Cotton price reform should deal with excessive price difference at home and abroad and wait-and-see subsidies for cotton enterprises.

On September 22, the relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said at a news conference on "Cotton Target Price Reform pilot and Market Regulation" that the National Development and Reform Commission would suspend the release of cotton reserves and implement target price reforms.

It is reported that with the approval of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission approved the "pilot implementation Plan for Cotton Target Price Reform" of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region and the Xinjiang production and Construction Corps last week, marking the implementation stage of the cotton target price reform that the country has been brewing for a long time.

With regard to the introduction of this policy, people from relevant departments of cotton enterprises told the Securities Daily that they did not know how to issue subsidies in the end, and it was impossible to predict what the future would be like without specific measures.

Reform to deal with the price difference of cotton at home and abroad

In fact, due to the high price difference between domestic and foreign cotton prices, domestic cotton enterprises have been scrambling for quotas to buy foreign cotton, hoping to buy low-priced cotton imported from abroad, while domestic cotton prices remain high due to high production costs, and cotton farmers have to switch to other crops in order to survive.

"at present, the price of domestic cotton is more than 18000 yuan / ton, while the price of imported cotton from abroad is only about 13000 yuan / ton. the price difference is so large, and the company is mainly export-oriented. The cost brought about by the price difference in cotton has led to a decline in the competitiveness of enterprises in the world." A person from a relevant department of a listed company in the textile and clothing industry told reporters that in the past, the company could still get a quota to buy imported cotton from abroad, but now it can no longer get a quota.

The above-mentioned people complained to reporters that "the quality of the cotton bought by the company in China is not very good, and some of the cotton is old goods that have been hoarded for several years."

In fact, a number of cotton enterprises have complained to reporters that due to the large price difference between domestic and foreign cotton, the cost of enterprises is too high, product prices are not competitive. This also led to many cotton enterprises began to compete for a small number of foreign cotton import quotas. It is under this background that the state began to carry out the pilot project of cotton target price reform and market regulation.

Liu Xiaonan, deputy director of the Economic and Trade Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that after the implementation of the target price, the linkage of domestic and foreign cotton markets will be enhanced, and the price difference between domestic and foreign countries will narrow to a reasonable level, which will improve the competitiveness of textile enterprises, especially export-oriented textile enterprises, so that they will be in a relatively fair and reasonable competitive environment.

It is reported that since September 1 this year, Xinjiang cotton market price monitoring has been officially launched. The target price of lint in Xinjiang adopts a certain system in one year, and the target price of lint in 2014 is 19800 yuan per ton, and the total price of seed cotton is about 4.40 yuan per jin. At present, the actual initial listing price of seed cotton is only about 3.3 yuan per catty. From this point of view, the price difference of 1 yuan per jin of seed cotton will be subsidized by the state.

Directly subsidize cotton farmers

It is understood that if the relevant departments will adopt the cotton target price system, abolish the previous temporary collection and storage system, and provide direct subsidies to cotton farmers.

Zhou Wangjun, deputy director of the Price Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out that the target price plays a guiding role, that is, when the output is high, the target price can guide farmers to grow less; when output falls, the target price can guide farmers to be more various. this is our goal.

However, it is not known whether this cotton price reform can make the domestic market cotton price close to the national cotton price. A person from the relevant departments of cotton enterprises told reporters that it is still unknown how much will be subsidized, and whether domestic cotton prices can be on a par with international cotton prices.

Compared with cotton enterprises' wait-and-see and worry about the implementation of cotton target price reform, cotton farmers who are directly subsidized are more concerned about how many subsidies they will receive and whether they will lose money.

Some local cotton farmers in Xinjiang said in an interview with the media that due to the impact of strong winds on cotton production this year, they are expected to harvest about 37000 tons of cotton. He calculated that according to the target price subsidy policy implemented by the state, the price of seed cotton was equivalent to 19800 yuan per ton, which was about 8.8 yuan per kilogram. "if I subsidize according to the number of mu, I will not lose money this year, but if I subsidize according to output, then my income will be much less. What I am most concerned about now is the purchase price of cotton. "

As the cotton target price pilot has just started, so the amount of subsidies can not be determined. In this regard, Zhou Wangjun said that the actual price should be calculated on the basis of the average price of cotton sold by farmers in September, October and November, and the gap between the target price and the actual price is the amount of subsidy that we should pay to farmers.

Zhou Wangjun said, for example, "the most fundamental thing is that the price of cotton should be determined by the market. In this process, we set a target price according to farmers' planting costs plus basic income. According to this principle, the target price of cotton in Xinjiang this year is 19800 yuan per ton. At present, the domestic cotton price is 14000 yuan per ton, and the difference between the two prices is 5800 yuan per ton, which is the amount we should subsidize to farmers this year.

"in addition to the pilot areas in Xinjiang, there are also major producing areas of the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, and the state will also give appropriate subsidies. Now this principle has been decided by the State Council, how to make it up and how much it will be issued by the Ministry of Finance." Zhou Wangjun said so.

Unlike cotton farmers who worry about subsidies, companies that buy cotton buy cotton at full market prices.

"our enterprise buys according to the market situation, as much as the market says." A relevant person in charge of a local enterprise in Xinjiang told the media that the current market quotation is 6 yuan / kg to 8 yuan / kg, but the specific price will not come out until around October 10.

It is understood that due to the pilot cotton target price reform in Xinjiang this year, the state has stopped selling cotton, and some textile enterprises with order production tasks are urgently waiting for the use of cotton.