Big problems faced by High quality Wheat Industry in China

Although China is a big wheat producer in the world, it is not a powerful country. China's wheat is not only difficult to export, but also imports more than 2 million tons of high-quality wheat every year. Why import so much? Can't we produce it ourselves? What is the crux of the existence?

In recent years, I have participated in many forums related to the wheat industry, large and small, and learned first-hand the current situation and existing problems of the development of China's wheat industry. How can we better solve these problems? Here is a record of some of my thoughts.

Wheat is the most important food rations in our country. with the improvement of national living standards and the change of eating habits, such as the higher and higher proportion of outsourced food in family kitchens, the proportion of processed food in our country has become higher and higher. the number of edible bread and cakes has also increased rapidly. In view of this trend, China's wheat production should go beyond the primary stage of focusing only on yield rather than quality, and make great strides towards a well-off standard of living in pursuit of quality and brand. The wheat industry chain must strengthen the cooperative relationship among breeding, introduction, farmers, cooperatives, bases and processing enterprises. of course, through the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, the competitiveness of China's wheat industry can be enhanced as a whole. to meet the growing needs of the real society for quality, health and safety.

1. What are the main problems in China's wheat industry at present? There is a shortage of more than 2 million tons of high-quality wheat.

Wheat should be the most important food rations for northerners in China, and it is extremely important for the food security of our country. The staple food of northerners is pasta, the staple food of southerners is rice, and wheat is the main source of pasta. China is the largest wheat producer in the world. In recent years, China's wheat output has increased at an annual rate of more than 2.5 million tons in the past five years, reaching 130 million tons in 2015, making it a major wheat producer in the world. In China, 11 provinces, including Henan and Shandong, have the largest wheat planting area, accounting for about 90% of the country's total wheat area. From the perspective of supply and demand, China's total wheat output and consumption are basically the same, and even have a slight surplus. Although China is a big wheat country, it is not a powerful country. The top exporters in the world are Canada, Australia, the United States, Russia and other countries. Noodles and other pasta products enjoy a high reputation in the world with spaghetti, while bread France has a great influence. Although some of our pasta products go out in the form of Chinese restaurants, they are also more famous for Chinese food. Recently, Chongqing noodles have gained a certain popularity abroad, but as a whole, it is still negligible. From the perspective of import and export, China's wheat is not only rarely exported, but also imported a lot in recent years. In particular, there is a large shortage of wheat raw materials used to meet the new pasta industries, such as bread and pastries, with annual imports of 2 million tons. Therefore, at present, China's wheat production can not meet the rapid growth needs of the processing industry and consumers, and there is still huge room for improvement in variety, quality and brand.

Popularize a little knowledge of wheat: the overall output value of China's food industry is about 11 trillion yuan, and convenience foods with wheat as raw materials account for an important proportion. As a staple grain, the main processed products of wheat include steamed bread, noodles, bread, cakes, biscuits and so on. Different wheat products have different requirements for wheat quality. Wheat can be divided into three types: strong gluten, medium gluten and weak gluten, which are mainly judged by grain, protein content, wet gluten content, dough stability time and so on. Strong gluten wheat has high gluten strength and long dough stability time, which is suitable for making bread and noodles; medium gluten wheat has moderate gluten strength and good ductility, which is suitable for making noodles and steamed bread; weak gluten wheat has low protein content and short dough stabilization time. It is suitable for making crisp foods such as biscuits and pastries.

two。 The source of high-quality wheat: long-term pursuit of yield maximization, resulting in a small number of high-quality wheat varieties, and the contradiction between eugenic breeding and yield increase is prominent.

For a long time, China's wheat industry is mainly in pursuit of increasing production, ordinary wheat is mainly used to make noodles, medium gluten wheat accounts for a large proportion, resulting in "strong gluten is not strong, weak gluten is not weak", or the strong is not strong enough. The phenomenon that the weak is not weak enough. The development of strong gluten wheat and weak gluten wheat in China is relatively slow, but in recent years, the domestic demand for strong gluten wheat and weak gluten wheat is increasing rapidly, which leads to the continuous increase of imports. The increase is due to a rapid increase in demand for bread and pastries. The younger generation of consumers, affected by the Western way of life, eat less and less steamed bread, while those who eat bread and pastries are on the rise.

3. The problems faced by farmers in planting high-quality wheat: the traditional industrial chain can not solve the problem of high-quality wheat production.

For a long time, China has established a set of wheat production, supply and marketing system, that is, agricultural families grow wheat, which are acquired by intermediaries, and then acquired by reserve system or processing enterprises. This system is suitable for the demand of general pasta, while new markets such as strong gluten and weak gluten wheat face the problem of market failure. Farmers do not dare to plant lightly, because the high quality after planting may not necessarily get a good price, but the yield of high-quality wheat is generally low and unstable, and the relevant cultivation technical guidance is also lacking. As a result, high-quality wheat is not only difficult to sell at a high price, but also can not be sold because of the poor stability of varieties and unexpected risks. If farmers grow traditional wheat, they can at least sell it to the national grain reserve system, with the help of many intermediaries. At present, the collection and storage system of high quality wheat has not been established in our country. Of course, the solution is to establish a graded storage system of wheat as soon as possible, and to establish different grades of quality indicators. At present, it is very difficult for processing enterprises with demand to buy wheat that meets the requirements from the current reserve system, so they can only import or build their own bases. Another way is to establish a high-quality strong gluten wheat planting base, but this regional planting base may be difficult to obtain a high order rate because of insufficient large-scale planting.

4. Wheat industry chain urgently needs to be integrated and reshaped.

Wheat industry chain is a whole process from production, storage and transportation, processing to sales and consumption. For the rapid development of high-quality strong gluten and weak gluten wheat, it is necessary to strengthen the integration of the industrial chain before and after production in order to avoid risks and gain profits. In other words, it requires stable cooperation among all parties in the industry to avoid market risks. However, at present, the mode of company + peasant household in China has been difficult to carry out effective cooperation. Farmers each have less than ten mu of land, and the scale is limited, so it is very difficult for companies to deal with thousands or more farmers. The breach rate of the company + peasant household model has been high, which has become a stubborn disease, that is, when the market price is high, the farmer will break the contract; when the market price is low, the enterprise will also refuse to accept the farmer's products with various tricks, this pattern makes the original contract between the company and the farmer become a piece of paper. Companies face many farmers are difficult to sue, and farmers face several times as many times as their own companies break contracts, it is also difficult to pursue. The solution may require the intervention of local governments to avoid the risk of breach of contract caused by market instability by leading both sides to establish closer ties. According to the above problems, our country must realize the connection between the upstream and downstream of the wheat industry chain and improve the degree of industrialization of planting, circulation and processing. It is necessary to promote the connection of production and marketing and purchase of orders to realize the layout of high-quality wheat production areas in China. We can use towns or villages as units to build a production base of high-quality wheat, popularize the matching production technology of high-quality special wheat, and unify varieties, cultivation measures and storage. We will improve the organization and industrialization of agricultural planting, circulation, processing and marketing, and through large-scale planting, standardized production and industrial development of special wheat. To meet the needs of the market.

5. Local practice: to build a community of interests in the wheat industry, to make really good products should start from the farmland.

Yanjin in Henan Province has been exploring the production mode of high-quality wheat. At present, the planting of high-quality wheat has reached 500000 mu, and the technological Innovation Alliance of China's High-quality Wheat Industry was also solemnly established in Yanjin County on May 17, 2016. the main purpose of the alliance is to promote the upgrading of "high-quality" wheat. Yanjin County Group also established Xinxiang Wheat Industry Group and formed a "wild goose" with wheat as the "leading goose". The "wild goose"-shaped development layout of "flour-noodle-pastry-quick-frozen food" and "liquor-packaging-printing-logistics" has become the core production and processing area of Xinxiang wheat, and has created a new way for the production of high-quality wheat in China.

And the processing demand enterprises are not idle. Today Mailang Group launched the "Jinmailang High quality Wheat Project" in 2005, and developed more than 10,000 mu of "Jinmailang Agricultural demonstration Park" in Longyao Heilongjiang Port Basin and other places in Hebei Province, and has now promoted one million mu. Fan Xianguo, chairman of Jinmailang Group, said: "We have developed high-quality wheat and increased the income of farmers, and we have proposed that the 'first workshop is in farmland'. To make really good products should start from farmland."

The biggest difficulty of high-quality wheat in our country is breeding, how to cultivate more wheat with low yield but high quality through the reform of breeding system, and change the pattern of single pursuit of yield in the past? we still have a long way to go.