China is the origin and country of origin of soybeans, and soybean cultivation has a long history. For thousands of years, it has been the world's largest soybean producer. In 1954, China's soybean production was surpassed by the United States, and then successively surpassed by Brazil and Argentina, and is now the world's fourth soybean producer. In 1996, China switched from a net exporter of soybeans to a net importer, with imports increasing year by year and its dependence on foreign countries exceeding 80%.
Can domestic soybeans achieve revitalization and continue to write glory?
Heilongjiang Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group Wudalianchi Farm concentrated high-horsepower locomotives for soybean cultivation and weeding operations. Photo by Lu Wenxiang (Zhongjing Vision)
The "soybean crisis" changed the pattern of the Chinese market
At the Zhenjiang base terminal of China Grain Storage, a large cargo ship filled with 70,000 tons of imported soybeans is unloading and transporting soybeans directly into the grain depot through automatic transportation lines. Soybeans from Brazil, the United States, Argentina, Paraguay, Ethiopia and other parts of the world continue to flow in every year. Mainland soybean imports account for more than 60% of global soybean trade, and the soybean self-sufficiency rate in 2021 is less than 15%, and the risk of food security "stuck neck" is prominent. "Increase oilseed and soybean production capacity and self-sufficiency rates." General Secretary Xi Jinping made instructions this year in the article "Correctly Understanding and Grasping major theoretical and practical issues in the development of the mainland".
"Pick the basket, the basket." This is the cheerful scene of the farmer picking soybeans described in the "Book of Poetry, Xiaoya Caishu". Soybeans have been cultivated on the mainland for more than 4,000 years, And China is the homeland of soybeans, and soybeans from all over the world are imported directly or indirectly from China. The mainland was also once the world's main supplier of soybeans, exported to Japan, North Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States and other parts of the world. In the 1930s, the mainland's soybean production and trade volume ranked first in the world, and more than 90% of the soybean trade volume in the world market came from China. Until the 1950s, the United States surpassed the mainland to become the world's largest producer of soybeans and became the world's main supplier of soybeans.
The history of soybean imports from the mainland is short. Imports began in 1990 and have shifted from net exporters of soybeans to net importers in 1996, and from complete self-sufficiency in soybeans to high dependence on imports. In just a few years, the mainland has gone from being a soybean export competitor in Brazil, the United States, Argentina and other countries to the largest buyer of these countries, and soybeans originating in China have become one of the raw materials that may be "stuck in the neck".
How did this reversal happen? Why does the mainland need to import so many soybeans? From the perspective of economic logic, demand growth is the main reason for the rapid growth of soybean imports. Si Wei, dean and professor of the College of Economics and Management of China Agricultural University, believes that with the improvement of people's living standards and the rapid development of animal husbandry, the demand for soybean oil and soybean meal has increased significantly, and the gap between soybean production and demand is large and exists for a long time. According to statistics from all sides, the annual consumption of soybeans in the mainland exceeds 100 million tons, and the consumption of soybeans in 2021 is 108.72 million tons, the domestic soybean output is 16.4 million tons, and the import volume is 96.52 million tons.
Workers sift through soybeans bred in Sanya at the Institute of Oil Crops of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Chengzhao Guo (Xinhua)
A famous "soybean crisis" has completely changed the pattern of China's soybean market, and behind the large import of soybeans is the ambition of multinational grain merchants to open up the Chinese soybean market. In order to meet the growing market demand, in the late 1990s, the mainland abolished the import tariff quota for soybeans, reduced the import tariff on soybeans to 3%, and soybean imports grew rapidly. After joining the World Trade Organization in 2001, the soybean market was fully liberalized, and cheap soybeans poured in like a tide. That's when the "soybean crisis" emerged. From 2003 to 2004, the USDA and multinational grain merchants joined forces to speculate, which led to a sharp rise in the price of soybeans in the United States, and domestic soybean crushing companies that purchased U.S. soybeans suffered serious losses and large-scale production stopped production or went bankrupt. Foreign-funded enterprises represented by the United States ADM, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Daveur of France have taken the opportunity to control the mainland soybean crushing enterprises through acquisitions or mergers and acquisitions, and monopolized more than 70% of the soybean trade volume, controlling the trade rights, pricing rights and transportation rights of imported soybeans, and the import volume of soybeans has risen rapidly. According to statistics, before the "soybean crisis", there were 1,000 soybean crushing enterprises in the mainland, and in 2006 after the soybean crisis, there were only more than 90 soybean crushing enterprises, of which 66 had foreign investment backgrounds. Along with foreign-funded enterprises, the import of soybeans has increased rapidly, and soybean imports will exceed 100 million tons in 2020.
"Under the impact of multinational companies and cheap imports of soybeans, the security of the mainland soybean industry has been seriously threatened." Zhong Yu, director and researcher of the Industrial Economics Research Office of the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said. As the world's first soybean consumer and the first soybean importer, domestic soybean crushing enterprises have become imported soybeans "processing workshop", because there is no domestic soybean crushing enterprises to do support, domestic soybeans from the oil field eclipsed, China completely lost the right to speak in the soybean market, "Chinese demand" has become an international financial capital, multinational grain enterprises to speculate on international soybean prices, harvest wealth of an important means.
Under the influence of the impact of imported soybeans and comparative benefits, farmers' enthusiasm for planting beans has seriously declined, and the soybean planting area has seriously shrunk. Soybean production in the Huang-Huai-Hai region is concentrated in four provinces, including Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Anhui, and soybean production in Northeast China has shifted to alpine regions. In order to pursue higher economic benefits, farmers have gradually abandoned the traditional grain and bean rotation method, which not only reduces soybean production, but also causes corn yield reduction without changing stubble. In order to protect domestic soybeans and protect the interests of soybean farmers, from 2008 to 2013, the mainland launched the implementation of the soybean storage policy, resulting in further inversion of domestic and foreign soybean prices, further decline in the enthusiasm of enterprises to purchase, and the embarrassing situation of "domestic soybeans entering the grain depot and imported soybeans entering the market" has emerged, further compressing the domestic soybean market space.
Workers are manipulating machinery to open sickles to harvest soybeans. Zhou Guangxue (Zhongjing Vision)
Will domestic soybeans be abandoned or stick to it? Since 2014, the mainland has promoted the reform of the agricultural product collection and storage system, implemented the domestic soybean revitalization plan, and stimulated farmers' enthusiasm for planting soybeans through measures such as soybean producer subsidies and corn and soybean rotation subsidies. In 2020, the national soybean sowing area reached 148 million mu and the output reached 19.6 million tons, a record high. However, in 2021, while the corn sown area and yield achieved a "double increase", the soybean sown area decreased by 22 million mu and the yield fell by 3.2 million tons. "This is mainly due to lower yields from soybeans compared to corn, and farmers' willingness to grow soybeans is weakened." The relevant person in charge of the Rural Department of the National Bureau of Statistics explained this.
According to the barrel theory, how much water a barrel can hold depends on the shortest plank. Under the epidemic of the century and the century-old changes, in the face of a severe and complex international environment, the mainland's soybean imports are highly dependent on a few countries such as Brazil and the United States, and the security risks of the soybean industry chain supply chain have increased. The central government attaches great importance to the soybean issue, "we must conscientiously implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on improving the production of soybean oilseeds, resolutely take a variety of measures to increase soybean production, ensure the completion of the expansion target task, and effectively improve the ability to provide self-sufficiency." Hu Chunhua, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, stressed in May this year when he was supervising the expansion of soybeans in Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province.
Where is the domestic soybean road?
Do you know? At present, China is the world's largest exporter of soy protein, accounting for 50% of the international food soy protein market share. Soybean is an ideal protein plant, the nutritional value is second only to meat, eggs and milk, has the reputation of "the king of plant protein", "tanaka meat", "green cow" and so on. The "Three Character Classic" classifies soybeans into the "six grains", the so-called "rice sorghum millet, wheat millet, this six grains, people eat." "As early as the Western Zhou To Spring and Autumn Warring States period, soybeans were already the main food crops at that time.
The tofu that is inseparable from the table Chinese was pioneered by Liu An, the king of Huainan in the Western Han Dynasty, and has a history of more than 2,000 years. Legend has it that Zheng He went to the West, soybeans are an essential ingredient, and the crew used soybean raw bean sprouts to make vegetables, which not only supplemented vitamin C, but also prevented sepsis. Soybeans can be processed into tofu, humus, soy milk, soybean flour and other kinds of soy products, but also can process soybean oil, soybean meal, soybean protein, widely used in food, medicine, chemical and other fields, Brazil, the United States and other major soybean producing countries and even use soybean processing biodiesel. Vegetarian beef jerky, hand-torn vegetarian meat, protein jerky and other leisure vegetarian products processed with soy protein as the main raw material are increasingly sought after by the market. "Soybeans have become a key product to meet the needs of people's better life, and the development of the soybean industry is of great significance to ensuring the safety of grain, oil and oilseeds on the mainland." Si Wei said.
In Beidahuang Green Health Food Co., Ltd., located in Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province, soy milk powder, soy milk and other products are fully automated in production and packaging. Wu Hao, a reporter from the Economic Daily, took a photo
The use of soybeans is mainly divided into edible and oily uses. After the "soybean crisis" from 2003 to 2004, imported soybeans basically monopolized the soybean oil and feed soybean meal market, squeezing domestic soybeans out of the mainstream market, and domestic soybeans have since focused more on the edible soybean market.
After a long period of dislocation competition, the mainland has gradually formed two relatively independent markets for domestic non-GMO soybeans and imported genetically modified soybeans, domestic soybeans are mainly edible, and imported soybeans are mainly used to process oil and feed soybean meal, and the two are also alternative to each other. Han Zhongjun, general manager of Heilongjiang Jiansanjiang Longxinda Grain Trading Company, has been engaged in domestic soybean trade for more than 20 years and is a witness to the rise and fall of domestic soybeans. What worries Han Zhongjun is that since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the price of domestic soybeans has continued to rise, the price has risen from 3500 yuan per ton before the epidemic to more than 6000 yuan now, and some food processing enterprises may purchase low-cost imported soybeans to replace domestic soybeans in order to reduce production costs, which will further compress the domestic soybean market space.
Not only that, in recent years, the mainland has also begun to import non-GMO soybeans. In order to solve the problem of too single source and variety of soybean imports, the mainland has gradually built a diversified pattern of soybean imports, in addition to importing genetically modified soybeans from Brazil, the United States, Argentina and other countries, it also imports non-genetically modified soybeans from Russia, Ethiopia and other countries, and the market space for domestic soybeans has been further compressed. However, from the current point of view, non-GMO soybean imports are small, and the impact on domestic soybeans is limited for the time being.
Some people believe that the edible soybean market is the "last bastion" of domestic soybeans, and in order to hold the "fortress", it is necessary to make hard efforts. From the perspective of the world market, soybeans are divided into non-GMO soybeans and genetically modified soybeans, and the competition between the two is inevitable. Can domestic soybeans win the competition with imported soybeans? With the increasing number of genetically modified soybeans in the world, non-genetically modified soybeans have become more and more scarce and have received more and more attention from the international market. At present, the mainland is the world's largest non-GMO soybean producer and consumer, "domestic soybeans should aim at the international and domestic food markets, give play to the competitive advantages of non-GMO soybeans, and form a pattern of dislocation competition and complementarity with genetically modified soybeans, which is of great strategic significance for ensuring the mainland's food and nutrition safety, food safety, farmland safety, environmental protection and safety, and Chinese soybean brand safety." Liu Xiqian, chairman of Shandong Yuwang Group, said.
Non-GMO soybean raw materials are a competitive advantage for mainland food processing companies. According to the mainland's relevant administrative measures for the safety of agricultural genetically modified organisms, the import of genetically modified soybeans is prohibited from entering the food field directly, and genetically modified labeling management is implemented for some commodities such as seeds, soybeans, soybean flour, soybean oil, soybean meal, etc., but soy sauce, soy milk, soy milk, tofu and other commodities have not been included in the management of genetic modification labeling. It is worth noting that the mainland now allows the labeling of "genetically modified" and not the labeling of "non-genetically modified". However, the reporter saw in some supermarkets in Beijing that many products will be labeled "non-GMO soybeans" when labeling raw materials, and most consumers will take "non-GMO soybeans" as an important criterion for purchase.
Soybean seeds exhibited in the Crop Germplasm Resource Bank in Heilongjiang Coldland. Photo by Zhang Tao (Xinhua News Agency)
To improve the competitiveness of domestic soybeans, it is also necessary to establish an independent price formation mechanism for domestic soybeans to enhance market discourse. At present, the pricing of the global genetically modified soybean import and export market is mainly based on the pricing benchmark of the soybean price of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) in the United States, and the mainland has not yet formed an independent pricing system for non-GMO soybeans, and the price of domestic soybean futures has been following the price of the Chicago futures market in the United States. In 2002, the Dalian Commodity Exchange split and listed soybean No. 1 non-GMO edible soybean and soybean No. 2 genetically modified oil soybean, providing the global market with the price information of high-quality high-protein soybeans in the mainland, and the domestic soybean futures prices gradually got rid of the impact of the soybean futures prices of the Chicago Exchange in the United States, and the correlation between soybeans at home and abroad gradually weakened, and began to show an independent market situation.
In recent years, the Dalian Commodity Exchange has successively launched commodity swaps, basis trading, standard warehouse receipts and non-standard warehouse receipt trading around soybean varieties, creating a good environment for the mainland to form an independent non-GMO soybean pricing system. At present, the soybean No. 1 futures listed by Dashang with non-GMO soybeans as the trading target have become the world's largest non-GMO soybean futures market, and also have the conditions to provide pricing and risk management services for global investors. "The mainland should accelerate the construction of the non-GMO soybean futures market, build a relatively fair and just non-GMO soybean import and trading mechanism, give full play to its role in spot and medium- and long-term trading of non-GMO soybean products, actively integrate into the non-GMO soybean market pricing system, and improve the mainland's pricing discourse on non-GMO soybeans." Wang Yufei, deputy general manager of Dalian Commodity Exchange, said.
Overcome the key variables that restrict the increase in production
At present, during the field management period of the modern agricultural machinery service professional cooperative in Haibei Town, Hailun City, Heilongjiang, a drone is spraying foliar fertilizer on soybeans. Du Zhentao, chairman of the cooperative, told reporters that this year's corn and soybean rotation, the cooperative's 20,000 mu of arable land are all planted with high-quality and high-yield soybean varieties such as five beans 199 and Dongsheng 23, and the growth of soybeans is gratifying. Last year, the yield of soybeans in individual good plots was close to 250 kilograms, which was much higher than the level of 132.4 kilograms of soybeans per mu in 2020.
Heilongjiang Province, Hailun City, known as "China's high-quality soybean town", the picture shows the soybean planting plot in the National Modern Agricultural Industrial Park in Hailun City. Wu Hao, a reporter from the Economic Daily, took a photo
Cultivated land resources are limited, and under the premise of stabilizing the sown area of grain, the space for expanding soybeans is even more limited. In order to implement the deployment of the PARTY Central Committee and the State Council, since the beginning of this year, all localities have taken the expansion of soybeans as an important task to ensure food security, and strived to overcome difficulties in expanding the planting area. In the spring soybean producing areas of Northeast China, by reasonably determining the subsidy difference between corn and soybean producers and reasonably balancing the income gap, guiding farmers to promote reasonable crop rotation, expanding the scale of arable land rotation, and establishing a basic crop rotation system such as "corn + soybean" and "corn + soybean + cash crops" to expand the soybean planting area. Focus on promoting "water to drought, rice to beans" in groundwater over-exploitation areas, low-quality and inefficient and well-irrigated rice areas, and implement "corn to soybean" in the fourth and fifth temperate zones of Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia.
Limited arable land and low yield levels are two key variables constraining the increase in soybean yields. The reporter learned in the interview that all localities expanded the area, raised the yield, continued to improve the comprehensive production capacity of soybeans, and dug deep into the potential of soybean production. According to the latest information from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, this year's soybean expansion has achieved remarkable results, and the implementation of soybean and corn strip compound planting area of more than 15 million mu is expected, and the soybean area is expected to increase more.
Corn and soybeans are the most ideal rotation "partners", and the rhizobia in the roots of soybeans can improve soil fertility and promote corn yield. Farmers compare the benefits between the two and choose to grow crops with higher yields. This year, under the guidance of the state subsidy policy, the enthusiasm of farmers to implement corn and soybean rotation has increased significantly. Bian Shujun, a villager in Ping'an Village, Changting Town, Hailin, Heilongjiang, chose to continue planting corn, while Niu Xiuguang of Wudaogou Village, Gongji Township, Huadian City, Jilin Province, chose to rotate soybeans. "This year," the national soybean subsidy is large, and the income from planting soybeans and planting corn is similar, and farmers in our village basically choose to rotate soybeans." Niu Xiuguang said.
Corn and soybean land competition is an unavoidable real problem. Vigorously promoting the belt composite planting of corn and soybeans is the key to determining the success or failure of soybean area recovery, and is an important means to stabilize grain, tap potential and ensure supply. This year, the northwest, Huanghuaihai, southwest and middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the northwest of the mainland will promote the compatible development of soybean and corn through the promotion of new models such as strip compound planting, excavate the increase in soybean area, and achieve basically no reduction in corn production, while harvesting an extra crop of beans. Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and other southwest regions are known for the tradition of soybean and corn strip compound planting. Li Xiangde, chairman of the Good Taste Rice Professional Cooperative in Meishan City, Sichuan Province, told reporters that this year, the cooperative promoted the compound planting of soybeans and corn for 1,000 mu, and the difficulty lies in the fact that the agricultural machinery and equipment suitable for this planting mode are not yet mature, and it is difficult to weed. Soybean and corn seedlings are different in height and short, the leaf shape is different, the soybean leaves are round, the corn leaves are long, the existing plant protection machine can not complete the one-time spraying, and spraying separately will greatly increase the production cost.
Some agricultural mechanization experts believe that it is very important to promote the mechanized and efficient production of soybean and corn strip composite planting, and all localities should choose a typical soybean and corn compound planting mode suitable for mechanized production according to local conditions, determine the mechanized production technology route, and coordinate and promote the integrated operation of mechanized farming, planting, pipe and harvest. The multi-cropping of soybean and corn with strip segmentation and dislocation of high and low has high requirements for agricultural machinery and equipment, and it is necessary to accelerate the research and development and production of special machinery, especially plant protection machinery, to provide mechanical support for corn strip composite planting.
Large harvesters are scrambling to harvest a bumper soybean. Photo by Xu Yingxian (Zhongjing Vision)
The low level of soybean yields is an important factor in the weak position of mainland soybeans in competition with imported soybeans. Since the founding of New China, soybeans have achieved many variety changes, and the average yield per mu has increased from 40.8 kg in 1949 to 132.4 kg in 2020, but there is still a gap compared with the yields of major soybean producing countries such as Brazil, the United States and Argentina. In 2021, the average yield of soybeans on the mainland was 130 kg per mu, lower than Argentina's 187.33 kg that year, and far lower than the level of 230.67 kg in the United States and 236.67 kg in Brazil that year. "The lack of scientific and technological innovation is an important reason why the mainland soybean production lags behind that of the main soybean producing countries and domestic staple grain crops." Han Tianfu, chief scientist of the national soybean industry technology system, said.
Germplasm resources are the basis of breeding, and there is no way to improve varieties without germplasm resources. Walking into the National Crop Germplasm Resource Bank of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, seeds enter the warehouse at minus 18 degrees Celsius through the robot roller conveyor line. In the cold storage, dense blue seed boxes are filled with seed shelves, and 41,000 soybean germplasm resources are "hibernated" here. Xin Xia, a researcher at the National Crop Germplasm Resource Bank, introduced that the mainland is the country of origin of soybeans, which preserves the world's most soybean germplasm resources. Among them, there are 31,000 parts of cultivated soybean germplasm resources and 10,000 parts of wild soybean germplasm resources.
As the saying goes, a good child should be a good wife, and a good seed should be more grain. Seeds are agricultural "chips". Cultivating excellent varieties with independent intellectual property rights can ensure national food security from the source. Data from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences show that during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the varieties used in soybean production in the mainland maintained 100% localization, the coverage rate of fine seeds was more than 98%, and varieties such as "Henong 95", "Black Farmer 84", "Suinong 44" and "Qihuang 34" were successfully selected and promoted.
However, the low degree of industrialization of soybean breeding restricts the promotion of new varieties. Soybean seed enterprises are generally small and scattered, with weak profitability and lack of competitiveness. Jilin Province was once a famous soybean town and was known for its excellent quality. 10 years ago, there were 4 major soybean seed companies in Jilin Province, and with the shrinking of soybean planting area, 1 stopped soybean business, 1 filed for bankruptcy, and only 2 remained, of which 1 had a large part of its profits from potato seed potatoes. In recent years, as soybean area has recovered, the operations of the two soybean seed companies have improved. "The low operating profit margin of soybean seeds and the large fluctuations in seed market prices affect the enthusiasm of enterprises for breeding. Soybean seed companies have a low level of technology and insufficient ability to obtain original results. It is urgent to optimize the development environment of the seed industry and cultivate leading soybean seed enterprises with market competitiveness. Zhang Wei, director of the Soybean Institute of the Jilin Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said.
The construction of seed bases is also an important area for the soybean seed industry. Heilongjiang Province is an important soybean seed and commodity soybean production base in the mainland. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and relevant departments jointly promote the construction of heilongjiang national soybean seed base. Up to now, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has identified 18 national-level soybean seed counties and regional fine seed breeding bases. In 2022, the central government will arrange 250 million yuan of incentive funds for large soybean seed counties to support the construction of 15 national soybean seed counties and regional fine seed breeding bases, and further improve the production and supply guarantee capabilities of soybean seeds.
Farmer's proverb: There is no good way to plant a good seed, and the result is also in vain. The good seed method must be matched, and the supporting method can produce high yield. The yield level of soybeans in mainland China is not only the gap between the varieties themselves, but also because the planting technology, large-scale farming, and the degree of mechanization are relatively backward, resulting in the inability of fine seeds to achieve high yields. Fine seeds must also be organically combined with good methods in order to exert the potential of increasing production. How to accelerate the application of the developed seeds to the field? Song Hongyuan, dean of the Rural Revitalization Research Institute of Huazhong Agricultural University, suggested that a "seed method integration" soybean breeding and promotion system should be built, and governments and technical groups at all levels should be guided to upgrade the past concept of "good seeds and good methods" to the concept of "organic integration of good seeds and good methods", so as to promote scientific and technological workers to naturally introduce appropriate planting methods and technologies when developing and promoting good seeds, and support suitable promotion varieties when developing and promoting good methods.
Good policies open up "reassuring pills" for seed expansion
"Now that soybean prices are high and the yield is good, our cooperative has expanded the soybean planting area from 1,000 mu to 2,000 mu this year." This year's soybean production subsidies are large, the planting income is guaranteed, I just need to plant soybeans with peace of mind. Heilongjiang Qiqihar City Keshan County Xianghua Township Happiness Village big grain grower Cui Baozhu said.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the price of domestic soybeans has continued to rise, and the originally worthless soybeans have become real "golden beans", allowing Cui Baozhu to obtain good returns. Coupled with the soybean planting subsidies, soybean corn rotation subsidies, fine seed subsidies, and agricultural subsidies issued by the Heilongjiang Provincial Government, the subsidies for high-yield technology for soybean dense planting issued by the Heilongjiang Provincial Government and the fishy soybean planting subsidies issued by Keshan County, it is expected that the total subsidy per mu of land will be more than 500 yuan. More importantly, before the beginning of spring this year, Cui Baozhu signed a soybean order with a local company to plant high-quality soybeans without fishy taste, and the company bought at a price higher than 0.15 yuan per kilogram of ordinary soybeans, which can lock in the income in advance and charge more than 100 yuan per mu of land. He also participated in soybean production cost insurance, and has a national policy to make a steady profit even if it encounters natural disasters and market risks.
"My home is on the Songhua River in the northeast, where there are forest coal mines, and there are soybean sorghum that spreads over the mountains..." The soybean sorghum that spreads over the mountains is a unique memory of northeasterners. In recent years, the soybean planting area on the mainland has shrunk significantly, and the main soybean-producing areas have shifted to the northeast. "The soybean area and yield in the northeast region such as Heilongjiang account for about 60% of the country, which is crucial to achieving the goal of expanding soybeans." It is necessary to give full play to its own advantages, accelerate the recovery and increase of soybean sowing area, and strive to make greater contributions to the expansion of soybeans throughout the country. Hu Chunhua, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and vice premier of the State Council, stressed in May when he supervised the expansion of soybeans in Heihe City, Heilongjiang Province.
In the northeast region, the main soybean production areas have shifted to the alpine areas, Heilongjiang has become the largest soybean sown area and the largest soybean production base with the largest total output in the country, and the sown area and output account for more than 40% of the national soybean sown area and output, and the role of "ballast stone" is becoming more and more prominent. From the perspective of arable land resources, farmers' production scale and climatic conditions, Heilongjiang is suitable for growing soybeans and is also the area with the most development potential in the country. In 2020, the soybean sown area reached more than 70 million mu, however, affected by the improvement of the comparative benefit of corn, the soybean planting area in Heilongjiang decreased by 13 million mu in 2021, which is also the province with the largest reduction in soybean planting area in the country. This year, Heilongjiang implemented the soybean production capacity improvement project to restore the soybean planting area, and the province plans to plant 68.5 million mu of soybeans, an increase of more than 10 million mu over last year.
Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group Company Wudalianchi Farm Co., Ltd. conducts medium-tillage operations on soybean crops. Photo by Lu Wenxiang (Zhongjing Vision)
Who is responsible for expanding soybeans? Of course, it is the farmer, but whether the farmer is motivated to grow soybeans depends on the planting income. In order to let soybean farmers have money to earn and benefit, this year the state has increased subsidies for soybean production, including soybean planting subsidies, fine seed subsidies, corn and soybean rotation subsidies, soybean and corn strip compound planting subsidies, etc., to stimulate the potential of farmers to plant soybeans. In order to avoid agricultural subsidies from "eating a big pot of rice", the mainland has gradually explored the formation of a mechanism for linking agricultural subsidies with grain production, improved the accuracy of agricultural subsidies, effectively improved the scale, mechanization and intensification of grain production, and achieved cost reduction and efficiency increase.
In order to reduce the risk of soybean planting, on the basis of comprehensively promoting policy-based agricultural insurance, the state will carry out pilot projects of soybean full cost insurance and planting income insurance in 4 banner counties in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and 6 counties in Heilongjiang Province from 2022 to 2024, so that farmers' income from soybean cultivation can be guaranteed. This year, the Dalian Commodity Exchange has invested 36 million yuan to vigorously promote soybean income insurance and encourage farmers to expand soybeans, and has set up 14 soybean revitalization "insurance + futures" income insurance projects in 8 provinces and regions across the country, allowing growers to eat the "reassurance pill" of expanding soybeans. "The 'insurance + futures' project is a market-oriented guarantee means other than providing state subsidies for soybean planting, which increases the confidence of soybean expansion." Soybean farmers only need to buy an insurance to protect the price, when the market price is lower than the target price, the risk management subsidiary of the futures company hedges through the futures market, and the proceeds obtained are paid to the insured farmers. Wang Yufei said.
Subsidies to protect the capital, business efficiency. At present, the soybean commodity rate in Heilongjiang Province is as high as 80%, and the contradiction between production and marketing is prominent; The processing rate is low, and most areas only stay in the "selling soybeans" stage, and the contribution to the regional economy is low. In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of local governments to grasp soybeans and promote the development of the soybean industry in the direction of deep processing, it is necessary to consider the development of the soybean industry with rural revitalization and regional economic development as a whole.
Qiqihar City broke through the problem from "peasant head and tail" and "grain head and tail", promoted the construction of the soybean industry chain supply chain, and transformed from "selling soybeans" to "selling products". On the one hand, in order to expand the supply of soybeans and promote the construction of soybean production bases around the needs of processing enterprises, the soybean planting area this year was 13.8 million mu, an increase of 3.91 million mu over last year; On the other hand, the processing of soybeans to raise prices, the city gathered local enterprises such as Blue Ocean Biology, Nehe Shengdeli and other oil enterprises and Kedong curd milk, Mill Mountain Milk Powder and other specialty food enterprises, the introduction of Shandong Yuwang, Yihai Kerry, Huayuan soybeans, Shansong Biological and a number of leading enterprises, to promote the development of soybean processing in the direction of depth, enhance the added value of soybeans. For example, the price of non-fishy soybeans is more than 8,000 yuan per ton, processed into protein bean flour of 15,000 yuan per ton, and then made into soybean protein products, the price per ton is as high as about 100,000 yuan. "At present, the annual processing capacity of soybeans in our city is 1 million tons, and the actual processing capacity of 220,000 tons last year has been significantly improved, and there is no difficulty in soybean sales." Mao Shujie, head of the industrial development section of the Qiqihar Grain Bureau, said.
In the Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group Bei'an Branch to build a farm agricultural science and technology park, a ridge of soybeans stretches straight into the distance. Zhou Zhigang, director of the Agricultural Science and Technology Service Center of the construction farm, told reporters that this is the first soybean planted on the basis of the 1.1-meter ridge, using the "three-line dense planting technology on the ridge", and the middle row of soybeans is compared with the two rows next to it, and the number of plants is reduced by 50%, which is conducive to ventilation and light transmission. Compared with the traditional planting method of single ridge and single row, soybean "big ridge dense" planting can effectively improve yield. Beidahuang Agricultural Reclamation Group plans to sow more than 12.3 million mu of soybeans this year, and expand the planting area to more than 2.3 million mu.
The soybean planting plot of the Beidahuang Group Bei'an Branch to build the farm agricultural science and technology park adopts the cultivation technology of "big ridge dense". Wu Hao, a reporter from the Economic Daily, took a photo
The Agricultural Reclamation Group is an important force that the state can grasp and use at a critical moment. The mainland is rich in agricultural reclamation land resources and has a high commodity rate of agricultural products, and is the "national team" that guarantees national food security and the effective supply of important agricultural products. In this year's soybean expansion action, the national agricultural reclamation plan took the lead in expanding more than 14.6 million mu of soybeans; Promote the extension of socialized services to the outside of the reclamation area, produce more than 1.2 million mu of managed soybeans, and expect to increase the yield by more than 10%. "The agricultural reclamation takes the lead in expanding soybeans with many advantages of large scale and high level of agricultural mechanization, and can give full play to the advantages of scale, modernization and industrialization, and play a national team role in ensuring national food security and the effective supply of important agricultural products." Zhong Yu said.
Under the condition that the mainland edible soybean market is basically saturated, the contradiction between soybean production and marketing is prominent, and the problem of difficult sales often occurs. In view of this year's national soybean expansion plan, China Grain Storage actively plans the reserve layout of the "three provinces and one region" of domestic soybeans in the northeast, rationally formulates storage construction plans, improves the structure of the acquisition network in advance, and prevents the problem of farmers selling beans. As the main force serving the national grain macro-control, China Grain Storage implemented soybean temporary storage and purchase in three northeastern provinces and one district from 2008 to 2013; After the state canceled the temporary reserve purchase in 2014, China Grain Storage still purchased soybeans through the rotation of the central reserve soybean. Up to now, China Grain Storage has purchased about 6 million tons of soybeans. "The purchase of soybeans by China Grain Storage has played a strong support for the price of domestic soybeans and effectively protected the interests of soybean farmers." Zhang Guoqiang, deputy general manager of China Grain Storage Oil and Fat Company, said.
The prosperity of the industry also needs to be led by enterprises
Wet beads grind snow wet, refined into agar pulp up plain clothes. Out of the box Ning sorrow fang bi bi shattered, worry soup common white cloud flying. In the production workshop of Yuwang Group in Yucheng City, Shandong Province, grains of soybeans undergo the pain of crushing and extraction, and are transformed into primary processed products such as tofu, soybean oil, tofu bamboo, bean skin, edible soybean meal, as well as deep processing products such as soybean protein concentrate, soybean protein isolate protein concentrate phospholipid, soybean oil fatty acids, soybean trypsin, etc., to fully meet people's needs for a better life.
Founded in the early stage of reform and opening up, Shandong Yuwang Group aims at the field of soybean food, mainly focuses on the deep processing of soybeans, deeply cultivates the whole industrial chain of "China Soybean", establishes the world's largest non-GMO soybean protein food and its raw material processing base, and actively participates in the formulation of national standards such as low-temperature edible soybean meal, edible soybean meal, soybean food industry soybean, soybean oil, soybean protein concentrate, soybean dietary fiber and so on. While meeting domestic demand, Yuwang has continuously expanded the international market, and also exported to more than 20 countries such as Britain, France, the Czech Republic, and Russia, making positive efforts for the initial establishment of the "Chinese soybean" international brand, making important contributions to the internationalization of domestic soybean processing enterprises and driving "Chinese soybeans" to regain pricing power.
The transformation of domestic soybean processing enterprises from the field of soybean crushing to the field of food and going to the world is a successful practice of differentiated competition.
In the 1990s, the United States ADM entered the mainland layout of the oil and fat industry, established the first wholly-owned subsidiary in Dalian in 1995, and began to enter the domestic market on a large scale in 2000, transferring the US soybean crushing business to the mainland. After the mainland joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, foreign-funded enterprises began to pour in to participate in market competition. After the "soybean crisis" from 2003 to 2004, foreign companies formed a dominant trend in the field of oil processing.
The people take food as the sky, and cooking oil is a necessity of life and is indispensable for a day. Soybean oil is the main edible vegetable oil in mainland China. In the past, foreign-funded enterprises held the pricing power of oilseeds, domestic edible oil prices continued to rise, and the state's macro-control had little effect. In this situation, a number of large state-owned or state-controlled enterprises such as COFCO, COFCO, and Beidahuang have advanced into the field of oil and fat, forming an important force to compete with foreign-funded enterprises, and playing a positive role in the stability of the domestic edible oil market. "After fierce competition, the current domestic soybean oil and fat field has formed a pattern of state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign capital, the majority of consumers have benefited from sufficient supply and competition, and domestic oil companies have developed and grown in learning and competition from foreign capital." Si Wei said.
In the packaging workshop of Jiusan Food Co., Ltd. in Harbin, a smart robotic arm is packaging Jiusan soybean oil. Wu Hao, a reporter from the Economic Daily, took a photo
A number of industry insiders said that the soybean crisis has had a broad and profound impact on the domestic soybean industry, promoting the gradual internationalization of domestic soybean crushing enterprises, integrating with the international product pricing system, learning from the advanced management technology, business model and crushing mode of foreign-funded enterprises, and realizing the transformation from traditional extensive production to modern refined production methods. The technical equipment manufacturing level of the mainland soybean crushing industry has reached the international advanced level, and the equipment of domestic soybean crushing enterprises in the past mainly relied on imports, and now they can be manufactured domestically.
Competition for the survival of the fittest is inevitable, and homogeneous competition will make domestic soybean processing enterprises face extreme difficulties. After nearly 20 years of exploration, a number of domestic soybean processing enterprises such as Jiusan Oil, Yuwang, Eight Flags Grain and Oil, Dongxue Biological, and Colorful Agriculture have shifted from the oil and fat field to the food processing field, and have become an important force driving the revitalization of domestic soybeans. At present, China has rebuilt a relatively complete domestic soybean processing system such as soybean food, protein, soy sauce meal, and oil. However, most of the domestic soybean processing enterprises are still small, scattered and weak, and their competitiveness is generally not strong. In the past two years, due to the continuous impact of the epidemic, the price of domestic soybeans has risen rapidly, the downstream demand has been sluggish, enterprises have been unable to produce at full capacity, production and processing costs have increased, and enterprise operations have faced many difficulties.
Liu Xiqian believes that the revitalization of the domestic soybean industry has a long way to go, and it is urgent to have a more scientific, more in-depth and more layered industrial strategic planning, continuously meet the nutritional consumption needs of the Chinese people, make the modern soybean food industry bigger and stronger, and build a soybean industry chain with international competitiveness. Vigorously guide and support the soy milk and other deep processing product industries, continue to drive the upgrading of the whole soybean industry chain through high value-added products, and create a new engine to promote the development of the domestic soybean industry.
Soybean is a high degree of internationalization of the mainland agricultural products, the country of origin of production, policies, natural disasters and other factors will trigger the butterfly effect, in the century epidemic and a century of changes, the risks faced by the soybean industry chain supply chain are magnified, how to use the futures market to avoid risks has become a compulsory course for domestic soybean enterprises. "We will actively use the futures market to avoid market risks." Liu Xiqian said.
Increasing soybean production capacity also requires multi-party efforts
In the past 20 years, domestic soybeans have been chasing and blocking the conversion runway under the siege of imported soybeans, breaking a new ground in the food field. However, domestic soybeans need to be revitalized in many ways.
Continuously improve the soybean subsidy policy and give play to the leverage of the subsidy policy. The low yield of soybean planting and the low willingness of farmers to plant are the main factors restricting the expansion of soybean seeds. This year, the state has increased subsidies for soybean production and mobilized farmers' enthusiasm for planting soybeans. Some farmers are worried that although the soybean subsidy is large, the price of soybeans fluctuates too much, and the planting income is difficult to guarantee; Some farmers believe that the production cost of corn and soybean strip compound planting is high, and the existing subsidies are not enough to hedge the production costs paid. Some farmers believe that the subsidy policy fluctuates greatly and changes every year, resulting in great fluctuations in soybean planting area.
Zhong Yu suggested that the mainland should maintain the stability and continuity of the soybean subsidy policy, improve the level of soybean subsidies, comprehensively make good use of the agricultural subsidy policy, establish a subsidy linkage mechanism for soybeans and corn and other crops, balance the comparative benefits of competitive crops such as soybeans and corn through differentiated subsidies, and ensure that farmers' income from planting soybeans is not lower than that of planting other food crops. Guo Hengwu, general manager of Jilin Brilliant Agricultural Product Development Co., Ltd., suggested that the subsidy standard for soybean planting should be raised, so that the income from soybean planting is basically the same as that of corn, and the enthusiasm of farmers to plant soybeans should be effectively mobilized.
Li Xiangde believes that the current agricultural subsidies emphasize precision, and more inclined to new agricultural business entities such as cooperatives, family farms, and leading enterprises, ignoring the interests of small farmers and unable to mobilize the enthusiasm of small farmers to carry out grain and bean rotation and corn and soybean compound planting. He suggested that while the agricultural subsidy policy is inclined to the new agricultural business entities, it should also take into account the interests of small farmers.
To revitalize China's soybean industry, the key is to improve the competitiveness of domestic soybeans. In view of the problem of low yield and weak competitiveness of domestic soybeans, Si Wei suggested that the state should continue to increase investment in domestic soybean research and development, form a systematic soybean science and technology innovation support system, and optimize and enhance institutional mechanisms such as multidisciplinary cooperation, R&D resource integration and talent utilization; It is necessary to plan step by step and scientifically, concentrate resources to give priority to solving the "stuck neck" problem of mainland soybeans in breeding, processing, machinery and equipment, form a list of key technologies, strengthen germplasm resource identification, excellent gene mining and transgenic, gene editing and other cutting-edge technology research, and consolidate the foundation for domestic soybean scientific and technological self-improvement; It is necessary to build a group of science and technology enterprise consortiums led by leading enterprises in the industry and jointly formed by colleges and universities, scientific research institutions, etc., to build an innovative model of deep integration of production, education and research, and form the "source of living water" for the development of soybean science and technology.
Explore a new path for the development of the soybean industry under the "big food concept". From the perspective of nutrition, the market prospect of soy protein food is very broad. Si Wei suggested that it is necessary to increase support for soybean deep processing enterprises, especially the soybean food processing industry, and encourage enterprises to carry out scientific and technological innovation and equipment upgrading through capital investment and policy support; Strengthen the docking and cooperation between enterprises and the government, enterprises and universities and research institutions, form a whole industry chain model of "soybean breeding - planting - processing and manufacturing - terminal food and sales", develop new soybean foods and high value-added deep processing products such as plant meat, fermented sour soy milk and functional soy milk (powder), enhance the value of soybean products and the overall income of the soybean industry, and develop soybean resources in an all-round and multi-way manner. It is necessary to use the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" and "National Nutrition Week" and other channels to publicize the nutritional value of soybeans, guide residents to rationally consume livestock and poultry products, promote the consumption of plant protein, and improve the utilization rate of soybean protein and the level of self-sufficiency in mainland food protein.
Create the "China Soybean" brand and maintain the international competitiveness of domestic soybeans. Liu Xiqian believes that the revitalization of the domestic soybean industry should be based on giving full play to the advantages of non-GMO soybeans and taking a different path from GM soybeans. "China Soybean" is our natural and irreplaceable brand advantage in the world, and it is a scarce and strategically positioned high-quality resource. It is necessary to build an international brand of "China Soybeans" and protect the "non-GMO" purity of "Chinese Soybeans" in order to make "Chinese Soybeans" competitive in the market environment where non-GMO and GMOs compete on the same stage. It is necessary to establish an exclusive base for non-GMO soybeans in the northeast region to form an efficient ecological supply chain and preserve the "last pure land"; Vigorously develop non-GMO breeding and breeding, and create a "chip" for China's soybean industry; Vigorously develop the non-GMO soybean industry, so that the non-GMO soybean upstream and downstream related industries, around the brand advantage of non-GMO soybean scarcity, in the high-end market of soybean food, improve the competitiveness of the entire industrial chain, increase the premium of non-GMO, improve the income of soybean farmers who grow "non-GMO" soybeans, and form a virtuous circle in the market. Improve the strength and accuracy of transgenic testing of raw materials that are not owned by the base, and eliminate the mixing of GMOs.
Beidahuang Group's large locomotive group rushed to harvest a bumper harvest of soybeans. Photo by Xu Yingxian (Zhongjing Vision)
Gradually establish non-GMO soybean pricing power in the international market. As the world's largest producer and consumer of non-GMO soybeans, the mainland currently lacks the right to speak and pricing power in the international market. Tang Qijun, executive chairman of the China Soybean Industry Association, suggested that the revitalization of domestic soybeans must have an international mindset. The mainland should turn "China's demand" into the advantages of the soybean industry development, in the case of the four major multinational grain merchants to grasp the world's soybean pricing power and discourse power, actively go out, and constantly open up the source of soybean imports, in addition to importing genetically modified soybeans from Brazil, the United States, Argentina, should also encourage and support domestic soybean processing enterprises to go out, grow non-GMO soybeans in Russia and other countries, take advantage of the mainland is the world's largest non-GMO soybean producer, and promote the establishment of a sound market system.
After the rebirth of domestic soybeans, it will eventually usher in the spring of development.
Source: Economic Daily Official