Source title: How to transform and upgrade the agricultural batch market? Look at the "promotion" road of Beijing Xinfadi
From piggyback weighing to digital trading, from basket hawking to e-commerce live broadcast, from local circulation to national distribution... China's agricultural batch market has experienced a process from toddler to swagger. Today, with the accelerating process of urbanization, the development space of the agricultural batch market is limited to a certain extent, and it is in an important transition period from "quantity oriented" to "quality oriented" development. How to let the market have more vitality and more space to "step on the waves" and "break the ice"? Transformation and upgrading are imminent.
It is known as the "biggest city that never sleeps" in Beijing.
Every morning, when the city falls asleep, Xinfadi Agricultural Products Wholesale Market (hereinafter referred to as "Xinfadi") in Fengtai District of Beijing is still bustling with people and lights, ushering in the busiest period. The vegetable leaves with dew are green and shiny. Fresh and sweet fruits are taken out of the cold room and a thin mist appears. There are many cries and cries. In the morning, Beijing citizens can buy agricultural products from all over the country.
Since the establishment of the first agricultural products wholesale market in China in the 1980s, it has gradually developed into the core of China's agricultural products circulation system. About 70% of agricultural products are distributed through the agricultural batch market.
After 40 years of development, Shandong Shouguang Vegetable Wholesale Market has become a vegetable distribution center, information exchange center, price formation center, logistics distribution center and vegetable standard formation center for "buying and selling the whole country"; Shenzhen Buji Agricultural Products Wholesale Market, as a diversified agricultural products trading platform, has successfully attracted more than 3000 merchants to settle in, bringing together more than 7000 kinds of agricultural products from all over the country and the world, turning the food basket of the special zone from "what to eat" to "what to eat"; Shanghai Agricultural Products Central Wholesale Market is one of the four green model markets in China. It provides "green" guarantee for the food supply of Shanghai citizens with high quality and protects "safety on the tip of the tongue"
However, in recent years, with the rapid development of digital economy, the circulation of agricultural products in China is undergoing profound changes. On the one hand, it is under the pressure of competition from fresh food e-commerce, community group buying and other new business transactions; On the other hand, the upgrading of consumption structure and the improvement of circulation efficiency have also become urgent requirements. This has impacted the traditional market, and transformation and upgrading have become an inevitable choice.
General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that the circulation system plays a fundamental role in the national economy. To build a new development pattern, we must take the construction of a modern circulation system as an important strategic task.
For more than 30 years, the new land of agricultural product circulation has been the largest agricultural product wholesale market in China and even Asia. Its agricultural product market price index has become the weather vane and barometer leading the market price of agricultural products in China, which can be said to be the "super green aircraft carrier" driving the large-scale circulation of agricultural products in China.
In recent years, Xinfadi has firmly grasped the opportunities of the new era and implemented the development strategy of "upgrading internally and expanding externally, transformation and upgrading", which has spawned new industries, new formats and new driving forces, and created a "promotion" road to promote self transformation and self-development.
As the "leader" of domestic agricultural product wholesale industry, what experience and enlightenment can Xinfadi's transformation and upgrading provide for other agricultural batch markets? The reporter recently went to Xinfa to find out the answer.
Plan new layout——
Guide industrial upgrading from the source
Big! This is the most prominent feature of Xinfadi. Driving from South 4th Ring Road to South 5th Ring Road, nearly half of the distance on the road belongs to the boundary of Xinfadi, and there are 15 gates alone.
Xinfadi, which covers an area of more than 1600 mu, bears the "one vegetable and one meal" of the people in the capital. In 2023, the market turnover will be 15.16 million tons, with a turnover of 126.7 billion yuan. It is a veritable "vegetable basket" and "fruit plate" in the capital.
Due to its huge throughput, the agricultural batch market has become one of the driving forces for large-scale agricultural production, and also an important force for driving agricultural standardized production. As early as 2004, the view that the wholesale market of agricultural products is the first productive force in China's agricultural development was put forward.
However, with the adjustment of urban planning and the upgrading of consumption demand, the agricultural batch market is under great pressure to consolidate and continue to play the role of the primary productive force.
Take Beijing as an example. As a super large city, more than 20 million people have to eat every day. Moreover, Beijing is also a typical agricultural product import city, and most agricultural products come from all over the country. To ensure the stable and safe supply of agricultural products in the capital, the agricultural batch market has a great responsibility.
The layout of the new development site is selected from the source.
"The 'chassis' of wholesale and circulation of agricultural products is the balance between supply and demand, that is, the single scale planting across the country meets the diversified consumption needs of the city." Zhang Yuxi, chairman of Xinfadi Market, believes that in order to stabilize the upstream supply, it is necessary to develop planting bases in the national core production areas.
Since 2014, Xinfadi has organized merchants to build standardized planting bases across the country. At present, it has grown to 3.15 million mu in 21 provinces, most of which are in the core production areas of agricultural products.
Sight shifted to Hengshui, Hebei. At the time of eggplant season, Xinfadi (Jizhou) vegetable planting base in Dongluokou Village, Jizhou District was busy, and farmers were sorting and packing newly picked eggplants. This is the 850 mu greenhouse built by Li Jun, the "eggplant king", and about 30 tons of eggplants are shipped to Beijing Xinfadi market every day.
Li Jun has established planting bases in Yunnan since 2014. Now he has planted eggplants in Shanxi, Hebei and other places, with a total planting area of more than 8000 mu.
With the planting base "landing and blooming" in the country, 20000 tons of vegetables and 13000 tons of fruits are supplied to the Beijing market every day, further improving the resilience of agricultural product supply in the capital. This is also the guarantee that Beijing citizens can handle the "food basket" stably in the face of major emergencies.
On the basis of ensuring supply, how to continuously improve the quality of agricultural products and further achieve high-quality development?
"One grain of good seed, ten thousand loads of good grain." Zhang Yuxi believes that in agriculture, to improve the quality of the industry and release productivity, we must start from the seeds.
Seed is the "chip" of agriculture. In recent years, the country has clearly proposed to strengthen the development of seed industry and enhance the ability of seed independent innovation. In Xinfadi, these policies have been effectively implemented.
Beijing Xinfadi Seed Trading Market is the only specialized seed market in Beijing. There are 26 large and medium-sized seed companies operating more than 2000 crops, flowers, forage and other fine seeds.
At the Xinfadi Spring Seed Industry Expo held at the end of March this year, the latest seed technology and cutting-edge varieties were intensively displayed, and the power of agricultural technology was seen and felt on the scene. Xinfadi is committed to building a seed industry collaborative innovation platform of "scientific research institutes+production bases+wholesale markets". In the future, it will form a cooperation system integrating improved seed breeding, improved seed planting and centralized sales to promote the revitalization of the seed industry.
"These seeds will take root and sprout in Xinfadi's national planting base, help farmers around the country to plant better products and sell at higher prices, so as to realize the beautiful vision of 'making growers well-off and consumers healthy'." Zhang Yuxi said.
The wholesale market of agricultural products connects many small farmers and a huge consumer market. "When small farmers face the big market, the information they get tends to lag behind, and it is easy to herd up and down." In Zhang Yuxi's view, the so-called market guided production is not simply telling farmers how to produce, but more importantly, giving farmers confidence and motivation to change their inherent production and sales methods, so that producers can understand the sales laws, which forces the production end to upgrade.
The continuous construction of planting bases has not only become the cornerstone to ensure stable supply, but also promote the upgrading of agricultural industry and achieve sustainable development. By linking planting with consumption, the agricultural batch market has further played a role in helping farmers increase income.
"Taking Jizhou, Hebei Province as an example, we are responsible for selecting seeds, teaching methods, and covering sales, as well as paying dividends to farmers' land." Li Jun introduced that "the production base is managed in a market-oriented way, and the production is determined by sales according to market demand, so as to avoid" high yield without good harvest ". We also need to create a 'ten thousand yuan field' so that farmers can grow vegetables at home and coax children to earn money and care for their families. "
Zhang Zongzhi, the "king of honeydew melon", has taken root in Lankao County, Henan Province with good varieties and technology and built a demonstration garden of honeydew melon planting since 2017 under the support and encouragement of Xinfadi. "At present, the planting of honeydew melon in Lankao has grown from more than 1000 mu to more than 30000 mu, with an annual output value of 1 billion yuan, driving more than 10000 villagers to live a better life. 'Lankao honeydew melon' has also become the first national geographical indication agricultural product in Lankao County."
Promote the birth of new business types——
Guard the city's "fireworks"
Agricultural batch market is an important place to connect agricultural producers and consumers, and also the source of urban "fireworks".
In the traditional impression, "pyrotechnic gas" may mean dirty, disorderly, poor and backward business mode. At present, with the improvement of living standards, people have higher requirements on the quality, taste and consumption experience of agricultural products. "Pyrotechnic gas" is more reflected in an emotion, which is the perceived communication temperature.
How to adapt to the development needs of the times? This prompted the agricultural batch market to produce more social attributes.
Since 2023, Xinfadi has increased its transformation and upgrading efforts from wholesale to service, adding many new life consumption scenes and more intimate shopping environment. This is not only a one-stop experience of the world on the tip of the tongue, but also a platform for fun, shopping, communication and cooperation.
The International Durian Pavilion, which opened last September, is one of them. In recent years, Durian in Southeast Asia has taken advantage of the "Belt and Road" and become a new favorite fruit. Xinfadi was keenly aware of market changes, so it upgraded the "Hainan Papaya Hall" to an "International Durian Hall" covering an area of more than 3000 square meters.
"Here you can buy durian from Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries around the world, and also participate in the production of durian crisp, durian cake and other durian derivatives." Mao Yongxi, general manager of the International Durian Pavilion, said, "At the same time, we also provide support services for merchants' marketing, such as organizing enterprises in the museum to carry out brand promotion, inviting financial institutions to settle in and providing supply chain financial services for merchants."
In addition to creating a variety of consumption experiences around "popular" agricultural products, Xinfadi also seized the opportunity of the festival to carry out a series of activities to promote consumption with rich content and varied forms.
Where will you go for Spring Festival? Xinfadi! Local specialties, New Year gift boxes, handicrafts, cultural and creative products... Xinfadi New Year Festival has been held for two times, which adopts offline exhibition and promotion of re purchase to provide a "one-stop" platform for purchasing New Year goods for bulk purchasers, e-commerce platforms, community group purchases and consumers. Various theme activities were also held to set off a strong festival atmosphere and further enhance the consumption experience.
"Basically, the agricultural products you want, domestic and imported, and those in the wrong season, can be bought here. They can also specify the place of origin, brand, and variety, and they are of good quality and affordable," said Mr. Xie, a citizen.
Zhang Yuelin, general manager of Xinfadi Market, said that at present, Xinfadi Market has basically achieved the goal of "entering Xinfadi and eating all over China", and is striving to achieve the grand goal of "entering Xinfadi and eating all over the world".
In order to further expand the trade of agricultural products and accelerate the transformation and upgrading, Xinfadi is exploring the construction of the agricultural products exhibition industry chain. The "agricultural giants" gathered together, partners gathered together, and agricultural products from all over the world gathered... At the first Xinfadi Agricultural Expo held last year, a total of 5.7 billion yuan of cooperation intention was reached in three days, and the new IP building effect of the "Xinfadi Agricultural Expo" began to show.
"The Agricultural Expo Center is an agricultural commerce and trade complex. First of all, it is a platform for exhibition and sales, bringing together good products from all over the world and providing consumers with full choices. It is also a platform for exchange and interaction, where both production and marketing sides can establish mutual trust and increase cooperation opportunities." Zhang Gengzheng, deputy commander of the headquarters for transformation and upgrading of Xinfadi, introduced the following, We will also hold a forum in the Agricultural Expo Center to launch the exhibition economy, and we will also introduce scientific and technological innovation companies, exhibition companies, and incubation companies to settle in. Through the exhibition, we will let everyone have a deeper understanding of high-quality agricultural products.
Today, Xinfadi is not only a wholesale market, but also a media platform. Zhang Gengzheng said that Xinfadi is transforming into a new highland of agricultural products exhibition integrating large-scale conference and exhibition, agricultural products exhibition and marketing, agricultural culture exhibition, enterprise innovation and incubation, catering and accommodation services and other functions.
Build new channels——
When the agricultural batch market "hits the net"
"Can you imagine? I was still peeling onions 20 years ago, and now I am the" online celebrity "selling durian." Mao Yongxi, who has worked in Xinfadi market for more than 20 years, has gone from scallion wholesale to durian wholesale.
"In the past, when selling scallions, the earliest transaction mode was a bicycle with a scale and several people holding a calculator to calculate the price. Now we are not only doing business offline, but selling durian live through e-commerce platforms, which can achieve hours in Beijing..." Mao Yongxi said.
With the advent of digital economy, China's agricultural product circulation system and consumption patterns are undergoing a dramatic iterative evolution. Especially in recent years, the emerging consumption model represented by fresh food e-commerce and community group buying has developed rapidly, forming a diversified retail market pattern.
In this context, although the agricultural batch market is still the main channel of fresh agricultural products retail in China, its share also drops. With the strengthening of market competition, how can the agricultural batch market adapt to the changes of the times and innovate the transaction mode?
Entering the live broadcast room of the headquarters of Xinfadi live broadcast base, words such as "Malaysia AA class D197", "intra city delivery" flashed on the big screen, making netizens' eyes sweep over Lima's "heart". Liaoning Meizaoda cherry, imported Indonesian mangosteen, Thai perfume coconut emperor, Malaysian cat mountain king durian and other fruits were quickly robbed after each round of shelves.
Backed by a solid physical market, Xinfadi connects the upstream supply source of high-quality agricultural products with a large consumer group, and opens up product sales and information flow channels. Provide one-stop agricultural product services for large group shoppers through self built platforms, enter third-party e-commerce to provide innovative models such as fruit and vegetable product supply for retail terminals, and expand online trading channels in multiple ways.
In fact, as early as 2021, Xinfadi has built a 5000 square meter live broadcast base. At present, there are more than 70 live broadcast rooms, equipped with multi-functional conference rooms, selective exhibition halls, and cultivating online celebrity live broadcast teams to establish a new distribution system on the ground. Tong Wei, director of the Publicity Department of Xinfadi, said that with the development of live broadcast, the live broadcast room has also been directly moved to the warehouse, and more and more Beijing citizens have begun to "shop" in Xinfadi online to enjoy the "direct purchase" in the wholesale market.
The integration of live broadcast and e-commerce has attracted a number of "new farmers" to open new copies. The merchant Zhou Lin became one of the "anchors" of the live broadcast with goods.
"The market has not only built a live broadcast base, but also organized professional training and guidance, and helped us solve the distribution problem. The logistics center of the ordinary goods market can deliver, such as durian, cherry and other fruits with high added value, and the market will help us contact the logistics company." Zhou Lin told reporters that relying on the complete supply chain of Xinfa Market, consumers place orders on the same day, It is usually delivered the next morning.
With the development of e-commerce live broadcast, an abnormal phenomenon has emerged in recent years. When purchasing agricultural products through e-commerce live broadcast, the price of packaging and freight will exceed the price of agricultural products themselves. In contrast, depending on its scale advantage, the agricultural batch market can reduce the logistics cost to the minimum. Moreover, the development of e-commerce has put forward higher requirements for the effectiveness of distribution.
In this regard, Xinfadi launched the fresh food "Houda" last year: consumers watch the live broadcast and place an order on the e-commerce platform. They can buy it and deliver it to their homes through riders. If they are not satisfied with the product, consumers can return it directly.
"It will be delivered in half an hour, and within the sixth ring road, it will be delivered in about two hours." The staff who is busy delivering goods said that seven or eight hundred orders can be delivered every day, and thousands of orders can be delivered during holidays such as "May Day".
Opportunities are accompanied by challenges. Zhang Yuxi pointed out that the emergence of new formats such as e-commerce has put forward new requirements for the circulation of agricultural products. The improvement of supply chain, the improvement of quality control, and the shaping of brand are imminent. At the same time, the market should also be prepared for effective governance and comprehensive empowerment of new business types.
With the iterative upgrading of transaction mode, Xinfadi also launched another key project - centralized collection and distribution business. "Centralized purchasing and distribution reached a peak during the New Year's Festival, with daily sales reaching more than 3 million yuan." Tong Wei said that changes in online purchasing and centralized purchasing and distribution methods can improve efficiency while creating a fresh, affordable and convenient consumption experience for consumers.
At present, the collection and distribution business has been launched in more than 20 cities in Hebei, Shanxi, Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning. Day by day, agricultural products are distributed to all regions with low cost, high efficiency and good service, which are welcomed by users.
In recent years, the state has vigorously promoted the convenient life circle, which is more convenient to meet most of consumers' living needs. The agricultural products in Xinfa are cheap and fresh, but the location is relatively remote. How can we meet the daily purchase needs of citizens?
In order to adapt to market changes, Xinfadi further extended its sales channels to the community. Since 2008, Xinfadi has built convenience grocery stores and developed the "vegetable basket" through train in residential communities, and moved agricultural products to the community residents' homes. This service has played a huge role in solving the problem of difficult and expensive food purchase for citizens during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Today, there are 211 convenience stores and 77 "food basket" through trains all over Beijing.
Activate new kinetic energy——
Smart agricultural batch construction is on the way
In 2015, the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of the Traceability System for Important Products, which started to comprehensively promote the quality and safety traceability of agricultural products and promoted the intelligent transformation of the agricultural batch market. This year, the No.1 Document of the Central Committee proposed to promote the high-quality development of rural circulation and promote the transformation and upgrading of agricultural wholesale markets.
To become an intelligent wholesale market for agricultural products, it is not just a simple matter for agricultural batch companies to "get online".
Han Yijun, the leading professor of China Agricultural University and the chief expert of industrial economy of the national modern agricultural industrial technology system, believes that it is necessary to cultivate and develop new quality productivity, have revolutionary breakthroughs in technology and innovative allocation of factors, and use cutting-edge disruptive technology to transform the traditional wholesale market of agricultural products. Digital empowerment and digital supply chain are expected to become new engines for high-quality development of smart agricultural batch market in the future.
In 2020, the outbreak of COVID-19 has accelerated the pace of intelligent transformation of the agricultural batch market. It is understood that after the outbreak of the epidemic, the newly developed market has carried out a number of upgrading measures to ensure the food safety of agricultural products in the capital. In the 146 mu demonstration area, we began to use digital and intelligent technology to strictly control vehicles, goods and people entering and leaving the area; The pilot policy of "informatization of buyers and sellers' cars, traceability of bilateral transactions, automation of access control, and indexation of category prices" was clarified, and the rules and regulations of "seller registration system, buyer membership system, and reporting system of incoming transactions" were introduced.
Since then, the market has been digital throughout all aspects. Zhang Gengzheng introduced that the research, development and application of multiple intelligent systems such as electronic transaction settlement, cloud stall management, on-site comprehensive management, customer management, food safety traceability management have been realized. "Now we are developing the single product price index of vegetables and fruits to provide information for the production of origin and variety promotion."
At present, consumers' requirements for the quality of agricultural products are constantly improving. In the agricultural batch market, fresh and perishable agricultural products account for the vast majority. The development of smart cold chain logistics has become an important part of the construction of the agricultural batch market.
For the purpose of "locking fresh" agricultural products, Xinfadi has built a "super large refrigerator" serving the Beijing Tianjin Hebei urban agglomeration. In 2021, Shouheng Hebei Xinfadi Smart Cold Chain Logistics Park will be put into operation, which will provide 500000 tons of super large cold storage for Beijing Tianjin Hebei region, and further improve the storage and fresh-keeping capacity of fresh agricultural products within the "Beijing Tianjin One Hour Fresh Agricultural Products Logistics Circle".
This is also an important measure for Xinfadi to implement the coordinated development strategy of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and speed up the relief of Beijing's non capital functions. In addition, Xinfadi has also built 19 sub markets in Lankao, Henan, Panjin, Liaoning, Weixian, Hebei and other places to further improve the storage and supply assurance capacity.
With the continuous upgrading of market demand, the clean vegetable industry came into being. "The transformation of hairy vegetables into clean vegetables can not only reduce food waste, but also improve the added value of products. In addition, Xinfadi market has a rich variety of vegetables, which provides an excellent platform for the development of clean vegetables industry." Zhang Gengzheng said that this will be an important area for Xinfadi's future transformation and development.
Aiming at this new blue ocean, in September last year, Siji Shunxin Clean Vegetable Industrial Park, Asia's largest fully automated and intelligent clean vegetable processing industrial park, was completed and put into use, activating new momentum for the transformation and upgrading of Xinfadi market.
In the industrial park, the reporter saw that potato, onion, carrot, salad vegetable production lines and automatic fruit and vegetable packaging lines were running.
"After the potatoes are poured into the machine, they can be directly produced into potato shreds, potato blocks, potato piers and potato chips through intelligent conversion." Guo Xiang, the general manager of Siji Shunxin Food Co., Ltd., said, "In order to ensure food safety, we need to carry out two times of pesticide residue testing before purchasing raw materials and putting products into storage. If they are unqualified, they will not be put into storage." At present, the industrial park can produce 200 tons of clean vegetables every day, During production, 70% of water can be recycled and 30% of solid residues can be used as feed.
Xinfadi has fresh vegetables sold here every day, and new things happen here every day.
"Banana King", "Mango King", "Scallion King", "Sweet Potato King", "Eggplant King"... Over the past 30 years, various vegetable selling experts from Xinfadi have created countless miracles through hard work. According to statistics, there are 168 merchants with an annual turnover of more than 100 million, and nearly 1000 merchants with an annual turnover of more than 10 million.
The transformation and upgrading of Beijing Xinfadi from truck weighing to digital trading, from basket selling to e-commerce live broadcast, from local circulation to national distribution, is also a true portrayal of the development of China's agricultural batch market.
As an important achievement of the reform and opening up and the reform of the agricultural management system, the agricultural batch market in China has experienced a process from hobbling to swaggering. Today, with the accelerating process of urbanization, the development space of the agricultural batch market is limited to a certain extent, and it is in an important transition period from "quantity oriented" to "quality oriented" development.
Smart transformation can give the market more vitality and more space to "ride the waves" and "break the ice", promote the development of new sales models and emerging industries, lead consumption upgrading with business type innovation, and promote rural revitalization with industrial reform.
