Agricultural product selector who travels between urban and rural areas (decoding the "15th Five Year Plan" special plan)
2026-08-24
On the vast land, there is a group of people running between urban and rural areas, one connected to farmers and the other to merchants, who are important entities in China's agricultural product circulation system.
They are agricultural product brokers. The "15th Five Year Plan for Accelerating Agricultural and Rural Modernization" proposes that during the "15th Five Year Plan" period, the country will cultivate 30000 backbone brokers of agricultural products. What are the new changes in the group of agricultural product brokers currently? How to cultivate backbone brokers? How to empower industrial development in the future? The reporter conducted an interview.
Connecting small farmers with large markets, the characteristics of professionalization, specialization, and organization are increasingly evident
Guo Ge, a customer wants potatoes, and I know you still have dozens of acres to confiscate. "As soon as he received the order, Ma Zhongmi contacted the grower Guo Xin in a familiar manner," What price are you offering
The prices are all obvious, whatever the goods are worth, "Guo Xin thought without hesitation.
The rate of large potatoes is high, the fur is shiny, and there is less soil. 70 cents per kilogram is not a problem. If the defect ratio is high, the price should be estimated to be lower, and it depends on whether the customer can accept it. "Ma Zhongmi added," Don't give customers rotten or small ones
Let's dig a few spots in the middle of the ground and see if we can sell them out early. After dealing with them for many years, Guo Xin knew that following Ma Zhongmi wouldn't be a loss.
47 year old Ma Zhongmi is an agricultural product broker in Fuyu City, Jilin Province. He has been specializing in potato production and sales brokerage for 10 years, with rich experience and deep trust from clients. We are not just 'middlemen' who only focus on earning commissions. We need to help farmers and buyers solve real problems, "said Ma Zhongmi.
Channel is crucial for production and sales coordination. In order to find a market for agricultural products, Ma Zhongmi has been visiting multiple agricultural wholesale markets and purchasing platforms in recent years, seeking opportunities for cooperation. Only when the quality meets the standards can we talk about business, "Ma Zhongmi took out a stack of field notes, which contained a map of potato pests and diseases he had collected and organized. It has been found that some growers mix the size and quality of their crops for unified sales. Ma Zhongmi has also introduced sorting and grading equipment to meet customers' differentiated needs and achieve high prices for sweet potatoes.
According to estimates, there are over one million brokers in China who have been active in the production areas and engaged in agricultural product purchasing and sales services for a long time. In 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, together with the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives, will jointly revise the National Professional Standards for Agricultural Product Brokers, further clarifying their professional ability indicators, service content, and professional norms, providing a basis for the professionalization development of agricultural product brokers.
Agricultural product brokers are an important link for small farmers to connect with the big market, playing an important role in linking agricultural product production and demand, promoting industrial upgrading, and increasing farmers' income. "The relevant person in charge of the Market and Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs introduced that in recent years, agricultural product brokers have increasingly shown professional, specialized, and organized characteristics.
In terms of career positioning, there is a shift from spontaneous employment and experience management to a stable professional form, with standardized management, contract performance, and credit building becoming increasingly basic requirements; In terms of service content, it has gradually expanded from single information matching to quality standard execution, grading and sorting, cold chain logistics, and marketing. Some brokers have also achieved resource integration, risk sharing, and collaborative development through industry associations, industry alliances, or joint operations, further improving service stability and market bargaining power, "said the person in charge of the Market and Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
Connect the main circulation artery to ensure stable operation of brokers
At dawn, at the Jiangnan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, the vegetable stall of merchant Qiu Xinhang became lively, with large and medium-sized box trucks carrying license plates from places such as "Xiang", "Qiong", and "Gui" coming and going.
During the loading gap, customers occasionally open boxes for inspection. Open the top cover of the foam box and stack the green and shiny coriander layer by layer. The size of the tree head is uniform and the root is clean. The cilantro we purchase is grown in sandy areas and is harvested without mud. The color and length are well controlled, "said Qiu Xinhang.
Unlike Ma Zhongmi, Qiu Xinhang is a sales agent. The Guangzhou Jiangnan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market where he is located is one of the largest fruit and vegetable distribution centers in the country. Every day, more than 10 cars from inside and outside the province travel to his stall, with a daily throughput of 200 tons. There are 70-80 merchants selling coriander in the entire market, and Qiu Xinhang is one of the better sellers.
The seasonal fluctuations in vegetable prices are significant. Although you don't have to worry about sales, you need to keep the market stable. "Qiu Xinhang started his vegetable business in 2013 and has experienced multiple ups and downs. He signed purchase contracts with farmers in production areas such as Qujing, Yunnan, to ensure stable supply of goods and transmit the latest market information to the production line. Every day, he also updates and publishes the price information of the origin and sales area as official account articles. The reporter randomly clicked on several issues, and the reading volume was around 1000.
Here, the systematic data service capability helps brokers analyze the market supply and demand situation, avoiding blind stocking and following the trend of operation.
By relying on big data collection and release, we can help break the information gap between production and sales, "said Lai Yongjin, Deputy General Manager of Guangzhou Jiangnan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market Management Co., Ltd. The market testing center collects circulation data such as fruit and vegetable prices and supply and demand structure on a regular basis, builds a standardized market price index system, and releases market trends in real time for merchants to reference pricing.
Preservation is another major challenge in the circulation of vegetables. Qiu Xinhang introduced that the company has invested in building 15 cold storage facilities around the cooperative base for post harvest pre cooling. At the Jiangnan Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market in Guangzhou, if the goods cannot be sold out on the same day, there is also a 10000 ton cold storage for temporary storage. In addition, food safety traceability, monitoring systems, electronic settlement and other circulation and trading scenarios jointly help ensure the safety of the tongue.
Open up the "main artery" of circulation and make the connection between production and sales smoother. In recent years, China has accelerated the construction of a market system for agricultural product production areas. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has guided and promoted the digital construction of 41 provincial and ministerial co built markets and 663 designated markets, supported the construction of 78000 field refrigeration and preservation facilities, and continuously promoted the networking and chain of cold chain logistics in production areas.
Promote the improvement of vocational skills and better serve the high-quality development of modern agriculture
Theoretical knowledge examination, on-site skill operation assessment, marketing roadshow display... In July, the 7th National Agricultural Industry Vocational Skills Competition set up a skills competition for agricultural product brokers for the first time. Five agricultural product brokers including Li Qian from Shaanxi won the first prize in the competition, and the cultivation of backbone brokers has just begun.
From "earning price differences and relying on connections" to "expanding markets and increasing efficiency", the new generation of agricultural product brokers is redefining this industry with knowledge and skills. In the competition, over 46% of the participants have a bachelor's degree or above, demonstrating a distinct market-oriented and industrialized mindset. The product may be unsold, but the concept cannot be 'unsold'. Li Qian studied international trade in college.
2022 is a watershed year for Li Qian's career development. Affected by changes in supply and demand, the price of kiwi fruit rose after listing, and the market cooled rapidly after the Mid Autumn Festival. The fruit farmers asked Li Qian for help selling fruits, but due to the high selling price of local varieties and the low hardness and inability to hold kiwifruit, several buyers he contacted refused to accept them.
After consulting with village officials, Li Qian quickly organized fruit grading. For those who have already softened, contact community group buying and nearby markets to quickly sell at a loss of 3 yuan per kilogram, but this only accounts for a small portion. Good fruits should not be sold at a low price to harm farmers, nor should they be hoarded for gambling in the future market. "Li Qian fell in love with live streaming e-commerce.
After repeated attempts, the real scene attracted the first wave of traffic, with over 200 orders sold in an hour, and more than half of the orders coming from Xinjiang. However, due to transportation and promotion difficulties, the local kiwi market is still blank. This market opportunity must be seized, "Li Qian immediately contacted the logistics company to negotiate a solution to the shipping cost issue, and rushed to Urumqi overnight to connect with the local temperature controlled warehouse. After the online delivery became stable, he went to the pastures around Tianshan for sales promotion. With the support of the platform, 191000 kiwi fruit orders were sold out in two months.
With the emergence of new formats and models, more and more agricultural product brokers are using online precision promotion and other means to improve transaction efficiency and market matching, and relying on various ways to connect with agriculture and promote mutual benefit and win-win results. The high-quality development of modern agriculture has put forward higher requirements for the cultural quality, information collection, market analysis and other abilities of agricultural product brokers, "said Han Yijun, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of China Agricultural University.
To help agricultural product brokers continuously improve their capabilities, targeted cultivation and incentive measures have been introduced in many regions. Zhejiang has recognized the winners of this competition as "Zhejiang Gold and Blue Collars", while Gansu provides targeted traffic, exclusive IP development, and precise production and sales matching support to outstanding contestants. We continue to improve the professional training mechanism for agricultural product brokers, and carry out systematic training in marketing, e-commerce operations, quality control, etc., "said the person in charge of the Market and Information Technology Department of Xi'an Agriculture and Rural Bureau in Shaanxi Province.
The person in charge of the Market and Information Technology Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs introduced that a database of agricultural product brokers has been established in conjunction with relevant units, and the "200 Practical Questions on Agricultural Product Brokers" have been compiled and printed. This year, the cultivation of agricultural product brokers has also been included in the high-quality farmer cultivation plan. Next, efforts will be made from various aspects such as standards, competitions, training, finance, channels, and systems to promote the professional and standardized development of agricultural product brokers. Efforts will be made to build a backbone broker team that understands agriculture, connects with the market, upholds integrity, and links with agriculture. (Outlook New Era)
Edit:Luoyu Responsible editor:Wang Erdong
Source:People's Daily
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