Garlic prices rise garlic farmers are confused, experts suggest the implementation of price insurance to stabilize the planting area

Since the new garlic was put into storage in June this year, the price of garlic has continued to rise. near the beginning of winter, the wholesale price of dried garlic at the agricultural and sideline products wholesale market in Beijing was as high as 7.8 yuan per jin, 18.2% higher than the all-time high of 6.6 yuan per jin. The price of garlic has soared, but the garlic farmers are not at ease. How to grow garlic in the coming year, will the rent for the transferred land be higher and higher, and will the price of garlic encounter a "roller coaster" at the high point? The reporter went to the main garlic producing areas to bring readers the news of garlic township.

Garlic prices rise, garlic farmers are confused, experts suggest--

Carry out price insurance to stabilize the planting area

Lesser Snow's solar terms, snowflakes floated on the land of the Central Plains, and there was a lot of noise in the Wanbang International Agricultural products Logistics City in Zhongmou County, Henan Province. This "vegetable basket", which supplies many surrounding urban areas, has attracted the same attention as other vegetable markets because of the recent surge in garlic prices. According to Wanbang agricultural data, the average wholesale price of garlic is 13.7 yuan / kg, with the highest price reaching 15 yuan / kg. In the same period last year, the price of garlic was about 7 yuan per kilogram.

The reporter learned that due to its proximity to Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, and the vast market, Zhongmou County began to change its planting structure from traditional agriculture to planting cash crops such as garlic since the 1970s. After decades of development, the market sales of garlic in Zhongmou are stable, and its reputation is getting louder and louder. Because of this, every time the price of garlic rises, garlic has become the same hot spot of public opinion as other major producing areas.

There is a lot of acreage. Why has the price gone up?

Mao Wei, who has grown garlic for more than 20 years, is from Xiaomaozhuang Village, Dameng Town, Zhongmou County. He was also surprised by the soaring price of garlic this year. "at the end of December last year, the price of garlic began to rise, from 7 yuan per kilogram to about 9 yuan. I thought that the market situation this year would be better than last year, but I did not expect that the price of garlic would rise so high." Mao Wei, who is nearly fifty years old, said.

In Maoguai Village, Dameng Town, Mao Guangsong, who has grown garlic for more than 30 years, told reporters that he began to grow garlic in 1979, and this year is the year that he earns the most money, earning 10,000 yuan per mu. He planted 17 mu last year, and when he harvested in May this year, dried garlic sold for more than 5 yuan per jin, more than twice as much as last year. "under normal circumstances, the yield of garlic per mu is 2,400 to 500 jin, but this year it is only 17,800 jin per mu because of freezing damage, otherwise you will earn more." Mao Guangsong said.

Zhongmou County Cold Storage and fresh-keeping Association is a non-governmental cooperative organization specializing in purchasing, refrigerating and selling garlic. "when garlic was harvested in mid-June this year, the yield per mu decreased by an average of 15% compared with the normal year." Liu Shaochen, president of Zhongmou County Refrigeration Association, introduced.

For garlic farmers, although the price of garlic has skyrocketed, as the planting scale of general garlic farmers is relatively small, they can not earn much money on the whole. "it takes 3,000 to 4,000 yuan per mu of garlic to buy seeds and fertilizers, and it takes time to manage it, and it's not easy to dig garlic when it's harvested. It sold out after 5 yuan per jin after harvest this year, and now it can only be greedy to see the price rise." Said Wang Xixian, a farmer in Zhongmou County.

Hot money aggravates market shortage how much room for garlic price to rise

Although the rise in garlic prices has something to do with the reduction of garlic production this year, garlic with a low degree of marketization is also easy to become the target of hot capital speculation. According to the analysis of industry insiders, the rise in garlic prices is closely related to the army of fried garlic.

"although the price of garlic purchased in the field is relatively high this year, some garlic merchants hoarding garlic still buy it in large quantities, then put it in a cold storage and do not circulate to the market, and then ship to the market when the price rises to a certain level." Li Liujun, a garlic broker in Zhongmou County, said that we went to garlic farmers to collect garlic. Normally, the maximum price of wet garlic was 1.5 yuan per catty. In May this year, the price of wet garlic rose to more than 3 yuan, and the price of dry garlic rose from 3 yuan to about 5 yuan. The wholesale price of garlic in the market has also increased by an alarming rate, and now it is only natural that the price of garlic is high.

The reporter learned that some garlic merchants in order to fry garlic for profit, some wrapped up garlic farmers in advance, hoarded the garlic in the cold storage after harvest, and then sold it at the right time to make a profit. Liu Shaochen analyzed that large garlic merchants will do a survey before frying garlic, investigate the planting area when planting garlic, judge the yield when the garlic bolts come down, and then investigate the yield when the garlic is harvested. "speculation can only be started when the market supply is small, for example, some capital has come in this year, hoarding garlic, aggravating the market shortage and pushing up the price of garlic. At the same time, the opacity of market information also leaves room for fried garlic."

At present, the price of garlic is mainly regulated by the market, in addition to large "fried garlic" in the market, small households see that the market situation is good, there is a psychology of hesitation to sell. "as soon as farmers saw that the price of garlic was high and good this year, they kept some of the garlic in their hands as a kind of garlic, which pushed up the price of garlic to a certain extent." Liu Shaochen said.

Garlic farmers are still confused after the sharp rise and the prevention of the collapse.

In Zhongmou, almost every farmer has grown garlic, and the people of Zhongmou have formed an inextricable bond with garlic. Hao Shuyuan, an out-and-out farmer in Zhongmou, just finished the management of digging holes in several mu of garlic plastic film in the field a few days ago. "growing garlic is much more complicated than growing food crops such as wheat. Although the price of garlic is a little higher this year, I don't know what will happen next year." Hao Shuyuan, 63, is not very hopeful about the garlic market.

For Wang Xixian, he planted 4 mu of garlic in 2015, and his income was not bad at harvest. This year, he planted another 3 mu of garlic. "I can't see through the price of garlic all the time, but it's really tempting. Take a gamble. It's a little more varied this year, and I'm looking forward to a better harvest next year." Wang Xixian said.

This year, Mao Guangsong rented more than 10 mu of land and planted 30 mu of garlic. in addition to growing garlic, he is also collecting and selling celery, garlic bolts, radishes and other agricultural products. Now he is used to the rising and falling prices of agricultural products. "I know that farmers in neighboring counties and cities are increasing the area of growing garlic, and prices may fall next year, but judging from my more than 30 years of experience in growing garlic, there are still few years in which garlic prices soar and plummet, and most years are mediocre. On the whole, growing garlic makes more money than growing wheat." Mao Guangsong said.

During the interview, the reporter learned that under the influence of the rise in garlic prices this year, some farmers in Zhongmou County and its surrounding Qi County, Weishi County, Tongxu County, and other counties began to increase the planting area of garlic, and the price of garlic seeds also rose greatly. the cost of growing garlic has reached about 4000 yuan per mu, double that of the same period last year. Experts suggest that blindly expanding the planting area is likely to lead to oversupply in the garlic market next year, and the price of garlic will fall sharply, causing losses to farmers in the current situation of rising planting costs.