The policy of comprehensively cleaning up the non-main business of China Grain Storage should be set up by SASAC of the Ministry of Finance.

State-owned grain enterprise giant China Grain Corporation is rapidly "slimming".

The Economic Observer learned that since October last year, according to the requirements of the National Development and Reform Commission and other aspects, China Grain Reserve has begun to clean up non-main business investment and operation. By the first half of this year, thousands of agricultural, rural and rural service companies established in Henan, Shanxi and other places have been cancelled; all of them have withdrawn from seed investment in Gansu and Yunnan.

According to insiders of China Grain Storage Corporation, on July 1 this year, Premier Li Keqiang made important instructions to China Grain Storage Corporation, clarifying that the company's development direction should highlight its main business, strictly observe the three bottom lines of safety, stability and clean government, and effectively play the role of the main force in grain storage. In accordance with the instructions of the central government, at present, China Grain Reserve is carrying out a comprehensive clean-up of other non-main business investments in the company system, which is expected to continue until next year.

At the same time of cleaning up non-main business investment and operation, China Grain Reserve is also planning to reorganize and integrate rice processing enterprises in Hebei Sanhe City, Guangdong Dongguan city and Shanghai, so as to reverse the decentralized operation and general loss of rice processing enterprises in China Grain Reserve and cultivate rice processing industry with market competitiveness.

After the implementation of the target price policy of the three major staple grains, the Central Reserve is required to greatly reduce the amount of grain stored and stored in the policy grain storage, and at the same time, it must ensure that it can be bought, stored well and sold, so as to reduce the burden of the state finance on grain storage and storage.

For the processing of grain and oil, China Grain Reserve is delimiting the business boundary of enterprises, requiring that general commercial operations unrelated to grain rotation shall not be carried out, and investment projects with small connection with grain policy collection and storage shall not be carried out.

return to the main business

China Grain Reserve was established in 2000. According to the relevant regulations of the Central Committee, it is specifically responsible for the operation and management of central grain reserves, and at the same time accepts the entrustment of the state to carry out the regulation and control tasks such as grain and oil purchase, sale and storage. Obviously, the central government's positioning of the stored grain is "big granary".

However, since 2005, China Grain Reserve began to engage in grain and oil trade and processing. In 2009, it began to establish three rural service companies in Henan, Anhui, Shanxi and other places to sell agricultural means of production such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides and seeds. By 2011, China Grain Reserve acquired corn seed companies in Gansu Province. In the field of agricultural product production and management, the stored grain has gone further and further.

The above-mentioned insiders told the Economic Observer that the large-scale expansion of the agricultural product processing and management fields implemented by China Grain Reserve was after Bao Kexin took over the general manager of China Grain Reserve in April 2007, and many investments were billions, even billions of "big money". As of the first half of 2011, there were more than 90 enterprises in grain and oil processing alone, some of which were market regulation projects approved by the National Development and Reform Commission and supported by funds from the central budget.

In addition to grain and oil processing, as of the first half of 2011, Henan Branch of China Grain Reserve has established more than 20,000 service companies for agriculture, rural areas and farmers, basically covering all villages in Henan. In addition to selling agricultural materials such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides to local farmers, some agricultural service companies even operate tobacco, alcohol and instant noodles.

The transformation of medium grain storage from "big granary" to "big grain merchant" has aroused doubts about its positioning by industry insiders. Since the second half of 2011, Qiao Jianjun, director of the grain depot directly under Zhoukou, Henan Province, and Li Changxuan, general manager of Henan Branch of China Grain Reserve, have successively exposed corruption cases. The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance have begun to attach great importance to the problems existing in China Grain Reserve.

Zheng Fengtian, vice president of the School of Agriculture and Rural Development of Renmin University of China, Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and other experts believe that the large-scale expansion of China Grain Reserve in the field of production and operation has blurred the boundary between policy and operational roles, completely violating the original intention of the state to establish China Grain Reserve.

The above-mentioned insider analysis said, The central high-level to the central grain reserves to make instructions, Clearly require the company optimistic management of the central grain reserves, Service national macro-control, Even if engaged in management, Do processing, Also around the stock grain rotation to moderate development, In fact is to require the grain reserves to return to the initial positioning, Avoid the next step of cross-border expansion, Expand investment problems.

According to the instructions of the central government, at present, China Grain Reserve is cleaning up and stripping off non-main business investment and operation projects, liquidating some enterprises that do not have the qualification to collect and store grain, vigorously integrating grain and oil processing enterprises and sharply "slimming down". It is expected that such rectification will continue until next year.

reform proposals

At the same time of returning to its main business, there is still a contradiction in its own positioning, that is, the positioning of China Grain Reserve by the state is a non-profit organization, which steadily receives state financial subsidies; but China Grain Reserve is also a subordinate enterprise of SASAC, which requires China Grain Reserve to complete the profit increase index every year. In terms of policy setting, this is equivalent to a "fight" between the Ministry of Finance and SASAC.

It is recognized in the industry that in the field of policy-oriented grain storage and storage, China Grain Reserve is currently the only one. The above-mentioned insiders told the Economic Observer that the annual cost of grain storage is huge, reaching several billion yuan every year. In fact, taxpayers 'money is spent. Although the next three main grain target prices will be implemented, the state will reduce the amount of grain storage, but it is still difficult to reduce the financial burden quickly.

Tu Changming, vice president of Oil and Fat Branch of China Grain and Oil Society and vice president of China Vegetable Oil Association, believes that at present, China's single and wasteful grain and oil reserve mode needs to be changed urgently. The policy grain storage mode with the highest cost and most waste simply relying on stored grain has been completely unable to meet the needs of the market. He said that many large-scale state-owned, foreign-funded and private enterprise groups now have good storage, logistics and processing facilities in the main production and sales areas of the country. These facilities should be incorporated into the national reserve system to reduce the financial burden of the country.

Tu Changming's reform proposal is that the grain and oil raw materials purchased by the state can be stored free of charge to social enterprises through competitive bidding, and these enterprises have the right to use these raw materials, but they must strictly abide by the regulations. Once the state needs them, enterprises must submit sufficient grain and oil products within a certain period, which can be raw materials or finished products.

The above-mentioned insiders also suggested that the national grain reserve task should not be managed by enterprises, but should be operated by a formally positioned state-run non-profit organization; then relevant departments through bidding and other means, introduce market mechanism, make use of the enterprise's storage logistics facilities, for policy grain storage services. He figuratively said,"The enterprises involved in warehousing are only custodians, and enterprises can make profits and make money as long as they are good custodians."

In the opinion of the above two people, such a country saves a large amount of infrastructure investment, grain reserve storage, finished grain processing and other expenses for grain storage, and after the flow of policy reserve grain and oil, not only the quality can be guaranteed, but also the raw grain can be processed into finished products, which not only reduces the allocation, processing and circulation links of grain, but also improves the efficiency of regulation and control, and at the same time can effectively restrain corruption in grain storage.