How to crack the target price system at home and abroad

In 2012, Australian wheat was 2600 to 2700 yuan per ton, but in the same year, the domestic wheat price in China was higher, about 200 yuan per ton. Now the price is high again, and the price of domestic wheat coming into Shandong this time has risen to 2900 yuan per ton. " Recently, when a reporter from China Youth Daily was interviewing grain depots in a local area, a staff member of a grain depot directly under the southern province said.

In fact, it is nothing new that foreign grain prices are lower than those at home. Li Guoxiang, deputy director of the Rural Macro-economy Office of the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "domestic grain prices are higher than foreign grain prices because China has implemented the market-supporting purchase policy for many years, in order to increase farmers' enthusiasm for growing grain." has been raising the purchase price of grain. "

It is understood that the market-supporting acquisitions that have been implemented for more than 10 years include two policies: the lowest purchase price and the temporary purchase and storage policy. Since 2004 and 2006, the state has implemented the minimum purchase price system for rice and wheat in the main producing areas, and since 2007, it has implemented temporary purchase and storage policies for corn, soybeans, rapeseed, sugar and so on.

"the original intention of these two policies is to prevent cheap grain from hurting farmers, but in fact they have pushed up domestic grain prices and increased grain stocks." Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Iger Agriculture, said that a large number of grain purchased by supporting the market could not be sold because of high prices, and grain processing enterprises lacked interest and could only be stacked in warehouses.

With regard to the market purchase policy, industry insiders pointed out that we should speed up the reform of the agricultural protection policy, adjust the grain collection and storage policy as soon as possible, and straighten out the grain price mechanism.

Domestic grain prices are higher than those abroad.

The fact that domestic grain prices are higher than those abroad has attracted much attention. Chen Xiwen, deputy head of the Central Rural work leading Group and director of the office, has repeatedly mentioned the bottleneck faced by the purchase of grain to support the market. He has pointed out that in the second half of 2013, the domestic prices of wheat, corn and rice were all higher than the domestic CIF price of imported grain, 5% higher for wheat, 6% higher for corn and 25% higher for rice. If China continues to raise food prices, it will stimulate food imports and have an impact on domestic agriculture and food production.

China's grain imports, including wheat, rice and corn, increased by 80% in the first seven months of this year compared with the same period last year, according to the General Administration of Customs. In this regard, the General Administration of Customs believes that, first, the domestic demand is strong; second, the price of agricultural products in the international market is low.

Take wheat as an example, data show that since November last year, the domestic market price of wheat has been higher than the import-to-shore tax price for nine consecutive months. Last month, the hard red winter wheat in the Gulf of Mexico of the United States was about 1.35 yuan per jin after landing tax, which is 0.12 yuan lower than the price of high-quality wheat marketing area in China.

"the food processing industry is highly competitive, so enterprises will choose imported grain with lower prices as processing raw materials as far as possible." Ma Wenfeng said. Prior to this, domestic wheat imports mainly came from the United States, Canada and Australia, but enterprises were not satisfied with importing wheat from these countries in order to reduce production costs.

According to media reports, the Shenzhen port imported French bulk wheat for the first time this year. Low price is an important reason why domestic enterprises choose to import French wheat. It is reported that the import of bulk wheat from France is about 20 US dollars cheaper per ton than wheat imported from Canada, the United States and other countries in the same period, and the whole ship of grain can save enterprises about 1 million US dollars.

The growth of imported grain is not only due to its low prices, but also to the needs of domestic production.

Although the price of imported grain is lower than that of domestic grain, it cannot benefit all domestic processing enterprises. Li Guoxiang said that according to the relevant state regulations, enterprises import wheat only if they have relevant licenses and processing qualifications before they can obtain wheat quotas. Therefore, in order to enable more enterprises to reduce production costs, it is not a long-term solution to rely solely on importing low-priced foreign grain.

The purchase of supporting the market leads to the upside-down of grain prices.

On the one hand, international food prices continue to decline; on the other hand, domestic food prices remain high. Grain prices upside down make domestic grain warehousing increasingly tight, enterprise production costs can not come down. The reason for this, in the view of many food experts, is that it has been carried out for many years to support the market acquisition.

"the regulatory measures formulated in the past, including the minimum purchase price and the temporary acquisition and storage system, were established under the background that domestic prices were lower than international prices." Ye Xingqing, head of the Rural economy Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the media earlier that in a normal year, the price formed by the market should be higher than the purchase price of supporting the market, and the purchase of supporting the market has a plan but does not start. However, since the introduction of policy storage, with the exception of rice in 2008, 2010 and 2011, wheat in 2011, corn in 2010, soybean and rapeseed have been harvested for five consecutive years respectively. Cotton has been harvested for three consecutive years and sugar for two years in a row.

Continued buyout purchases have pushed up prices. Statistics show that in 2013, the minimum purchase prices of rice and wheat were 1.39 yuan and 1.12 yuan per jin, up 0.67 yuan, 93% and 0.42 yuan and 60% respectively over 2004 and 2006; corn and rapeseed increased by 60% and 38% respectively; and the temporary reserve price of soybeans increased by 24% in 2013.

This year, the price of major grain has not fallen as a result of the increase in foreign grain imports. Peng Chao, a senior market analyst at the Rural Economic Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, said recently that the price of early indica rice in China's main producing areas has risen from 1.28 yuan per jin in January to 1.34 yuan in August, while the price of late rice has remained at about 1.35 yuan per catty. The price of japonica rice rose from 1.49 yuan per jin at the beginning of the year to 1.53 yuan per jin in August. He believes that the main reason for the rise in rice prices is that the state raised the minimum purchase price for rice in 2014.

"when the lowest purchase price becomes the highest price in the market, if the acquisition fee and custody fee are taken into account, the price of selling at a reasonable price will be even higher. In the case of an increase in imported grain, it will be more difficult to sell grain at a reasonable price. " Ma Wenfeng pointed out.