1. Why should the “preplan” be formulated?
Pork is the most important source of meat and animal protein intake for Chinese residents, and ensuring the supply of pork on the market and the stability of its price are closely related to the vital interests of the people. In 2009, with the approval of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments issued the “Prevention of excessive fall in live pig prices (temporary)” to give full play to the government’s role in regulating pork reserves, and in accordance with changes in the situation, it was carried out twice in 2012 and 2015. Revised and formed the “Regulation Plan for Mitigating the Periodic Fluctuations of Live Pig Market Prices”. The relevant plans have played a positive role in promoting the stable operation of the live pig market, alleviating the cyclical fluctuations in prices, and ensuring the needs of residents’ pork consumption. It has also accumulated experience for agricultural product price control.
After the outbreak of African swine fever in 2018, pig production and the pork market have been unprecedentedly affected, and the government’s ability and level of pork reserve adjustment urgently need to be further improved. In accordance with the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, our committee quickly broke conventions with relevant departments, carried out work creatively, insisted on monitoring the threshold to move forward, promptly warned of the risk of rising prices of live pigs and pork, established a departmental consultation mechanism, and organized government pork in a timely manner according to changes in the situation. The purchase, storage and release of reserves has promoted pork prices to maintain a basically stable operation at a relatively high level, and guaranteed the basic needs of residents for pork consumption during important holidays and during the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
The “Proposals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goals for 2035” adopted by the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated that “guaranteeing food, cotton, oil, sugar, The supply of important agricultural products such as meat is safe, and the ability to regulate and control purchasing and storage will be improved.” In order to better adapt to the new situation and changes in the live pig market and meet the new expectations of the people for a better life, the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments have carefully studied, institutionalized and institutionalized the experience and practices in the current round of government pork reserve adjustment, and formulated and issued This “preplan” was written.
2. What are the main differences between the “Preplan” and the “Regulation Plan on Mitigating the Periodic Fluctuation of Live Pig Market Prices” issued in 2015?
Compared with the 2015 plan, this “plan” has revised and improved the core content of early warning indicators and intervals, reserve classification and scale, and reserve adjustment mechanism.
One is to enrich early warning indicators. The “Pig and Grain Price Comparison” indicator is an important indicator that directly reflects the comparison of the cost and benefit of pig breeding. It has received widespread attention from the pig breeding industry. The “Preplan” continues to use this indicator. At the same time, the “Preplan” has added two indicators: one is the “change rate of breeding sow stocks”, which can significantly improve the forward-looking nature of risk warning and reserve adjustment; the second is the addition of “36 large and medium-sized sows”. The “average retail price of lean meat in cities” indicator is closer to consumers’ feelings, and can provide timely warnings and responses when pork prices rise excessively.
The second is to adjust the early warning interval. The “Preplan” distinguishes two situations of excessive fall and excessive rise in the price of live pigs, and establishes a three-level early warning interval. Among them, according to the changes in breeding cost and income in recent years, the pig food ratio corresponding to the break-even point of pig breeding has been increased from 5.5:1 to 5.8:1 to 7:1, when the pig food ratio is at 7:1 to 9: There is no early warning at 1 o’clock, leaving enough room for the market to adjust spontaneously.
The third is to set up reserves by category. According to the different functional positioning of government pork reserves, the “Preplan” has established regular reserves and temporary reserves. Conventional reserves at the national level are mainly used to meet market regulation and emergency release needs. Temporary reserves are proposed based on the practice of this round of regulation and actively borrowing from other relevant experience in the construction of important commodity reserves, mainly to purchase and store when the price of live pigs drops excessively and production capacity drops sharply, in order to stabilize production expectations and achieve effective “supporting the market” and stabilizing production capacity . At the same time, the size of the reserve has been greatly increased compared with the past, and the regulation and control capabilities have been significantly enhanced.
The fourth is to improve the working mechanism. The “Preplan” consolidates the innovative departmental consultation mechanism adopted in this round of pork market regulation and control, and will effectively improve departmental communication and decision-making efficiency. Combining the practical experience of this round of regulation and control, the “Preplan” puts forward clear requirements for the local government’s pork reserve scale, purchasing and storage mechanism and other related work, which will be able to effectively enhance the joint force of central and local linkages and regional linkages.
3. How will the pig market develop in the later stage? What role will “Preplan” play?
In accordance with the decisions and deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs have issued a series of policies and measures to stabilize the production and supply of live pigs. All localities have conscientiously implemented the provincial general responsibility and the “vegetable basket” mayor responsibility system, and market entities actively resume production. Production expansion, the resumption and expansion of live pig production has a good momentum. As of the end of April this year, the number of reproductive sows in the country has returned to 97.6% of the normal year. The relevant parties predict that the number of pigs for slaughter in the second half of this year is expected to return to the normal level. As production capacity continues to recover, prices of live pigs and pork are expected to continue to return to a reasonable level. At the same time, the scale, standardization and biosafety protection level of pig breeding have been significantly improved compared with the past.
The “Plan” gives full play to the important role of the government’s pork reserve adjustment as a key starting point, and insists on both “up” and “down” the prices of live pigs and pork, ensuring stable prices with stable supply, and promoting stable supply with stable prices. When the price is too high, reserves will be put in to protect the consumption needs of residents, push the price to fall to a reasonable range, and avoid excessive expansion of live pig production; when the price is too low, the purchase and storage will be started to support the market, so as to provide “reassurance” for farmers. , To avoid excessive elimination of live pig production capacity.
4. How to ensure the effective implementation of the “Preplan”?
The “Preplan” clarifies the implementation of safeguard measures such as departmental consultation, central and local linkages, and funding guarantees. The first is departmental consultation. The development and reform department, together with the finance, agriculture and rural areas, and commerce departments, hold regular or irregular departmental meetings to analyze the market situation and agree on matters related to reserve adjustment. The second is the linkage between the central and local governments. The National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments strengthen the overall planning and guidance of pork reserve adjustment work in various regions, forming a joint force of upper and lower linkage control, and at the same time require relevant regions to establish a cross-provincial communication and consultation mechanism. The third is the guarantee of funds. The expenditures related to pork reserves at the national level are borne by the central government. Localities refer to the central practice to clarify the guarantees of local government pork reserves.
In addition, the “Preplan” also proposes coordinated measures related to local subject responsibility, production self-sufficiency, cold chain logistics system, import regulation, supervision and management, etc., which will effectively enhance the policy synergy of ensuring supply and price stability in the pork market.
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