New grain bank services agriculture, rural areas and farmers need to supplement the short board of financial market

In the future, the "grain bank" needs the support of financial markets such as futures, options, insurance and banks to form a futures market-oriented model.

Yu Delang, a reporter from the ■ newspaper

Zhang Xiaojun, a big grain grower in Nong'an County, Jilin Province, built a new house after the Spring Festival, but he still had a shortfall of about 20,000 yuan. So, he went to the "grain bank" and sold more than 10 tons of corn at a "point price". He raised enough money to build a new house, and his new house started smoothly.

Nowadays, farmers are no stranger to such new words as "grain bank", "spot price" and "futures price", but integrate them into their planting, harvesting, selling and even futures markets. The so-called "grain bank" is a new type of grain business that adopts market-oriented operation and absorbs farmers'"savings" of surplus grain. "depositors" can not only withdraw, purchase and discount grain at any time with their "passbook". There are also agricultural processing, variety exchange and other functions of the new grain business. Farmers directly hand over the output of grain to enterprises through the "grain bank" business, and can choose to settle accounts at a satisfactory price at any time within a certain period of time.

Industry experts said that the new "grain bank" business has helped farmers resolve bottleneck problems such as grain sales, storage, transportation and financing, and promoted the healthy development of the agricultural industry. In the future, we also need the support of financial markets, including futures, options, insurance and banks, to form a new "grain bank" model dominated by the futures market.

New type of "grain bank"

Stop the cheap grain and hurt the farmers

In the past five years from pilot to promotion, the function and connotation of the traditional "grain bank" have been innovated continuously, and a new model of "grain bank" has been formed.

Cofco biochemical Energy (Yushu) Co., Ltd., which carried out the pilot business of "Grain Bank", introduced the specific practices of its business to reporters. The farmers will send the grain to the enterprises according to the pre-signed agreement, and the enterprises will determine the listing price of each day according to the futures and spot prices, and pay 10% of the advance payment to the farmers according to the listing price of the day; in the next 6 months, farmers are free to choose the settlement date The enterprise shall settle the remaining grain according to the listing price on the settlement date, and if the listing price on the settlement date is lower than the grain delivery day price, the enterprise shall settle at a price higher than 10 yuan / ton on the grain delivery day. Since the pilot work of "Grain Bank" was launched in October 2013, the company has unloaded an average of 550t per day, totaling 33300 tons, involving more than 400 farmers and rural cooperatives. The settlement period ranges from 9 days to 150 days. Through company subsidies and selling grain at "fixed prices", farmers have earned more than 500,000 yuan, the average price difference per household has increased by more than 1,000 yuan, and various expenses have been saved by more than 2000 yuan. After more than a year of pilot projects, the pressure on cash flow of enterprises has been reduced, the increase of farmers' income has been guaranteed, and the "grain bank" has formed a good interaction between enterprises and farmers, which has produced obvious win-win effects.

There are now two pilot "grain banks" in Heilongjiang, and another thing this reform pilot is still doing is to build a trading platform-- a platform similar to Taobao, where farmers do not have to care about the geographical distribution of buyers as long as the price is right. You can sell to whoever you want, or even abroad.

The development of "grain bank" can not only ensure that enterprises can obtain the raw materials needed for continuous operation, but also reduce the loss of stored grain, save farmers' grain storage cost, and play a positive role in increasing farmers' income. A person in the industry calculated an account for the collection and storage of grain for the reporter. For example, with regard to the collection and storage of corn, the state currently collects and stores corn at a price of 2240 yuan per ton in the three northeastern provinces and Inner Mongolia Autonomous region. If the collection and storage is calculated on the basis of 70 million tons, the total cost is 156.8 billion yuan. In addition, we also have to pay a financial price of more than 20 billion yuan for public assessment, storage, and interest. Moreover, the long-term storage of grain, the aging of new grain and the increase of mildew rate have led to a waste of food resources, which has become one of the factors threatening food security to a certain extent. The collected and stored grain does not circulate in accordance with the market law, resulting in a lack of processing raw materials for processing enterprises, which can only obtain high-priced raw materials through auction, forming a vicious circle. If the "grain bank" business is promoted, this situation can be effectively alleviated.

According to the person in charge of the relevant departments of the State Grain Administration, China began to pilot the "grain bank" in 2008. As of June last year, through incomplete statistics on the "grain bank" business carried out by more than 10 provinces and more than 200 enterprises across the country, the business has accumulated 12 million tons of grain, increasing farmers' income by 1.2 billion yuan.