Xinhua Decoding | What are the new advantages of multiple departments working together to promote the "upward" trend of agricultural products and the "downward" trend of industrial products?

The Central Finance Office and nine other departments recently jointly issued guidance on promoting the high-quality development of rural circulation, making comprehensive deployments around the development goals, key tasks, and policy support for accelerating the construction of modern rural circulation system in China in the future.

The guidance proposes to focus on the two prominent issues of the last mile of industrial products going to the countryside and the first mile of agricultural products going out of villages and into cities, accelerate the filling of the gaps in rural circulation facilities, strengthen nodes, break through bottlenecks, and fill gaps.

The smooth passage of two "one kilometer" is not only related to the happiness of thousands of households, but also to whether it is convenient for farmers to increase their income, send and shop. Since the beginning of this year, various regions and departments have introduced a series of policy measures, and changes can be seen everywhere:

——Agricultural products are the first one kilometer away from villages to cities, and the construction of cold chain facilities is accelerating, resulting in smoother online and offline circulation.

"There was a lot of rain in July this year, and it was the time when the peaches were ripe. Whether they could be picked and delivered in a timely manner directly related to income, which I was quite worried about. As a result, express delivery was faster than last year, and the Wuxi Farmers' Market also opened a venue to sell real estate fruits. Elderly people who used to take buses to Yangshan to buy peaches can buy affordable peaches at their doorstep this year." said Sun Jianqin, the person in charge of Jianqin Family Farm in Huishan District, Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province.

"I have made a new discovery this year. The government supports the construction of cold storage facilities, and I have tried using them. Peaches that are concentrated on the market are prone to unsold, but leaving them in cold storage for a few days and then selling them off peak can effectively solve this problem," said Sun Jianqin.

The guidance issued this time comprehensively deploys measures such as strengthening the construction of cold chain facilities for agricultural product storage and preservation, and enhancing digital empowerment of rural circulation.

From 2020 to 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs arranged a central government fund of 18 billion yuan to support approximately 36000 family farms, farmer cooperatives, and rural collective economic organizations, and to build 75000 refrigeration and preservation facilities in production areas. In the first half of this year, the Ministry continued to deploy and promote the construction of refrigeration and preservation facilities in production areas. Meituan Maicai has launched the "Local Top Goods" plan, strengthening traffic support, batch procurement, and direct procurement from the source. Currently, there are more than 300 types of "local top goods" for online sales, including Beijing Panggezhuang watermelon, Shanghai Nanhui peach, and Guangzhou Zengcheng lychee, helping farmers increase their income.

Song Danyang, Deputy Director of the Market and Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, stated that in the future, we will continue to promote the extension of enterprise industrial chains such as commerce, e-commerce, and agricultural product circulation to agricultural production links, strengthen the construction of circulation infrastructure such as origin distribution centers, and commercialized processing facilities and equipment such as processing, warehousing, packaging, and cold chain. We continued to promote the "Internet plus" agricultural products project, and carried out pilot project construction in 110 counties.

——The last mile of industrial products going to the countryside, logistics and distribution are gradually improving, and county-level commercial development is accelerating.

"There are quite a few markets and supermarkets in the town now, making it much more convenient to buy things. I often shop online, but the express delivery is sent to the station in the town, and I have to ride an electric bike for more than ten minutes to pick it up. For friends who live far away, I have to ride a few kilometers or more." said Tang Mei, a resident of Chengyue Town, Suixi County, Zhanjiang City, Guangdong Province. When she mentioned receiving packages on her best friend's WeChat group, everyone responded one after another, hoping that every village could have a pickup point.

The guidance issued this time has made detailed arrangements for accelerating the filling of the gaps in rural logistics facilities in the county, and optimizing the layout of commercial circulation facilities in a reasonable manner.

In recent years, rural logistics and distribution in China have been continuously accelerating. In 2022, 1500 county-level logistics and delivery centers, 7600 township express and mail processing stations, and 95% of administrative villages will achieve direct express delivery will be built in various regions.

"Compared with the demand for high-quality postal services from rural residents, there is still a considerable gap. Deepening the construction of rural postal logistics system is still one of the most important development tasks for the postal industry at present," said Bian Zuodong, Deputy Director of the Market Supervision Department of the National Postal Administration.

He stated that the next step is to establish a comprehensive and interconnected three-level postal service network at the county, township, and village levels. At the village level, the main focus is to promote the widespread coverage of postal and express delivery service stations, with a focus on implementing the "one village, one station" project, and strengthening the construction of county-level postal and logistics comprehensive service stations. We encourage eligible express delivery companies to establish their own service networks in villages, and also support the development of joint delivery at the end of the postal service according to local conditions.

"We need to improve the three-level logistics and distribution system in counties and villages, and strive to achieve basic logistics and distribution centers in counties and villages in areas with conditions within three years," said Li Gang, Director of the Circulation Development Department of the Ministry of Commerce.

Enabling rural residents to conveniently purchase high-quality and affordable industrial products nearby is an important aspect of high-quality development in rural circulation.

In recent years, China has strengthened the construction of county-level commercial systems. In 2022, 983 comprehensive commercial service centers in county towns, as well as 3941 township commercial centers and markets, will be constructed and renovated nationwide.

"There are still some problems and shortcomings in the development of county-level commerce in our country, such as the need for further improvement in the consumer environment, insufficient variety of goods, and high logistics and distribution costs. It is necessary to concentrate efforts and promote solutions," said Li Gang.

Recently, multiple departments jointly issued the "Three Year Action Plan for County level Commerce", continuously promoting the sinking of supply chain, logistics distribution, goods and services, and the "upward trend" of agricultural products.

Relevant departments and enterprises work together to make efforts. The sales of agricultural inputs, agricultural products, and daily consumer goods throughout the entire system of the supply and marketing cooperative have achieved rapid growth, with more than 80% of them being at or below the county level. The next step is to deepen the implementation of the "green agricultural inputs" upgrade action and vigorously develop daily product chain operations. Pinduoduo has deepened cooperation with the Postal Group, strengthened the integration and development of rural e-commerce and rural postal logistics, and upgraded most product categories from supporting 72 hour delivery to supporting delivery within 48 hours. In addition, it has provided preferential after-sales service for elderly and remote consumers.

Li Gang stated that from 2023 to 2025, relevant departments will continue to arrange central financial funds to support various regions in improving county-level commercial networks and logistics distribution systems, integrating advantageous resources of various departments, and promoting the co construction and sharing of network facilities such as village postal stations, e-commerce service stations, and rural convenience stores. We will renovate and upgrade a number of township commercial and trade centers, market markets, township markets, and new rural convenience stores, striving to enable rural residents to buy goods of the same quality and enjoy the same standard of services as the city at their doorstep.

Drawing: Hugo