Beijing News (reporter Tian Jiexiong) The lotus root sales season in Honghu City, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, runs from autumn to spring, throughout the year's temperature trough. During the lotus root market, the lotus farmers in Honghu Lake soaked in the lake water for several hours is their normal work, affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, in the early 2020, the lotus farmers no longer soaked in the water, but spent the trough in their hearts that they had never experienced before. In the two sales months missed, mature lotus root cooperatives and companies, through the e-commerce platform, may be able to restart in the action of the whole people to bring goods for Hubei, but the lotus farmers who have always relied on offline buyers and merchants to purchase, in the face of price pressure, some can only watch the lotus root rot in the mud pond. However, there is also good news, the Beijing News reporter learned from the Honghu Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs that the price of lotus roots in Honghu Lake this year has dropped by nearly one-third compared with previous years, and as of now there are only 400 tons of lotus roots left for sale, which is expected to be sold out this week.
As of this month, the lotus root season in Honghu Lake is nearing its end. Courtesy of respondents
After unsealing, Honghu Lotus Root online sales are busy
After the 80s, Yang Jing, a lotus farmer, has a 200-acre lotus pond in Zhoufang Village, Wulin Town, Honghu Lake, and produces about 2,000 catties of green mud lotus roots in Honghu Lake. From returning to his hometown in 2008 to become a lotus farmer, every year from the Mid-Autumn Festival to the lotus root season in March of the following year, the online platform has always been Yang Jing's sales "battlefield", he has created a record of selling hundreds of thousands of pounds of lotus root in a single month, during the epidemic period, many customers have asked Yang Jing's delivery time through e-commerce and WeChat.
"85% of the sales have been sold before the Spring Festival this year, and after the honghu lake was unsealed on March 20, the sales of this season basically belonged to the end." Yang Jing said that in this week, all the lotus roots planted by herself will be sold out online. For lotus farmers with relatively stable sales channels and relatively stable quality, the impact of the epidemic is mostly due to the additional manpower and rent costs that lotus farmers need to pay during the unsealing period. Yang Jing mentioned that during the Honghu blockade, she needed to pay workers a minimum living guarantee wage and office rent every month, "about 200,000." ”
Yang Jing's lotus root is expected to sell out this week. Courtesy of respondents
Also in Wulin Town, Yu Qian's lotus pond area is larger, there are 1,000 acres, sales channels not only open up online, offline supermarkets and restaurants, for him, is also an important lotus root sales direction, just sold to the restaurant lotus root, accounting for 30%-40% of the total annual sales of lotus root.
However, compared with the sales volume of e-commerce platforms, the offline slump is very obvious. "Take this channel of the restaurant, because the business of the restaurant will be very good in the first month of each year, and their use of lotus root is quite large, as a supplier, we never worry about selling." But this year, by now, many restaurants have not yet opened their doors, and even if they are open, the amount of use is very small. ”
Yu Qian can almost feel the double heaven of ice and fire online and offline, and now including Taobao, Jingdong, Pinduoduo and other platforms, his daily shipments can reach about 8,000 pounds - 10,000 pounds.
After the honghu lake was unsealed on March 20, Yu Qian could sell 8,000-10,000 catties of lotus roots per day. Courtesy of respondents
"In general, the epidemic has an impact, but it has not hurt the fundamentals." Of course, this is only for farmers like me. Yu Qian and Yang Jing's experience is similar, if the specific loss, but only because of the labor expenses during the blockade period, and simply because of the lotus root and the loss caused, in fact, it is not large, "after all, before the Lunar New Year, 70% or 80% of my cost has been sold." ”
"Smallholder farmers deserve more attention"
"But every farmer's situation is different." Yu Qian and Yang Jing both mentioned to the Beijing News reporter that the situation of individual farmers and small-scale cooperatives is probably not optimistic.
In addition to participating in the cultivation of lotus roots, Yu Qian is also the head of Honghu Qianchengduo Trading Co., Ltd., and the trading company focuses more on the sales of crops, which is considered to have realized the integration of planting and marketing. Like Yang Jing, in addition to selling lotus roots from her own 1,000 acres of lotus ponds every year, Yu Qian can generally assist some ordinary lotus farmers to sell lotus roots during the sales season in February and March of previous years. "But this year we're just going to sell our own lotus roots, unlike in previous years, we can use February and March to help others." So what about these lotus farmers? ”
In Honghu Lake, Hubei Province, the planting area of lotus roots of individual lotus farmers is only one pond. "Generally around a dozen or twenty acres." Yu Qian told reporters that not all lotus farmers can sell most lotus roots before the Lunar New Year, and if these individual farmers and cooperatives have not contacted the buyers before, and simply use offline acquisition as the only channel, then their losses will be more. "Moreover, under the influence of the epidemic, there are now prices on the market, including the price we sell ourselves, which are pressed to a very low price, and it is more difficult for individual farmers to sell their roots."
After Hubei unsealed, major media and e-commerce platforms are "bringing goods" for Hubei, and in early April, Zhang Yuanmei, member of the Standing Committee of the Jingzhou Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Honghu Municipal Party Committee of Hubei Province, also walked into the live broadcast room and personally "spoke" for the Honghu Lotus Root. According to public media reports, this live broadcast attracted more than 20 million netizens to watch, and sold 450,000 copies of Honghu Lotus Root. Since then, many Honghu sellers on e-commerce platforms have also followed the income. Yu Qian directly mentioned that when the whole country is bringing goods for Hubei, he is indeed positively affected, "because we are originally sold online, so it will be better." But I think the bigger question is, how to say it? If you only bring goods through e-commerce, your influence may be limited for farmers who really need help. ”
On April 1, the secretary of the Honghu Municipal Party Committee brought goods for the live broadcast of Honghu Lotus Root. Image source: Honghu posted the official Weibo
In Yu Qian's view, it is difficult for the light from e-commerce to radiate to individual farmers and ordinary cooperatives with more serious losses, "after all, they are more dependent on the buyers of the offline market and do not have the ability to directly dock with the e-commerce platform." ”
Merchants suppress prices and rot mud ponds
Pan Xinshan has his own family farm in Fengyuan Village, Laowan Hui Nationality Township, Honghu City, which Yu Qian said has always relied on individual farmers like offline buyers.
He told reporters that his lotus pond area is 60 acres, in addition to a small part sold before the Spring Festival, to this day, there are still 50%-60% of the lotus root is unsalable. For Pan Xinshan, an epidemic, "I have been greatly affected and lost a lot." ”
Including the two months when Honghu City had been in lockdown, Pan Xinshan was on the farm, waiting for the buyer to wait for the whole spring. "After the unsealing, the amount of purchases by the vendors is not much. Moreover, even if they are willing to collect it now, it is too late, and many of my family's lotus roots have already rotted. ”
Xu Hui, head of the Zhaogou Aquatic Vegetable Planting Professional Cooperative in Honghu City, started from his own experience and explained the reasons for the lack of buyers.
"Some merchants directly mentioned that he didn't want the goods in Hubei, so now he is facing many places where no one comes to collect them." Xu Hui told reporters that his lotus root planting area is 1,000 mu, and under the influence of the epidemic, the lack of merchants and workers has made Xu Hui almost give up the 1,000 mu of lotus pond. "Now it's like saying that all these lotuses are going to rot in the lotus pond, and the next production season will come, and we are already preparing."
Merchants who come to Honghu lake every year to buy lotus roots are Xu Hui's main sales channels. He mentioned that these days he has actually received many calls from merchants, "but the price is very low, it is better not to sell." If I want to sell it to them, I will have to take a lot of labor costs myself, so that the gain is not worth the loss. ”
Compared with Xu Hui and Pan Xinshan, the professional cooperative with rich aquatic vegetables in Lin Village, Daijiachang Town, Honghu City, is probably a blessing. Tang Lianglu, the person in charge, said that the cooperative's sales channels mainly rely on e-commerce and local vegetable farms, "after the traffic recovery, the sales situation is much better than we expected, the lotus root is not currently called slow to sell, the sales channel is OK." ”
Compared with the vegetables that lost more, Tang Lianglu was very pleased with the sale of lotus roots, and it is expected that all the lotus roots can be sold out in April. But in this sense, the sale is not to sell out the lotus root produced, but to sell the lotus root that is still intact and meets the selling standards, "There are indeed many lotus roots in the lotus pond that are rotten, and there is no way to miss the growth period." ”
Lotus root prices fell by nearly one-third from the same period in previous years
Yesterday, the reporter learned from the Honghu Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs that in the production season from 2019 to 2020, the entire area of commercial lotus planted in Honghu City is 120,000 mu, and about 21,000 people have been engaged in lotus root planting and production and processing industry in recent years. Under the influence of the epidemic, until March 10, a large number of lotus farmers and lotus diggers from other places returned to Honghu Lake, and the marketing and sales of lotus root mining and marketing were indeed relatively lagging behind.
But through the joint efforts of online and offline, and the whole country is bringing goods for Hubei, the Honghu Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has learned that as of this week, Honghu only has more than 400 tons of lotus roots to sell.
Zhang Xianzhong, director of the Vegetable Office of the Honghu Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said in an interview with the Beijing News reporter that farmers with a relatively small area of lotus roots in Honghu Lake can generally produce lotus roots that can be digested through the local market. Farmers with larger planting areas must have close ties with cooperatives. In addition, there are many large food processing enterprises in Honghu, which will buy lotus roots from small retail households with smaller planting scales for the processing of lotus root food.
But Zhang Xianzhong will also say bluntly that there will indeed be some lotus farmers who have difficulties in selling. "Although according to the geographical characteristics of our lake area, the vast majority of lotus roots will be sold before the Spring Festival, but a small number of them have been affected by the epidemic, during the Spring Festival and the later period, because the temporary inability to invite lotus digging workers, transport vehicles can not pass, may directly affect the production link." In this case, lotus farmers will also directly retain seeds and prepare for the next season of planting, so as to minimize losses. ”
Compared with this, Zhang Xianzhong mentioned that in fact, the greater difficulties and problems are that the sales price of lotus root this year is low, and there is indeed a situation of deliberately lowering. He directly said that because of the impact of the epidemic in Hubei, Hubei agricultural products may have been a little discriminated against in other places, "The most direct performance is that the lotus root of the same quality may be sold for 1.7 yuan per kilogram in the field, while the Honghu one may only be able to buy about 1.2 yuan, which is 3 to 4 cents lower than the same period in previous years." The price of 1.2 yuan per catty was given to the lotus farmers, which also included the purchase of workers and the labor money for carrying on the car.
Zhang Xianzhong did not shy away from it, he told reporters that local buyers and companies have thought of some ways, "for example, now that high-speed traffic is free, they will first pull the lotus root to other provinces, and then go to the destination from abroad, hoping that this method will make our lotus root get a fairer price." ”
The life of the lotus farmer is actually very bitter, and the lotus root season, from autumn to spring, actually includes the coldest months of the year. There are a few old sayings circulating among lotus farmers, saying, "Chili peppers swallow grain wine, and bitter people dig lotus roots." Someone else went to roast the fire, and I went to the lake. "Honghu Lotus Root is a Honghu specialty that has obtained the National Geographical Indication for Agricultural Products. The occupation chosen by the 21,000 people in Honghu Lake spends most of their time in the cold waters of the lake.
There are not many lotus roots waiting for sale in Honghu Lake, which also need to be supplied to the local market. But Zhang Xianzhong also said that he hopes to be able to use this to appeal to merchants to reduce discrimination against Honghu and Hubei agricultural products, "Our agricultural products are no problem, please rest assured to buy." ”
Beijing News reporter Tian Jiexiong
Edited by Tang Zheng Proofreader Liu Baoqing