Origin to table: sweet potato production and marketing process

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The sea breeze at the end of the year is cold. Looking along the Beigang Creek to the junction of Yunjia, the warm sun in the rare sunny winter day gradually rises, the ambiguous brilliance reflects the Beginning of Winter's seasonal abundance, and the water forest and farmland in the early morning are very lively in the cold wind.

The large machinery rumbled into the field, turned over the mud and covered the soil, and a string of sweet potatoes was turned out from the mound. As the machine moved forward, it fell to the ground. Even though many steps have been replaced by machines, many rural women are still needed to help sort sweet potatoes, kneel or sit, or bend over for hours of ploughing. It can be said that they have deep respect for the land and quickly classify sweet potatoes: top potatoes, medium potatoes, sweet potatoes, special products. Packed in grades of 50 jin each, the price and fate of sweet potatoes are also classified.

Traffickers: errands to escort agricultural products

The "pan Tsai" on one side has been waiting in the truck for a long time, preparing to buy sweet potatoes and sell them downstream, such as wholesale markets, processing plants, and the mouth of the industry. Most potato farmers cultivate their own land, and their individual planting area is about three hectares. Due to the small harvest and lack of bargaining power, it is customary for most traditional farmers to purchase them uniformly so as to avoid the trouble of finding access roads.

Prices fluctuate according to the auction process in the wholesale market, ranging from three to more than ten yuan per jin, plus superimposed logistics and cleaning costs in the process of transportation to reduce profit space. Today, with the development of the Internet, many young farmers choose to produce and sell themselves through the Internet, operating e-commerce alone, passing the auctions of traffickers and wholesale markets, with higher prices, higher profits, and logistics costs passed on to consumers. however, farmers have to bear planting, harvesting, marketing, logistics and other work, the threshold is higher.

Mouth: a stepping stone to fresh fruits and vegetables

At three o'clock in the morning, the first fruit and vegetable market in Taipei was already full of people, and there was one auction after another. Traffickers transported sweet potatoes from Shuilin to Taipei, and the porter was responsible for the delivery. The auctioneer had a discerning eye, and the price had been roughly settled. At this time, "Xingkou" also came to inspect the goods. Hankou is the owner of the wholesale business, who is responsible for bidding for crops, ranging from roadside vendors to volume stores to buy fruits from them. since the auction market is all cash transactions, it pays great attention to interpersonal trust, and even allows the position of Xingkou to adopt the "hereditary" system.

Bidding for crops is easy to cope with the daily situation and bidding conditions, which makes the quality of crops sold by the bank unstable. In addition to bidding, many farmers who have fixed cooperation in the producing areas do not have contracts in black and white. They rely on trust to maintain their relationship. Sometimes prices fluctuate sharply, and the bank still buys them out of affection, transports them through personal carriers or shippers, and starts their reputation by the stable quality of the crops. However, it will not manage the planting and drug use of farmers, but only select potato farmers with better crop quality to cooperate, which is relatively guaranteed for self-farmers with less yield.

Small farmers, big yields.

Self-cultivated potato farmers are usually only able to manage about three hectares of agricultural land at a cost of about 14000 yuan per hectare and harvest about 5,000 to 7,000 jin, but the market price fluctuates up and down and their income is relatively unstable, so potato farmers in Shuilin Township, jointly set up "guarantee Qiongpu Cooperative Farm", "Dagou Fruit and vegetable Cooperative" or join the "Water Forest Farmers' Association" through communism and co-marketing. Improvement from the source of quality: breeding of healthy potato seedlings, control of petty drugs, transfer of agricultural knowledge related to planting, increase bargaining power, sell to large restaurants and volume stores at stable and better prices, provide stable income as farmers, and develop into processed products with fixed prices and long preservation periods, such as potato chips, ice-baked sweet potatoes and sweet potato powder to increase product diversity in response to the increase or decrease of fresh sweet potato production. Increase the added value.

Transportation and marketing, the backer of farmers

Professor Xu Wenfu's book Agricultural Transportation and Marketing points out: "Transportation and marketing is a variety of activities that transport products or services from the place of origin to the place of consumption at the right time and in the right form, so as to meet the desires of consumers."

As the backup pillar of agriculture, transportation and marketing should create an environment in which farmers can concentrate on production, so that the general public can eat fresh fruits and vegetables as fresh as they have just been harvested, send crops to consumers, and enable farmers to get their due income!

Travel companion handwriting | Lin Zijun; travel companion sketch | Yu Xinying; this article is authorized by Travel Food Communications

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