Promoters bear fruit for farm labor

Farmers' cooperatives, agricultural companies and rural economic organizations can all help cultivate brokers. However, cooperatives are the most effective way to achieve the goal, he said.

Mo said the cooperatives have institutional designs for linking farmers that cover operational aspects, and the sharing of benefits and risks.

In Hunan, industries such as daylily in Qidong county, Bingtang orange in Zhijiang county and kiwifruit in Fenghuang county already rely on leading farmers' cooperatives to organize "prototype" agricultural brokers.

But these prototypes are mostly loose business alliances, generally lacking unified certification and credit management, he added. Some brokers have not yet been embedded in cooperative governance, and incentive and constraint mechanisms for linking farmers are not yet sound.

Mo suggested combining talent training with local industrial development. A county or an industry can be used as the "basic unit" to organize local agricultural broker teams. This would enable quality agricultural products to be sold as a "one county, one specialty".

"Agricultural brokers are naturally local. They know the land and the people. But only by moving toward organization can local advantages be transformed into stable market capability," Mo said.

Support from all sides

More than 1 million agricultural product brokers are already active in China, according to a People's Daily report. In recent years, they have become increasingly professional, specialized and organized.

In 2025, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and other bodies revised the national occupational standard for agricultural product brokers, further clarifying occupational indicators, service content and industry norms. The revisions helped provide a basis for the professional development of agricultural brokers.

Sources from the ministry said the next step will be further efforts to promote the professional, specialized and standardized development of agricultural product brokers who understand agriculture, the market, keep their word, and have links to farmers.

Duan Jiguang, an official with the Hunan Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said the province has 180 people registered in the ministry's agricultural product broker database.

In June, Hunan issued measures to promote rural vitalization, proposing to train 700 market-savvy, business-capable brokers each year. Within three years, the aim is to build a wealth-building and support chain covering major agricultural counties and districts.

Duan said 14 cities and prefectures in Hunan are planning to organize agricultural product broker training classes, with 50 people per class. The number of registered brokers is expected to reach about 800 after this year's training is completed, he said.

Li Qian said that winning the national competition would have been impossible without Xi'an's training system, and pre-competition preparation under expert guidance.