Source: Economic Daily

 

Original title: At present, animal husbandry is facing a big test - what should I do if the feed can't come in and the product can't go out?

 

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia, my country's animal husbandry industry is facing a test. Due to the obstruction of the transportation and sales of upstream and downstream products of livestock and poultry, problems such as difficulty in entering the market for feed, difficulty in listing poultry, and difficulty in employing labor for breeding enterprises have arisen. Experts suggest that to ensure the healthy development of animal husbandry, we must focus on meeting the needs of farm households in terms of raw materials, sales, capital, and labor, and promote upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry to resume production and work as soon as possible. Enterprises are included in the support scope of the national special re-lending and interest discount policies.

 

People take food as their heaven. For the Chinese, not only food, but also meat, eggs and milk are in the rice bowl. Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, as an important "vegetable basket" industry, my country's animal husbandry is facing a test. Due to the obstruction of the transportation and sales of upstream and downstream products of livestock and poultry, there have been problems such as difficulty in entering the market for feed, difficulty in listing poultry, and difficulty in employing labor for breeding enterprises. Recently, the reporter interviewed relevant experts and market players on the specific difficulties encountered by the animal husbandry industry and how to solve the pain points of the development of the animal husbandry industry.

 

Livestock and poultry farming has a greater impact

 

Jiangsu Jinghai Poultry Industry Group Co., Ltd. has 22 chicken farms and consumes more than 6,000 tons of feed per month. After the outbreak of the epidemic, because many places have set up road closures and interception points, it is difficult to distribute feed to various chicken farms, resulting in feed shortages. The company has to implement "feed reduction" measures for breeders. "It is estimated that the average egg production rate of breeders will drop by 30%. The bigger difficulty is that there is no way to sell products. Due to the obstruction of product circulation during the epidemic, the company's chickens cannot be sold, and chicken farmers also have no channels to buy. Chicken seedlings have caused problems such as unsalable products and backlogs." said Qiu Cong, assistant to the general manager of the company.

 

Li Xirong, president of the China Animal Husbandry Association, said that since the outbreak of the epidemic, many places have adopted road traffic control measures, which have greatly affected the transportation of breeding materials such as pigs, young seedlings, eggs, poultry meat, feed, and veterinary drugs. Inter-provincial live poultry sales and transportation are blocked, live poultry cannot be transported between enterprises to meet normal production, and business processes are interrupted. According to statistics, at the peak, all or some cities and counties in 27 provinces across the country closed live poultry trading markets. The live birds that are released for slaughter cannot be sold, and the poultry industry suffers heavy losses. Some local slaughterhouses have complicated start-up procedures and restricted personnel movement, resulting in insufficient slaughterhouses and affecting the normal sales of livestock and poultry.

 

The poultry industry has been affected more prominently due to its short production cycle and large feeding volume. Gong Guifen, deputy secretary-general of the China Animal Husbandry Association and president of the Poultry Industry Branch, told reporters that it is currently the peak season for poultry seedling supplementation. If the seedlings cannot be supplemented, it will have a great impact on the later production and supply. According to incomplete statistics of the association, as of February 12, the loss of poultry industry has reached 15.865 billion yuan. According to the investigation and understanding of the association, the poultry industry is still facing some problems that need to be solved urgently: the limited issuance of vehicle passes cannot meet the normal production needs of enterprises; it is difficult for some enterprises to obtain quarantine tickets; suppliers of non-feed supporting materials cannot resume production. caused an impact.

 

Zhang Hongyu, deputy dean of the China Rural Development Research Institute of Tsinghua University, believes that for the chicken industry, the current supply of broilers is far greater than the current slaughtering number, and prices have fallen rapidly; due to traffic restrictions, the hatchery's chicks cannot be sold smoothly, and some breeding The farm was forced to take landfill and other disposal measures for the chicks, resulting in huge losses. In addition, the rise in pig prices last year drove poultry consumption, and many poultry farming enterprises chose to significantly expand production. The outbreak of the epidemic has superimposed adverse effects.

 

Take multiple measures to break the industry blockade

 

my country is a big country in poultry farming, and the per capita consumption of eggs has exceeded the level of developed countries. Yang Zhenhai, director of the Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, introduced that the poultry industry chain is relatively long and the output value is relatively large. If there is a problem in one link, the poultry industry cannot run smoothly. Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, the live poultry trading market has been closed, poultry slaughtering enterprises have stopped production, and the consumption of poultry products has decreased, and the industry has suffered very serious losses. At present, it is a critical period for poultry replenishment. If this situation continues, it may have a certain impact on the market supply of poultry meat and eggs in the second and third quarters.

 

"Animal husbandry as a whole is a special industry with a life cycle and poor ability to resist market risks. Once the industry is severely impacted, the recovery period will be a very slow process." Li Xirong said that my country's animal husbandry is in a critical period of difficult transformation. If production is not resumed as soon as possible, part of the industrial ecology may be damaged, and the hard work of some vulnerable companies may be lost.

 

Tian Xiaohui, an associate professor at the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at Renmin University of China, believes that the epidemic has a greater impact on the upstream and downstream of the aquaculture industry chain than the farming industry. First, due to the incomplete recovery of feed production and the limited procurement of raw materials, farmers are generally faced with a shortage of feed, and it is difficult for feed stocks to maintain normal production. Breeding poultry cannot be sold, and there is a lack of veterinary drugs, vaccines and other materials, resulting in a greater risk of animal disease prevention and control; third, because many employees cannot return to work in time, the company faces difficulties in recruiting, expensive, and lack of labor in the slaughtering process. At present, the focus of policy measures should be made in the above aspects.

 

Now, the relevant departments have taken action. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Security, etc. issued notices, requiring all localities to ensure the normal circulation of "vegetable basket" products, requiring no interception of young livestock, chicks and breeding livestock and poultry transport vehicles, and no interception of feed transport vehicles, especially for equipment. The practice of restricting traffic and blocking traffic has been standardized and corrected, providing strong policy support for animal husbandry. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs also requires all localities to strengthen the monitoring and scheduling of feed and breeding livestock and poultry production enterprises, and coordinate the local joint prevention and control work mechanism; include relevant leading enterprises in the list of enterprises that have resumed work and production, and include them in the scope of loan discount support; Stock corn in batches to meet the needs of livestock and poultry production.

 

The pain points of the aquaculture industry are significantly relieved

 

Jiuding Animal Husbandry Co., Ltd., located in Tianjiu Town, Dingnan County, Jiangxi Province, workers in the workshop are busy, and trucks outside the workshop are loading the produced feed. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the county's Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau has noticed that many animal husbandry enterprises will face problems such as grain shortages and lack of feed due to the epidemic prevention and control, and quickly mobilized many feed enterprises in the county to resume work and production. According to statistics, from February 12 to February 17, the county issued 418 material allocation and personnel transfer orders for relevant owners of livestock and poultry breeding, including 86 feeds and 332 live livestock and poultry, effectively solving the problems faced by the livestock and poultry breeding industry. There is no problem with shipping and selling.

 

"From a national perspective, through hard work, problems such as forced enterprises to suspend production, poor inter-provincial transportation, and severe shortage of bulk raw materials have been basically solved, and problems such as shortage of reworked workers and transportation 'one kilometer' have also been significantly alleviated. The business order is being restored at an accelerated pace, and some large feed companies have basically resumed normal production." Yang Zhenhai said that according to the statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, as of February 17, 6,384 of the 9,711 feed companies in the country have resumed production, with an operating rate of 66%. %, but there is still a certain gap compared with the operating rate of more than 90% in the same period of the year. "At present, the total amount of feed is sufficient, and there is no problem with the output of corn and soybean meal. As long as the traffic problem is solved, the terminal supply will slowly return to normal."

 

Some farmers said: "In order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, it is understandable that many places have implemented traffic control measures. However, the transportation of livestock and poultry, related raw materials and finished products is related to the basic livelihood of the people and the common people's 'vegetable baskets' should not be simply intercepted. It is hoped that some towns, villages and groups can take effective measures to implement national policies as soon as possible."

 

Animal husbandry involves a wide range of fields, and upstream and downstream enterprises are closely related, so there is a large demand for capital and labor. Experts suggest that to ensure the healthy development of animal husbandry, the next step is to focus on meeting the needs of farm households in terms of raw materials, sales, capital, and labor, and promote upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry to resume work and production as soon as possible; increase the release of corn and other reserves, and speed up soybean meal, etc. Production enterprises start work to ensure the supply of bulk feed raw materials; include production enterprises of feed, breeding livestock and poultry, veterinary drugs, and animal product packaging materials on the list of enterprises that resume work and production; slaughterhouses that are operating normally shall not be closed, and support legal and compliant slaughterhouses as soon as possible Resumption of work; including key enterprises such as feed, breeding livestock and poultry, slaughtering, and dairy industries into the scope of national special re-loan and interest discount policy support.