Planting new seeds to boost agricultural brand building

A symposium on China's Agricultural Brand Policy was held on Saturday in Beijing before China Brand Day on May 10, aiming to strengthen the policymaking of agricultural brands and promote better varieties and products.

Sun Qixin, principal of the China Agricultural University who organized the symposium, said agricultural brand building is the key to driving the nation's development of high-quality agriculture.

Last year, digital platforms became an important channel for selling agricultural products and a major way to promote related brands.

The online retail sales of agricultural products in the country exceeded 550 billion yuan ($85.5 billion) in 2020, according to the China Agricultural Brand Development Report released at the symposium.

The report, cited a research jointly conducted by the university and AliResearch, said 300 regional public brands on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms made 56.62 million orders last year, up 13.68 percent from 2018, and the trading volume hit 4.2 billion yuan.

Regional public brands, including Jiangxi Navel Orange, Harbin Wuchang Rice, and Anji White Tea, were among the top 10 agricultural brands, according to the research.

A pilot action was launched at the symposium to support 10 regions in the country that have recently shaken off poverty to build their special agricultural brands.

Zhao Xia, professor at the university's College of Economics and Management, said these regions have just started to develop characteristic agriculture, so the uneven product quality and distracted and small-scale production posed challenges to build a regional public brand.

"Finding a regional specialty and keep improving its quality will help the area develop an influential brand," Zhao said, adding that local governments and companies should protect the brands through trademark registrations and brand certifications.

In March, the ministry released a plan on breeding better variety, improving quality of agricultural products, building brands, and standardizing production, as an effort to beef up rural vitalization.

By 2025, China plans to build 300 regional public brands, 500 company brands, 1,000 agricultural products brands, and more than 60,000 healthy food and organic produce, the ministry said.