Grain circulation urgently needs to break the "predicament of supporting the market".

The price of grain is not fixed, but the price of supporting the market is rising all the way. as a result, the price of grain market is distorted, and the burden of state-owned enterprises is getting heavier and heavier. The current "predicament of supporting the market" of wheat is of specimen significance, and the reform of grain circulation system needs to be upgraded urgently.

In view of the collection and storage of summer grain after the "11th consecutive increase", a reporter from Outlook Newsweek conducted an investigation and interview in Shandong, Henan, Anhui, Shaanxi, Hubei and other major grain producing provinces. The policy of supporting the market for many years has stabilized the income of farmers and is an important driving force for increasing domestic grain production year after year. However, the common problems in some places can not be ignored: continuous policy storage makes a large number of grain sources enter the national inventory, resulting in tight storage capacity in some areas; the rising market prices lead to the "ceiling" effect, resulting in multiple "grain prices upside down" phenomenon.

Agricultural experts said that to some extent, the current wheat "supporting the market dilemma" is of specimen significance, and the relevant departments should consider it as a whole, take the construction of the target price system as the starting point, give better play to the role of the market, and promote the reform of the grain circulation system.

The tension of storage capacity is becoming increasingly prominent.

Song Changsheng, deputy director of the District Grain Bureau in Changqiao District, Suzhou City, Anhui Province, told the reporter, "since Anhui launched the wheat market purchase on May 30, there have been sporadic acquisitions by some grain processing enterprises in the early stage, and then most of them are the market-supporting acquisitions of national grain collection and storage enterprises. So far, 90% of wheat acquisitions are policy-based acquisitions to support the market. " He said that in the context of the recession in the flour industry, many grain processing enterprises are in a state of suspension, resulting in a large number of grain sources entering state-owned grain stocks, putting great pressure on warehouse capacity, and some farmers may have difficulties in selling grain in the future.

Similar "troubles" brought about by bumper harvests also exist in Hubei Province. Fei Renping, deputy director of the provincial grain bureau, said that at present, the province's state-owned grain warehouses are full and tight, and if effective measures are not taken in time to deal with them, autumn grain will probably have nowhere to put on the market in the near future.

It is understood that at present, Hubei Province is stepping up the maintenance of the old dangerous warehouse, and it is expected that the warehouse capacity will be increased by 1.1 billion jin. Together with the promotion, the total warehouse capacity can be freed up to about 2 billion jin. However, according to the scale of purchasing 6 billion jin of autumn grain to support the market, there will still be a shortfall of 3 to 4 billion jin.

In Henan, a traditional grain-producing province, the purchase and sale of wheat is being carried out smoothly. The reporter learned from many departments that although there is no shortage of storage capacity in the province, with the enhancement of grain production capacity, there is still a hidden worry about the gap in the future.

According to a person in charge of the China Grain Storage Henan Company, the total grain output in Henan has exceeded 100 billion jin for eight consecutive years and is expected to stabilize at more than 110 billion jin in 2014. According to the "Planning goal for the Construction of the Core area of Grain production in Henan", by 2020, the province's total grain output will reach 130 billion jin, commercial grain will exceed 90 billion jin, and an effective warehouse capacity of 100 billion jin will be required.

"from the perspective of collection and storage capacity, at present, the effective storage capacity of local grain enterprises in the province is only 42.1 billion jin, while that of medium grain storage enterprises is 25.4 billion jin, and the gap in storage capacity is as high as 32.5 billion jin. According to the current policy momentum of collection and storage, it is bound to have a negative impact on the safety of grain storage in the future, and it may be difficult to sell grain. " The person in charge said.

The buyout of supporting the market is becoming more and more "immobile".

In addition to the shortage of storage capacity caused by a large amount of storage, the long-standing policy of supporting the market has also encountered a "ceiling effect" in other aspects, which makes the implementation of this policy to benefit farmers increasingly into a dilemma.

First, grain brokers "intercept" the policy dividend to support the market. At a state-owned grain purchase site in Suzhou, the reporter met Liu Hongjun, a local farmer who came to sell grain. He told reporters that he sold 17000 jin of wheat that day and got more than 20, 000 yuan in cash.

However, unlike ordinary farmers, Liu Hongjun is now a grain broker. Since the start of the market-supporting acquisition, he and his family have begun to buy grain in the surrounding towns, with an average purchase of more than 40,000 jin a day. A total of about 1 million jin of wheat was purchased. According to the purchase price which is 3 cents lower than the market price, excluding all kinds of costs such as gas money and road fees, we will earn about 1 penny per jin.

The reporter saw that there are many grain brokers like Liu Hongjun at a number of grain purchase sites in Anhui. Data provided by the Suzhou Central Grain Storage Bank show that at present, there are more than 1000 grain brokers in the city, with large ones with 2 to 3 agricultural vehicles, small ones transported by tricycles, and purchases accounting for 60% to 70% of the total grain purchases. only about 30% of farmers come to purchase and sell grain.

The reporter learned that the emergence of a large number of grain brokers is closely related to the shortage of young and middle-aged labor in rural areas and the popularity of selling "land grain" in many rural areas. In Henan, a major wheat province, Shang Shimin, deputy secretary of the party committee of the Anyang directly affiliated warehouse of stored grain, said that about 40% of local people currently sell "land grain", and this proportion has been increasing in recent years.

Zhang Dengyun, a major grain grower in Wangzhuang Town, Huaxian County, Henan Province, said that the original intention of the state to support the market price was to ensure farmers' income from growing grain, but now, for various reasons, grain traders have locked in the "last kilometer" of farmers to state-owned grain depots and started the business of ensuring harvest by drought and waterlogging. "the country has spent a lot of money, but the grain farmers have not fully enjoyed the benefits they should have."

Second, the long-term upside-down of grain prices affects the healthy development of the grain market. Many market players, including grain processing enterprises, have proposed that since the implementation of the policy of supporting the market in 2006, the purchase price of wheat has been rising all the way, even at an annual price of 0.1 yuan in the first few years. This unilateral market of only rising but not falling has distorted the normal price formation mechanism and created multiple "price inversion" phenomena between domestic and international, production and marketing areas, raw grain and finished grain, and so on. It is reported that from 2012, domestic wheat prices began to be higher than international wheat prices. Up to now, the price of imported wheat ranges from 2100 yuan / ton to 2300 yuan / ton, while the price of domestic wheat arriving at the southern port is 2600 yuan / ton, which is more than 300 yuan higher than that of imported wheat.

A person in charge of the Hubei Provincial Grain Bureau said that the current market price will certainly not work in the long run. "according to theory, the rise and fall of grain prices is not fixed, but the price of supporting the market has been rising. This approach distorts the grain market, and state-owned enterprises are burdened with a heavy burden, making it more and more difficult to sustain. "

Third, a large number of grain sources are "stranded" in state-owned grain depots, resulting in a waste of national funds. Jiao Shanwei, an analyst at China Grain Network, said that with the increase of policy reserves year by year, grain warehousing has also generated a lot of costs. "take Henan as an example, the highest purchase rate was 71%. From grain in to out of the warehouse, the purchase subsidies, safekeeping fees, and loan interest of the Agricultural Development Bank added up to a 'silent cost' of more than 20 cents per jin of wheat. If only we could give the money to the farmers. "