and reduce their enthusiasm for growing grain to the freezing point.

Some big grain growers said that corn prices were low, but no companies took the opportunity to buy them. Because from the point of view of enterprises, the price of corn will continue to decline. At present, there is no market, and those who buy are unwilling to buy and those who sell are unwilling to sell.

According to the analysis of the person in charge of the Handan Municipal Bureau of Agriculture, according to the current price market, the annual net income of farmers per mu of land is 300 yuan. Due to the scale effect, the income of large households ranges from 500 yuan to 600 yuan, and the comparative efficiency of growing grain is already low. This year's depressed corn prices will also lead to a decline in farmers' income to varying degrees, and farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain will be further suppressed.

As for the future price, many large grain growers are not optimistic, the price is likely to remain weak, and the big grain growers have plans to reduce the planting area of field crops.

Li Bo, a major grain grower in Handan, transferred 5000 mu of land. he said that the price of corn is on the low side this year, excluding all kinds of costs and only keeping capital. He originally had a plan to expand the area of transferred land, but in the face of the current price market, he had to give up this idea. In addition, in order to maintain operation, he plans to expand the planting area of vegetables, currently 20% of the land transferred to grow vegetables, next year plans to increase this proportion to 30%.

Industry insiders said that due to the high planting costs of large households, the annual rent pressure is generally high, coupled with the lack of loan collateral, the capital chain of large households is generally tight, and there has been a phenomenon of breaking contracts and abandoning rents. Ordinary farmers see that the efficiency of growing grain is low, and they are even more unwilling to cultivate land. Farmers do not harvest seeds, and large households cannot return rent or return.

Zhang Shuting, deputy director of the Cheng'an County Agricultural Bureau, said: corn prices are so low this year, which is rare in recent years, the comparative efficiency of growing grain is already low, and the low price of grain hurts the years of farmers, so all parties need to carefully consider how to protect farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain.

There is a large backlog of policy grain and the warehouse is full.

Prior to this, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Grain Bureau, the Ministry of Finance and the Agricultural Development Bank jointly issued a paper to announce the corn collection and storage price for this year. Among them, the listing purchase price is 1 yuan per jin, which is 10.7% lower than last year's average price of 1.12 yuan per jin. The announcement of this decision led to a drop in corn futures market prices.

It is reported that since 2008, the state has implemented a temporary corn reserve policy in Northeast China. In the context of the financial crisis at that time, the temporary storage policy played a very important role in protecting farmers' enthusiasm for planting and maintaining national food security. However with the change of the market situation the negative impact of this policy is becoming more and more significant and the problem of grain inventory is gradually intensified because of the fact that the price of corn stored in our country has only risen but not fallen in the past.

It is estimated that up to now, the surplus of corn in temporary storage in China is at the level of 150 million tons. Due to the increasingly obvious transfer to corn in planting areas such as soybeans, cotton and miscellaneous grains, according to the forecast of the National Grain and Oil Information Center, China's corn output in the new season is expected to reach 232 million tons, setting another all-time high. According to the auction results of the National Trading Center this year, the total amount of corn sold so far this year is only 5.86 million tons, far lower than the market expectation of 20 million to 30 million tons.

Song Haihe, director of the purchase and sales Planning Department of China Grain Storage Jilin Branch, told reporters that at present, all kinds of grain in the branch area are seriously overloaded. "the depot cannot be released, the deep processing capacity is seriously underworked, and the consumption of feed grain has been greatly reduced, coupled with the increase in the number of low-cost substitutes, resulting in warehouses full of grain stocks, mainly corn."

It is understood that although Jilin Province has issued a support and subsidy policy for grain processing enterprises this year (100 yuan per ton of corn processed by enterprises from the central government and 50 yuan per ton from local finance), because the price difference far exceeds the subsidy range, the effect of the policy is not obvious, the turnover of competitive auction is low, and the market purchasing power is seriously insufficient.

Since early May, the state has released temporary storage corn auction targets to Jilin Province for 12 consecutive weeks. Although the auction time for temporary storage this year will be about two weeks earlier than last year, the total turnover is only 1.3544 million tons, down more than 75 per cent from the same period last year. "the low trading volume directly reflects the weak demand in the current market, and the subsidized enterprises are still losing money, so it is difficult to have interest in auctions." Liu Xiaoran, deputy secretary-general of China Food Association Corn Branch, said.

Judging from the situation in Jilin Province, feed and deep processing enterprises have suffered serious losses, alcohol processing enterprises have lost 600 yuan to 800 yuan per ton, starch processing enterprises have lost 100 yuan to 300 yuan per ton, and most enterprises are in a state of production suspension or semi-suspension.

Not only insufficient consumption, the state has not arranged cross-provincial transfer of warehouses since this year, resulting in no channel to vacate the warehouse, resulting in the phenomenon of full inventory, unable to sell, unable to adjust, and unable to store. "it is estimated that the corn output this year will be at least 30 million tons. At present, branches and local state-owned grain enterprises no longer have spare storage capacity. In addition, there are limited personnel for leasing and purchasing warehouses, and there are many risks in entrusting purchases. A large amount of grain backlog will be out of control and can not be managed well." Song Haihe said.

Song Haihe told the reporter that at present, the Jilin branch of China Grain Storage has a large inventory and a wide range of points. There are 24.3 million tons of grain stored in the open air, and there are more than 40, 000 open-air storage spaces. In particular, some storage sites make use of non-standard storage, lack of mechanical ventilation, electronic temperature detection and other functions, lack of grain storage experience, and are extremely prone to grain heap heating, dew, insects, mildew and even bad grain, and some enterprise fire and lightning protection facilities do not meet the requirements. There are some hidden dangers in production safety.

Corn deep processing enterprises suffer from "subsidy dependence"

Zhang Changcheng, director of the Science and Technology Industry Department of Jilin Grain Bureau, told reporters that under the influence of adverse factors such as increasing economic downward pressure, sluggish product demand, and rising raw material costs, corn processing enterprises in Jilin Province were in trouble and suffered successive industry-wide losses.

In addition to high inventories, heavy losses in the deep processing industry are also a major negative effect of this round of falling corn prices. According to reports, by the end of July, the ex-factory price of corn starch in Changchun ranges from 2900 yuan to 3000 yuan per ton, and there will be a loss of 200 yuan per ton of starch, which translates into processed corn. The loss of processed alcohol is even more serious.

In fact, losses in the corn processing industry are not new this year. In the late 1990s, due to the large backlog of corn, the contradiction between the difficulty of national grain storage and the difficulty of farmers selling grain was more prominent. Jilin Province took the lead in developing the deep processing industry of corn in the country, which alleviated the problem of corn collection and storage to a great extent. at the same time, it plays an important role in increasing farmers' income. However, since the second half of 2012, the grain processing industry in Jilin Province has experienced a serious industrial crisis due to high costs, falling prices, sluggish demand, "homogenization" competition and product structure convergence. Most enterprises have lost money and stopped production, and the market has shrunk. Although the state has taken measures to subsidize "blood transfusion", the decline is still difficult to change, and there is an urgent need to take measures to solve the current difficulties of the corn processing industry.

The reporter learned in Songyuan City, Yushu City, Siping City, Jilin Province, and other places that local corn processing enterprises are "losing money and producing." because the shutdown will face problems such as aging equipment and market loss, some strong enterprises "gnash their teeth" in production. are hovering on the edge of halting or semi-halting production.