Agricultural Marketing System in China

Agricultural Marketing System in China
—YAN  BO

In China the information working on grain and edible oil
started very late. The importance of information would not
be fully displayed until 1993 when the transformation of the
grain distribution from the planned economy to market one
took pl a c e .  Me anwhi l e  wi th  the   f a s t  deve lopment  of
marketability of grain distribution, there were more and more
organizations and information products for serving the grain
distribution.
2. As the special organization of the Chinese government
serving national grain & oil market, National Grain and Oil
I n f o r m a t i o n   C e n t e r   s e r v e s   t h e   S t a t e   M a c r o   C o n t r o l
Departments, farmers, traders and manufacturers as well, and
provides information on market price, analysis and policy
tendency. Price information, including the prices of rice,
wheat, corn and soyabean, consists of wholesale price,
retailing price, producer’s quotation, platform price and port
price. The Center publishes the information with e-mail,
publication and Internet, Grain & Oil Daily News, Grain
Market Weekly Report, Oil & Oil Seeds Market Weekly
Report,  Grain Market Monthly Report Oil & Oil Seeds Market
Monthly Report, Grain Weekly Prices Report and Oil Weekly
Prices Report are released by e-mail, Grain & Oil Seed
Information for China & Foreign Market and World Grain &
Oil Market Monthly Report by publication, and information
on the Chinese Grain Information Web.
3. The major functions of the Chinese Grain Information
Web (www.grain.gov.cn) are (i) To collect and publish the
grain information on policy, price, market tendency; (ii) To
analyze and forecast,  supervise the changes of the grain
and edible oil price and (iii) To make analysis on sorts of
subjects concerned with agriculture.  Its serving targets are
organs of state-owned grain department, grain enterprises,
state-owned grain depots and other trade agency. Its main
contents include the following :
(i) Grain and edible oil price both at home and abroad
consists of daily price report on grain and edible oil
retailing markets in some areas, weekly price report
on national grain and edible oil retailing markets,
current price on grain wholesale markets, price on
domestic major ports and stations, future price of
domestic grain, daily report of future price on
commodity exchanges in Chicago, Canada, Tokyo,
Kansan and the price informatrion of US soyabean,
wheat and feed corns;
(ii) Analysis of price changes and prediction of tendency
on grain edible oil and feed market at home and
abroad;
(iii) Policies and regulations, mainly including the
relative grain policies and regulations from the State
Council; the relevant procuring and selling policies
from the State Development Planning Commission
the State Administration of Grain and the Provincial
Grain Bureaus; relative policies from other Ministries
and Commission; State policies on grain export and
import;
(iv) Situation and trend of grain industry in every province in China;
(v) Information on agricultural production and weather;
(vi) Introduction of grain brand and refind grain products,  and publication of supply and demand
i n f o rma t i o n ,   c ommo d i t y   a d v e r t i s eme n t s   a n d
introduction of enterprises.
4.  The information on the web is mostly collected from the
first hand data of provincial information websites on a regular
period of time, and reflects the latest trend of domestic and
external grain and edible oil market timely and correctly. Thus,
the timeliness,  accuracy and authority of information on the
web are ensured.  In addition,  it plays the role of publishing
information and guiding market on grain and edible oil market
both  domestically and internationally.
5.  Apart from providing information to provinces in China,
the  web  exchange   ext ens ive ly  informa t ion wi th many  a
dome s t i c   and  int e rma t iona l   agenc i e s ,     such  a s   the  St a t e
Economy and Trade Commission,  the Ministry of  Agriculture,
the State Statistics Bureau,  the State Weather Bureau,  the
Custom Office,  China National Cereals,  Oil & Food-stuffs
Import & Export Corporation,  the Food and Agricultural
Organization of  UN, USDA and French Wheat Association.