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Media reported last weekend that pork prices had continued downwards for 10
days, falling to as low as less than 10 yuan ($1.54) per kg. The news shocked me
somewhat, for pork price hike was not a too distant memory for me. I searched
online information about the market and found that the prices had remained high
for more than a year.
Pork prices began to rise in May last year and the average price once
reached 21 yuan per kg while a certain kind of pork product peaked at 28 yuan.
The price stayed at around 20 yuan until August this year when it began to
fall.
As an urban consumer of farm produce, I certainly rejoice over the price
dive. Meanwhile, however, I am a little worried about pig farmers, especially
those individual raisers in the countryside. They began to raise more pigs last
year when the short supply triggered the price hike of pork. And it was exactly
because of their cutting down on pig-raising in the previous year that led to
the short supply last year. Now it is the time for them to reap the returns for
their last year's investment but the prices fell.
Price hikes trigger increases in pig-raising; more pigs cause the price to
descend, which leads to reduction in pig-raising, which in turn pushes up the
prices. The cycles continue endlessly. Economists tell us that this is the
market rule.
As a layman about economics, I certainly would not challenge this theory.
But I cannot help wondering if it is really justifiable and who are to blame for
the losses the individual farmers have suffered.
Pig-raisers are not the sole victims of such drastic price fluctuations.
People's Daily reported yesterday that farmers in Guizhou province had a bumper
harvest of tomato this year but the wholesale price was only 0.30 yuan ($0.05)
per kg. The retail price was 3.60 yuan in Beijing yesterday.
In the recent milk contamination scandal, cow farmers had to dump the milk
as dairy companies had dramatically reduced production. The farmers have become
the largest casualty in the scandal, second only to the children who had
contracted illness from drinking the malamine-adulterated milk.
In the whole production-marketing chain from farming to consumption,
farmers always bear the brunt whenever a disaster, whether natural or
artificial, occurs during the procedure. They are the most vulnerable to risks
but the least powerful when it comes to profit-sharing.
Take the milk production, again, for example. China's dairy industry grew
at an annual rate of more than 20 percent in the past 10 years. Sanlu, the
company at the core of the recent scandal, kept a 20 percent growth rate in its
pure profits in the past eight years. A cow farmer earns about 10,000 yuan a
year ($1,540) by raising a cow but the total cost of raising it is 9,000 yuan in
addition to the market value of the cow itself, which is about 13,000 yuan.
The gap between the profits is apparent.
As a social group, farmers obviously are the weakest sector in the
distribution of interests in society. As individuals, they are the least
powerful and have the smallest say in the market.
The situation must change. The most important thing is that they should
unite to establish "dairy farmers' association" or "pig-farmers' association" to
protect their rights. And there should be more State policies and rules with
regard to land, resources and financing to guarantee these rights.
The decisions about rural reform made in the recently concluded Third
Plenum of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China are a
timely boon for them.
E-mail: liushinan@chinadaily.com.cn |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:54:11