Hainan vegetable prices have been abnormally high for more than ten years. How many strange things have been uncovered by the shady "vegetable tyrants"
(Liu Changlin, Wu Maohui) A vegetable wholesale market in Hainan has been the only one for 16 years, and many problems have contributed to the increase in vegetable prices. However, the competent government department can only impose a fine on this vegetable market that should have been closed down, on the grounds that "body double" cannot be found. If it is forcibly closed, the price of vegetables will be even more uncontrollable. Recently, the strange things that happened in Hainan because of high-priced dishes made people think.
Although Hainan is known as the "South Vegetable Garden" in China, the data of the price department show that the price of vegetables in Hainan has remained at a high level in the country in recent years. Why has the abnormally high vegetable price become a local "old problem" of people’s livelihood?
In the past 16 years, a special investigation has uncovered the shady scene of "food tyrants"
50 yuan, which has the highest per catty of vegetables, has a minimum of more than 10 yuan; "I only eat meat during the Spring Festival, not willful, because I can’t afford to eat vegetables!" On the eve of the Spring Festival in the Year of the Monkey, the price of vegetables in Hainan soared. Hainan Province urgently set up a task force and dispatched more than 300 industrial and commercial personnel to conduct a survey on the only vegetable wholesale market in the province — — Investigation on the vegetable wholesale market in Haikou North and South.
It is such a market, and the market share of vegetable wholesale transactions accounts for more than 75% of Hainan Province.
It is understood that Haikou Nanbei Vegetable Wholesale Market was built and put into use in 2001. Although there are more than 300 stalls in the market, there are only 49 large stalls that can operate vegetables from other provinces, which are operated by 33 first-class wholesalers. All vegetables from other provinces operated by other vegetable operators in Hainan Island must be purchased from these stalls.
With the deepening of the investigation by the task force, the problems in this market were uncovered one by one.
— — Shortage of Jin and Liang. Some first-class wholesalers have weighed and priced packaging skins and vegetables together for a long time. Each box of vegetables is sold to a second-class wholesaler with an extra weight of 4-8 kilograms of ice bottles according to the price of vegetables. The cost borne by the latter for this purpose is passed on layer by layer, and finally borne by consumers.
— — Drive up prices. According to the survey of the industrial and commercial department, since January 2016, some wholesalers have seen a significant increase in net profit rate in the process of operating vegetable wholesale, compared with the average profit in 2015, and the operating cost has not changed significantly, and some have actually increased by more than 27 times in a single day, which has constituted an illegal act of driving up prices.
— — Restrict competition. Internally, the market’s promoters limited the vegetable varieties operated by each stall by signing a lease contract, defined the business scope, restricted the competition between them and solidified the interest community. Externally, the market squeezed out competitors by unfair means.
— — Illegal charges. Since June 2015, market start-up companies have taken advantage of their dominant market share, and without the approval of relevant functional departments, they are required to uniformly register and license tricycles entering the market and collect management fees, including 250 yuan for each human tricycles and 400 yuan for each electric tricycle.
— — Financial chaos. In the course of operation, the financial management of market-started companies is chaotic, and the operating income and expenditure are not recorded truthfully according to law. For 16 years, market promoters and wholesalers at all levels have not established standard ledgers. All fund transactions between wholesalers and between wholesalers and market promoters are directly packaged and paid in cash, and are not recorded. State subsidies and various charging items for various stalls in the market have not been recorded.
In view of the problems existing in the vegetable wholesale market in North and South China, the industrial and commercial departments claimed that "the management of the vegetable wholesale market was chaotic, which increased the burden on wholesale retailers and became one of the important reasons for the increase in vegetable prices", and on the eve of "March 15th", the market promoters and 33 wholesalers were fined 3,033,150 yuan and 8,282,900 yuan respectively.
The price of vegetables leads to the "long-standing problem" of people’s livelihood, and the "South Vegetable Garden" exposes the contradiction between supply and demand.
Hainan is known as the "South Vegetable Garden" in China, but why are there many contradictions between supply and demand in vegetables? According to the reporter’s investigation, the self-sufficiency rate of local vegetables in off-season is only about 40%, and the self-sufficiency rate in peak season is only about 60%. Secondly, due to its unique climatic conditions, the cost of leafy vegetables planting in Hainan is high, and agricultural enterprises and farmers choose to plant melons and vegetables more, and a large number of leafy vegetables need to be supplemented from outside the island. Every year, Hainan imports about 800,000 tons of vegetables from outside the island, accounting for 47% of the province’s annual vegetable consumption.
"Local vegetables have serious seasonal and structural defects." Li Longsheng, deputy director of the Department of Commerce of Hainan Province, said that in 2012, the provincial government signed a letter of responsibility with the mayors of 18 cities (counties) in the province, and decomposed the construction target of 138,000 mu of perennial vegetable bases into cities and counties. After this goal is achieved, the self-sufficiency rate of vegetables in the island will reach 70%, but according to the actual situation, all cities and counties are not fully planted.
From the demand point of view, the demand for vegetables by permanent residents in Hainan is basically stable. However, in the winter tourist season, tens of millions of tourists and millions of "migratory birds" flock to Hainan, which makes the demand for vegetables in Hainan increase sharply in a short period of time, resulting in large fluctuations in vegetable prices.
From the intermediate circulation link, in addition to the wholesale link, the defect of market construction at the retail end is also an important reason for the high price of vegetables. At the end of last year, Haikou established the first state-owned public welfare vegetable basket company. Fu Mingquan, chairman of the company, said: "The spatial layout of retail outlets is unreasonable, and the inconsistency between the total number of outlets and the size of the city and population is the end problem." According to him, of the 78 farmers’ markets in Haikou, only 9 are state-owned and the rest are private.
"On the one hand, the demand has increased greatly. On the other hand, the supply on the island is seriously insufficient. The wholesale of vegetables entering the island is monopolized by a private enterprise market. Coupled with poor supervision, can the price of vegetables be low?" Huang Lang, member of the Hainan Provincial Political Consultative Conference and secretary general of the Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, said.
Investigating and dealing with enterprises can’t end, but the "tangible hand" should play a role.
A fine of more than 10 million yuan for market promoters and stalls involved in the case can’t make things come to an end. Kai chen said that if the law is to be strictly enforced, its business license should be revoked and the stalls involved should be sealed up. However, the vegetable wholesale market in the province is the only one, and it is closed today. Where will citizens buy food tomorrow?
"It has been almost 30 years since Hainan established a provincial special economic zone. There are many high-rise buildings and halls, but the vegetable wholesale market, which is the most basic of people’s livelihood, has been the same for many years." Kai chen, director of the Hainan Provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce, said, "Should we reflect on the problems in the construction of vegetable baskets?"
"Heavy punishment is only the beginning of reducing the price of vegetables in Hainan". Experts believe that it is more critical to strengthen the construction of Hainan’s "vegetable basket" project, strive to expand the effective supply of the vegetable market, establish a more adequate competition mechanism in the vegetable market, and rationalize the circulation system of the vegetable market inside and outside the island.
Li Guoxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Rural Development of China Academy of Social Sciences, believes that Hainan should not only consider setting up production bases in other provinces and directly establishing production and marketing docking channels, but also maximize and ensure production locally. Farmers themselves should grow high-quality vegetables through land circulation and scale operation, and their production and sales should be guaranteed by the government and the market.
Li Guoxiang suggested that for basic vegetables, especially those whose demand by local residents in Hainan is relatively stable, the government should calm down the price fluctuation through market insurance, and protect farmers’ income through policy insurance.
Zhang Kongxiang, an associate professor at the School of Politics and Public Administration of Hainan University, suggested that the vegetable issue is related to people’s livelihood. If the county magistrate responsibility system of vegetable basket city is to be implemented, it is necessary to strengthen the assessment and accountability in this regard.
In the field of circulation, experts suggest that the public welfare market should be rationally laid out, sales outlets should be increased, and green channels for vegetables from outside the island should be opened to reduce the transportation and circulation costs of foreign vegetables. At the same time, build or transform one or two large-scale public welfare agricultural and sideline products wholesale markets led by the government, and reverse the status quo of monopoly as soon as possible. "Public welfare state-owned enterprises should bear corresponding responsibilities in this respect, especially when the contradiction between supply and demand of vegetables in the market is out of line and the price fluctuates greatly." Fu Mingquan said.
Xinhua News Agency, Haikou, March 28th