Mutton sheep can only wait to die if they are sold at a loss.

This summer, the city of Hulunbuir in Inner Mongolia suffered the worst drought in decades, with the highest temperature reaching 44.1 degrees Celsius, Rural Voice of China reported. 98% of the grasslands in the city have been hit by severe drought. Recently, a reporter from Rural Voice of China found in a field interview in Hulunbuir that due to the withering and yellowing of a large number of forage grass, herdsmen are faced with the dilemma of lack of forage grass for livestock during the winter. In order to reduce the use of forage grass, herdsmen have to sell the sheep quickly.

But the price of mutton is not high in the past two years. If you sell it, you will lose money, and if you don't sell it, you will die. At the same time, the government encourages local meat processing enterprises to withstand market pressure and maintain the bottom line of purchase prices, so as to ensure the income of herdsmen. But this is tantamount to transferring the pressure to the enterprise, which is also very difficult to do.

Wu Jinsheng, a herdsman at Xinbar Tiger right Banner in Hulunbuir, who raises 500 sheep, says that the amount of grass he has fought this year is not enough for his livestock, and it is too expensive to buy grass, so there is only one way out: selling sheep. Wu Jinsheng plans to sell more than half of the sheep in his family. But everyone sold sheep, and the price of mutton immediately came down. now, a sheep weighing more than 25 jin in Hulunbuir has dropped to 13 yuan per jin, compared with 18 yuan at this time last year:

Reporter: would you like to sell it at this price?

Wu Jinsheng: you can't do it if you don't want to. There's not enough grass. If there is no grass in winter, they will all die. Almost sold out, beat up the grass, how many bundles of grass can be produced, and then start to sell.

Herdsmen want to sell sheep, and the meat factory is also under great pressure. Ma Qiang, chairman of the vast Food Co., Ltd., in Xinbarhu right Banner, told reporters that the supply of mutton has greatly increased in the past two years, but the terminal demand has decreased sharply, which has led to a continuous backlog of mutton in the cold storage. Now, the mutton in his factory last year has not been sold out, and the storage capacity of the cold storage has reached saturation.

Ma Qiang: now the stock is almost full. Last year, almost every customer had meat left over, which is enough to sell for a year, so they are in no hurry to come and buy meat. The mutton purchased last year has not been used up this year.

Ma Qiang said that as the drought pressure continues to increase, this year, the flag government encourages local meat processing enterprises to withstand market pressure and maintain the bottom line of purchase prices. For enterprises that have made outstanding contributions, the flag government will give preferential policies in the future. This practice takes into account the actual situation of herdsmen suffering from the disaster, but it puts a lot of pressure on meat federation enterprises. Due to the increase in the purchase price, the price of mutton sold by the meat factory can only be increased accordingly, which makes the price of mutton in Xinbarhu right Banner higher than that in other parts of Inner Mongolia. By comparison, customers will not buy the higher price party. Ma Qiang told reporters that since the start of work for ten days, the company has only seen herdsmen who come to sell mutton, but there have been no customers who have come to buy mutton.

Ma Qiang: now ten days after opening, there are no customers to buy meat, all farmers and big families come to sell mutton. All the customers listen to the price, the price line, the customer will come to purchase, the price is not good, the customer can not come. A ton of mutton rolls is 3000 yuan higher than others, and ten tons is 30,000 higher than others, so do you think customers will come?

When the reporter was interviewing in the meat joint factory, he happened to come across the drought external outreach export investigation team that came to the meat joint factory to investigate. When asked why meat processing companies were called on to maintain the bottom line of purchase prices, Wang Yinghu, director of the National Development and Reform Bureau, who is the deputy head of the investigation team, said that the local government had not done enough research on the operation of local meat federation enterprises, and they had thought that enterprises of a slightly larger size would certainly find sales channels.

Wang Yinghu: we think so. These enterprises, about 150000, they can all find a market. They all have their own regular customers. Now there are more than a hundred customers from all over the country.

Ma Qiang, chairman of the meat joint factory, said that now, local governments overestimate the strength of meat processing enterprises, which makes them very helpless. This year, according to the inventory and digestion capacity of local enterprises, it is impossible for them to buy mutton from all herdsmen. And the continuous backlog of mutton is likely to cause the price of mutton in Inner Mongolia to continue to decline next year, with serious consequences. Therefore, he hopes that the local government can give some subsidy policies to meat federation enterprises so that they can better fulfill their social responsibilities.

Ma Qiang: the starting point of the government is good, can the key enterprises bear it, if the government can introduce policies to subsidize herdsmen as well as enterprises. Because we have to slaughter 100000 to 150000 sheep, if one sheep loses more than 20 yuan, 150000 sheep will lose about 3 million.

During the investigation, after listening to Ma Qiang's talk about the plight of the enterprise, Wang Yinghu said that the flag government will help local meat federation enterprises to find sales channels.

Wang Yinghu: we'll have a meeting when we get back. Let's see if we go to Ximeng first. We also want to know how Ximeng meat is sold. After investigating and finding out, we will go out and contact large enterprises on some matters that need to be solved by the government.

When the reporter interviewed other local meat federation enterprises, some bosses thought that if the flag government could sell mutton at the market price in accordance with the market law, perhaps the pressure from the meat federation enterprises and herdsmen would not be too great, and it could also guarantee that the price of mutton would pick up in the next two years. So why does the flag government call on meat processing companies to maintain the bottom line of purchase prices? In this regard, Saixiaratu, chairman of the Baogede Urasumu National people's Congress of the Xinbarhu right Banner, has a lot of feelings. He told reporters that local herdsmen do not have much awareness of professional economic theories such as market rules. Mutton prices have dropped this year, and some herdsmen have attributed the decline in mutton to poor government management. A small number of herdsmen even collectively went to the offices of cadres to be held accountable.

Cecia Latu: we have a Gacha meeting, and then we have a meeting with the secretary of Gacha, which has been publicized all the time, but there are also people who come to ask about this price, such as several Gacha households.

Reporter: how do they ask if they want to ask?

Cecia Latu: that is to say, the price of beef and mutton is going down. Can you go up? can the government help a little? Do the superiors have any subsidies? a small amount of them are occasionally asked.

Sesiaratu said that this year's drought, coupled with the decline in mutton prices, herdsmen are also worried, everyone's behavior he can understand. Of course, the emergence of this phenomenon has also led to a lot of local reflection. How to improve herdsmen 'understanding of market economy, make herdsmen realize the importance of grass storage balance, and adjust the industrial structure of local animal husbandry is the top priority of the future work.

Wang Yinghu, director of the National Development and Reform Bureau: first, let them understand the market; second, we begin to adjust the structure. We cannot blindly raise small animals. Sheep are short and fast, but in the future, we have to instill in them an idea: if we want to adjust the structure, we must balance grass and livestock. No matter what kind of things are too many, the government has to do these things next.

In this regard, Li Guoxiang, director of the Institute of Rural Development of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the original intention of local governments is understandable, but in an environment where the market determines prices, such an approach may put local enterprises in a disadvantageous position and have an impact on the local economy.

Li Guoxiang: this is a good intention, but because the general environment is a market economy, if an enterprise raises its original price, but mutton is not very distinctive and has a brand, then in the environment of market competition, it may be at a disadvantage. For agricultural products, the state hopes that the market will play a decisive role in the allocation of resources. the acquisition and sale of such transactions still respect the main body of the market and let herdsmen form prices through bargaining. In order to protect the interests of herdsmen, the government can generally give part of the subsidy in addition to the price to make up for his disaster losses. Or through price insurance, herdsmen participate in insurance, if the price does not meet expectations, insurance compensation can be given.

It is also an expedient measure for meat companies to give up their interests, and this trick cannot be used every time. In the long run, there are still many deficiencies in China's pastoral areas in resisting natural disasters, and the resistance is not strong. Although Hulunbuir City has long formulated drought prevention measures, there are still many difficulties in real implementation.

What is the underlying reason behind this? What other improvements should be made in pastoral areas to resist natural disasters? Li Guoxiang believes that this should fundamentally vigorously promote the policy of "grass-storage balance" and change the industrial structure to provide more security for stabilizing the income of herdsmen, so as to enhance the ability of herdsmen to resist any disasters.

Li Guoxiang: facing a severe drought, we need a variety of ways, such as emergency mechanisms, and we can alleviate the temporary difficulties of herdsmen by digging wells and other methods. From a long-term point of view, to solve the drought, we must first increase insurance support, change the loan repayment mechanism of herdsmen, and extend the term of the loan. Now the local government has made efforts in this regard. From the perspective of future development, to solve market fluctuations and protect farmers' interests, on the one hand, it is necessary to raise farmers' awareness of the market and strengthen the management pursued by the market. In addition, when raising sheep, do not over-expand the scale, according to the local rental conditions, as well as taking into account the disaster factors, control the scale of raising sheep. From the perspective of local industrial development, it is necessary to solve the integration of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and at the same time to be able to form close ties with slaughtering enterprises and even future sales, and to be able to see their own brands in the market, so that the market price will be guaranteed. In addition, if the local tourism industry can be developed and the combination of agriculture and animal husbandry can be developed, it will be very beneficial to resist natural disasters, increase the income of herdsmen and benefit the local economic development.

(Han Xiao and Li Kun)