Three questions about "extreme White"

As a pathfinder of brand agriculture, the success of "Anji White Tea" was once regarded as a miracle. This tea brand, which has grown from scratch, from small to big, from weak to strong, has a history of only more than 30 years, not only "a leaf enriches the people", but also affects the practice of agricultural brand in many places.

But recently, "Anji White Tea" is a little annoying. Because the government guided the establishment of the tea industry fund, the state-owned enterprise "Anji City Investment" relied on the fund to carry out industrial integration and launched the "extremely white" brand with a "red" background. As a result, it formed a direct competition with many private tea enterprises, and there was a lot of talk all over the city. Some people agree that this is an exploration of great significance in the development of regional brands, while many private tea enterprises feel great pressure, exclaiming "here comes the wolf" and questioning whether "extremely white" is an integrator or a troublemaker; there are also assertions that this is "the country advances and the people retreat" and "competes with the people for profits".

Local governments have the responsibility to support the development of agricultural industry, but as a competitive field, should the government intervene and how should the government intervene? With the reform of the state-owned investment platform, where is the boundary for entering the competitive market? How to realize misplaced competition? Does it violate the special attribute of agricultural products to position "famous and high-quality tea" as "quasi-fast consumer products" for brand marketing? As a geographical indication product, how should "extremely white" add points to the "parent brand"? What is the purpose and significance of the capital operation of agricultural enterprises? will it be "dominant" after listing, forming a monopoly and destroying the pattern of fair competition?

One stone stirs up thousands of waves. The "encounter" of Anji White Tea arouses a series of thoughts.

"one leaf enriches one side of the people."

Among the countless regional public brands in the country, "Anji White Tea" is the most legendary.

More than 30 years ago, "Anji White Tea" was found in Daxi Village, which is 800 meters above sea level. Identification shows that the amino acid content of this albino mutant green tea is 2-3 times higher than that of ordinary green tea, and the taste is fresh. Because of the excellent performance in quality, "Anji White Tea" has been rapidly promoted throughout the county since the 1990s.

After having a certain scale, Anji has carried out a series of explorations around standard formulation and brand creation. In particular, the exploration of the "mother-child brand" model has not only helped thousands of scattered tea farmers to enter the market, but also maintained market order, ensuring that the brand of "Anji White Tea" is getting louder and louder, which is regarded as an innovative move in the development of modern agriculture.

For a long time, Angie has given people the impression of being remote and poor. But now, "Green Water and Green Mountain has become Jinshan and Silver Mountain", Anji's economy is developing rapidly, the society is harmonious and stable, and the people are rich and healthy, among which white tea plays an indispensable role.

Due to the considerable benefits, in recent years, "Anji white tea" has been continuously introduced to other places, and then sold back to Anji, which has seriously disturbed the market order of "Anji white tea". In the face of this, Anji launched the tea garden license system to register the area and output of the tea garden, and the vouchers can also be mortgaged. Since last year, the Golden tracing Card has been further launched, which integrates various functions of white tea production, management and transaction into one "card", creating favorable conditions for the standardized development of the white tea industry.

From artificial introduction to large-scale development, from large-scale development to standardized brand development, in the process of white tea development, Anji opened the way, built bridges in the face of water, experienced all kinds of hardships and dangers, and it is difficult to put into words.

Statistics in 2015: "Anji White Tea" has a planting area of 170000 mu, an output of 1850 tons and an output value of 2.1 billion yuan. More than 16000 farmers are involved, increasing the per capita annual income of Anji farmers by 6000 yuan. To quote General Secretary Xi Jinping's evaluation of "Anji White Tea" at that time, that is, "one leaf enriches the people on the other side"!

After more than 30 years of development, Anji and white tea have formed an inseparable deep connection between each other. When people see Angie, they naturally think of white tea; when they see white tea, they immediately think of Anji. "Anji White Tea" has become Anji's veritable "golden business card". If anyone changes the trend of "Anji White Tea", there may be a chain reaction that "affects the whole body".

Ask Anji City Investment: where is the boundary of state-owned assets entering the market?

Despite the rapid development and large scale of "Anji White Tea", the industrial concentration is still low: among the more than 300 processing enterprises, only 20 have an annual output value of more than 5 million yuan, only 5 have an annual output value of more than 10 million yuan, and only one has an annual output value of more than 30 million yuan. Coupled with the fact that the famous tea is not as expected in the past two years, the production cost is rising and the profit margin is declining day by day, the development of "Anji White Tea" seems to have encountered another bottleneck.

Where does "Anji White Tea" go?

On July 24, 2015, with the approval of the county government, several parties cooperated to set up an 'Anji White Tea' Industrial Fund with a scale of 200 million yuan, of which the Anji government contributed 40 million yuan as a guide, Anji City subscribed to 10 million yuan, and the rest was basically raised from the society by the "Wanxiang Trust". At the same time, Anji City Investment established "Anji Tea Industry Development Co., Ltd." and, with the "fund" as a link, sent an invitation to the private tea enterprises in the county to complete the transformation through the replacement of equity. Set up a state-controlled mixed ownership of the "Anji Tea Industry Group".

Wu Jian, general manager of Ancha Group, believes that the development of "Anji White Tea" has entered a new period, which needs to move forward from the vassal era to a unified era in an all-round way, and needs to develop together to form a representative brand. Let "Anji White Tea" step to a new level.

It is understood that "an Tea Group" has completed the mergers and acquisitions of Fenghuyuan, Qiandaowan and the e-commerce brand "Fangyu". The boss of the acquired tea company has been transformed into a group executive. The "extremely white" brand created by the group has also made a strong appearance to capture the city and dominate the territory.

M & An is not an administrative order, but a market act. Over the years, tea bosses have been versatile, and they have to be able to grow, stir-fry and sell everything. This mode of development has reached the ceiling. " Wu Jian told reporters, "our goal is to integrate and develop. After three years, we will achieve an annual income of 500 million yuan and an annual net profit of 40 million yuan."

But the emergence of Ancha Group has caused a strong backlash. These include private tea enterprises and government officials.

A government official commented excitedly: "the reason why 'Anji White Tea' is today is because it has created a 'mother and son brand' model. The functions and roles of 'parent brand' and 'sub-brand' are different. " He believes that the "extreme white" has come and messed up the model. Because both the industrial fund and the Ancha Group are linked to the Anji government, making consumers think that it is the work of the government, but in fact, "extremely white" belongs to the corporate brand.

"the agricultural industry itself is an industry that enriches the people, and the responsibility of urban investment companies should be the construction of urban infrastructure, which can be said to be a complete layman in the tea industry, and has formed a direct competition with private tea enterprises. Isn't this taking advantage of the power of the government to steal the jobs of private enterprises? "

A private tea company boss sharply asked: you "extremely white" call yourself "integrator", what on earth do you want to integrate? Is to integrate the private tea enterprises or the integration base, how big can it be integrated? Can you buy all 170000 mu of tea garden? What you are doing now is nothing but making use of the brand accumulation of "Anji White Tea". What contribution do you have to the development of the industry?

A female boss worried: "with 'extremely white', the government's concern and support for our private tea enterprises is bound to weaken."

So, what on earth should we think of the entry of state-owned assets into the tea industry?

A person related to the financial system expressed two views: first, from the perspective of public finance, its income mainly comes from taxation, and its expenditure is mainly to meet public needs, in order to solve the problem of market "failure". For economic areas where the market mechanism can effectively regulate, public finance should not enter; those that have already entered should be gradually withdrawn, and those that cannot be withdrawn temporarily should also change the way of support, such as adopting funds, discount, and so on; the primary responsibility of the government is to establish a legal environment for fair competition for market subjects. Second, from the perspective of state-owned capital finance, its income mainly comes from the dividends of state-owned enterprises, and its expenditure is mainly to support the development of state-owned enterprises; state-owned enterprises can enter competitive fields, but mainly into both competitive and basic and strategic areas, focusing on the long-term development of the economy.