Rice Paddy Sales Strategies under COVID-19 in Heilongjiang Province, China

The Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and the Heilongjiang Provincial Grain Bureau jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening Grain Storage and Sales". According to the notice, seven measures were implemented to further strengthen grain storage and sales, manage and sell grains well, and accelerate farmers’ surplus grain into cash. This notice brought hope to farmers who had been anxious about rice paddy sales for a long time.

The planting area of japonica rice paddies in Heilongjiang Province was nearly 60 million mu (1 mu = 0.067 ha.). In last several years, Heilongjiang Province optimized its production structure, strengthened science and technology support, improved market services, and accelerated the development of rice industry. By 2020, Heilongjiang Province ranked the first in China's japonica rice paddy output. The rice paddy  was planted in all parts of the province, including the first, second, third, and fourth accumulated temperate zones. There were 11 counties with more than 1 million mu and 29 counties with more than 500,000 mu of paddy fields . A concentrated rice-producing  area was formed.

Rice paddy  is an important source of economic income for farmers in Heilongjiang Province. Every year, the period after the Spring Festival is the second peak of rice paddy sales. As the grain price fell before the Spring Festival of 2020, local farmers preferred to keep more rice paddy  in their hands compared with the previous years. After the Spring Festival, with the strengthened prevention and control on the COVID-19 epidemic, roads were closed, grain warehouses kept closed, and grain processing enterprises were suspended, so farmers were extremely anxious about the unsalable rice paddy .

According to Wang Daming, Deputy Director of the Grain Bureau of Heilongjiang Province, as of the Spring Festival, the purchase and sales of autumn grains in Heilongjiang Province was conducting smoothly. After the Spring Festival, due to the need for epidemic prevention and control, grain purchase was temporarily suspended. According to statistics on February 15, 2000, the province's enterprises purchased 82.1 billion jin of new grains (1 jin = 0.5 kg), accounting for 55% of the province's total grain output of 150.1 billion jin, a year-on-year decrease of 12.1 billion jin. In particular, the cumulative purchase of rice paddy was 44.2 billion jin, accounting for 83% of 53.3 billion jin output, a year-on-year decrease of 9 billion jin.

According to Wang Daming, the main reasons for the decrease in grain purchases were as follows. The first was that the policy-driven grain purchase warehouses did not initiate the purchase and storage. The second was that although the key suppliers for the national grains and oil just resumed the work, most of the raw materials were purchased and stored before the Spring Festival. The third was that most grain and oil processing companies just resumed work or were about to resume work. The forth was that grain trading companies suspended acquisitions. Compared with previous years, grain purchases and sales were stagnated for more than half a month, which was the main reason for the year-on-year decrease in purchases. It can also be seen that the difficulties in selling grains in 2020 were quite different from those in the past.

Chen Xilong’s family farm in Minfeng Village, Bielahong Township, Fuyuan County, was waiting to sell more than 1,330 tons of rice paddy. Chen Xilong told the reporter that his farm had 2,500 mu of paddy field and planted round-shaped rice for 9 years. The output of rice paddy in 2020 was about 8 tons. All the harvested rice paddy were piled up by the side of the field for sale.

According to Chen Xilong, the main reason for not selling the rice paddy before the Spring Festival was that the price was too low, only RMB 1.2 yuan per jin. Then, it rose to 1.27-1.28 for a few days at the beginning of last year. The logistics were not available, grain warehouses were not operating, and the processing plants did not resume work. There was nowhere to sell the rice paddy. The rice paddy would be at risk of deterioration due to the temperature rise in a few days. Under this circumstance, Chen Xilong and his family became very anxious.

Jiahe Chuntian Agricultural Planting Cooperative in Bayan County planted 87,000 mu of quality long-grain japonica rice. This cooperative kept cooperating with leading companies such as COFCO and Tianjin Commercial Company. Most of the rice paddy was sold on orders, and the rest was directly sold to the market. The staff of the cooperative were never worried about sales. There were indeed more than 1,500 tons of unsalable rice paddy in the beginning of 2020. According to Song Zhizhong, chairman of the cooperative, the main reason for the unsalable rice paddy was that the logistics system broke down due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the price of rice paddys before the Spring Festival was too low. The price of japonica rice paddy with the water content of 15% was about RMB 1.5 yuan per jin, compared with RMB 1.6 yuan per jin in the previous year. The cooperative’s rice paddy storage conditions were very good and the rice paddy was kept soundly, but the cooperative was short of the funds for spring plowing. The cooperative’s pre-ordered seeds for 2020 and received most of seeds. However, fertilizer had not yet been put in place. If the fertilizer was available before March 20, 2020, the production would definitely be undermined.

In response to the aforementioned problems, Wang Daming said that Heilongjiang Province needed to effectively organize the production, circulation, and supply of staple and non-staple foods in accordance with the requirements of the central government. On the premise of sound epidemic prevention work, guidance was provided to orderly promote the work and production resumption of various enterprises such as state-owned enterprises. The Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Work of Grain Storage and Sales" to further guide the market entities to resume grain purchase and processing as soon as possible in accordance with local conditions and avoid regional "unsalable grains" and "deteriorated grains".

Furthermore, on the basis of meeting the relevant requirements of the local party committee and government, the Heilongjiang Provincial Grain Bureau, SINOGRAIN’s Heilongjiang Branch, and the Provincial Agricultural Development Bank jointly issued the "Notice on Orderly Resumption of Autumn Grain Purchases", requiring grain administrative departments at all levels, branches of SINOGRAIN, and Agricultural Development Bank branches to work with relevant departments (units). According to the notice, all the aforementioned parties need to comprehensively prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic, further strengthen organization and leadership, make overall arrangements for the resumption of work and production of various grain enterprises, and effectively organize the purchase enterprises to purchase grains from the farmers in the region and orderly restore the province’s market-oriented grain purchases and sales and the minimum purchase price of rice paddy.

Specifically, Heilongjiang Province requires all counties to hold the personnel accountable for the purchases and sales of autumn grains in accordance with the relevant requirements of the major responsibility system for food security, and organize policy-driven storage points and other types of grain operators to prevent and control epidemic and improve purchase work plans in accordance with the requirements of the local epidemic prevention and control authorities. After being approved by the epidemic prevention and control authorities, each entity resumed work and production in accordance with the procedures, and effectively prevented and controlled the epidemic and purchased autumn grains. Relevant departments must earnestly maintain the order of the grain market, and supervise and ensure grain operators to conduct market-oriented purchases and sales in accordance with laws and regulations. Grain administrative departments at all levels, branches of SINOGRAIN, and Agricultural Development Bank branches shall supervise and guide the purchase and storage sites to strictly implement the national purchase and pricing policies, and openly purchase rice paddy that meet the quality requirements of the national plan, without any restrictions.

At the same time, all localities are required to fully grasp the actual situation of farmers' surplus grains for sale and the farmers' grain sales needs in their jurisdictions, accurately analyze and grasp the situation of autumn grain purchases and sales, and scientifically judge the trend. It is necessary to strengthen communication and coordination with towns and villages, and take effective measures to promote the logistics of the surplus grains in accordance with local conditions. The surplus grains circulate in an orderly manner. It is necessary to strengthen technical guidance, policy publicity and information release services so that farmers can scientifically store grains, improve quality and reduce losses, and sell grains in a timely manner and reasonable price. All localities must properly respond to and deal with various situations and problems, discover and resolve problems in the first time, and resolutely avoid regional farmers’ "difficulties in unsalable grains" and "deteriorated grains."

The Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Provincial Grain Bureau issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening Grain Storage and Sales." The main contents include the following aspects: i) strengthening storage management to prevent the mildew and deteriorated grains. ii) organizing professional and technical personnel to strengthen technical guidance for farmers in terms of storage, and helping farmers timely remove snow on the surplus grains, and iii) adopting turning over the piles, piling, spreading, putting on racks, ventilation, drying and other methods, so as to prevent mold and deterioration. For the market players with drying conditions, it is necessary to speed up the drying and the reduction of water content to improve the grain quality. Grain enterprises needed to resume work as soon as possible, increase grain purchasing capacity, ensure stable supply in the grain and oil market and farmers' orderly sales of surplus grains, and organize grain and oil processing enterprises to resume production as soon as possible. All localities must coordinate and serve grain and oil processing enterprises in charge of the production and supply of epidemic prevention and control materials, and ensure the supply of raw materials and the transportation of finished products. All localities need to implement the extension policies that the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and Provincial Food Bureau have gained approval from relevant national departments. Sale channels need to be broadened to speed up grain sales. Transportation needed to be organized in an orderly manner to ensure smooth food sales and transportation. Propaganda and guidance needed to be strengthened so that farmers could sell grains rationally.

The notice specifically noted that it is necessary to implement the extension policies that the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and Provincial Food Bureau have gained approval from relevant national departments.

In front of difficulties, all the localities were actively taking measures to help farmers sell rice paddy. In 2019, the planting area for rice paddy in Qing'an County was 1.518 million mu, and the total rice paddy output was 782,500 tons. Most farmers with quality rice paddy signed contracts with companies, and sent the rice paddy to the purchasing companies for storage before the Spring Festival. As of January 20, 2020, Qing’an County had about 331,700 tons of surplus grains, including 220,000 tons of rice paddy. In terms of rice paddy grades, third-class rice paddy accounted for about 38%, about 83,600 tons, which can be sold through policy-based purchases. The fourth and fifth grade rice paddy accounted for about 62%, about 134,200 tons. Farmers were mobilized to prepare the surplus grains in time. The third-grade rice paddy could be sold through policy purchases, and the rice paddy below the third-grade would be sold to the market. In Qing'an County, 3 grain processing companies resumed work and production, and 21 companies were still applying for work and production resumption. In order to prevent and control the COVID-19 epidemic, Qing'an County implemented compulsory measures, such as traffic control, which brought certain difficulties to the shipping of raw materials and the delivery of products. Under these circumstances, the local public security, traffic management and other authorities took the initiative to provide services, planned to issue special permits to ensure farmers’ grain transportation, etc.

According to Li Shirun, a first-class inspector of the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, after the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, as local traffic control and village closure measures were implemented, some grain storage and storage enterprises and brokers were not active, grain sales were sluggish, and there were still some surplus grains left in the hands of farmers, so the storage pressure increased. In order to effectively solve this problem, Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Areas actively communicated and coordinated with relevant departments, figured out countermeasures, and guided all localities to do a good job in grain storage and sales. During the COVID-19 epidemic, the Heilongjiang Provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs formed a task force to guide the storage and sales of grains and help farmers sell grains in combination of other works, such as epidemic prevention and control. At the same time, more than 1,000 agricultural machinery cooperatives were persuaded to create WeChat groups. In the WeChat group, experts guided the cooperatives to keep the surplus grains scientifically and sell them in time. All localities were also actively taking measures to guide farmers in grain sales. For example, Bayan County published the list and contact information of 67 grain purchasing enterprises, so as to facilitate farmers to contact and sell grains in time.

Through the Heilongjiang provincial agricultural information network, the agricultural and rural office WeChat official account and other media, Heilongjiang Province issued and publicized the specific measures for grain storage as well as matters involved in grain storage, so that the majority of farmers could scientifically manage grain  storage measures and other matters worth attention. At the same time, Heilongjiang Province also monitored the market grain price every day, and provided farmers with accurate price in a timely and rapid manner, supply and demand information and other information services. In addition, it guided farmers to rationally analyze and judge the market price and to sell the surplus grains in good time, so that grains could be sold at a good price.