Cracking the "lack of chain" short board of agricultural cold chain

With the increasing specialization and regionalization of agricultural production, agricultural products show the characteristics of cross-regional and anti-seasonal circulation. Unlike rice, flour and oil, the storage and transportation of fresh and live agricultural products such as fruits and vegetables,cold chain meat and aquatic products require cold chain support. Take the loss rate of fruit and vegetable logistics as an example, developed countries can control it below 5%, while China's data is obviously higher, because the cold chain logistics is not developed enough. According to previous data, the refrigerated transportation rate of fruits and vegetables, meat and aquatic products in China is 35%, 57% and 69% respectively, which is far lower than the average level of 90% in developed countries. Therefore, we need to accelerate the development of the cold chain of agricultural products to reduce post-production losses and increase storage and transportation capacity.

For a long time, the regional and seasonal "difficult to sell and expensive to buy" problems of agricultural products have been plaguing agriculture and affecting the interests of consumers and farmers. When analyzed,cold warehouse the short-term imbalance between supply and demand brought about by the centralized listing of agricultural products is one of the important reasons. Cold chain logistics of agricultural products, which runs through one, two and three industries and connects production and consumption, is the key to solving the above problems. By "storing agricultural products if they can't be sold temporarily" and "staggered agricultural products are more appealing", it can realize staggered seasonal sales and regional expansion, which not only meets the demand of annual supply and consumption upgrading, but also enhances the added value and helps farmers to increase their income.

At present, the cold chain of agricultural products has different degrees of "lack of chain" phenomenon, and the total number of cold chain facilities is obviously insufficient. The construction of cold storage in the place of production is relatively lagging behind, the number of modern cold storage is small, the low-temperature processing and distribution centers are insufficient, and the proportion of road cold storage and heat preservation trucks in the freight cars is extremely low, and other problems need to be solved urgently. Although the national cold storage capacity has maintained a high growth rate in recent years, and currently more than 70% of agricultural wholesale markets have cold chain facilities, China's per capita cold storage capacity is still lower than that of most comparable countries, and it is not yet able to fully meet the huge demand for the production and marketing of agricultural products.

In addition to the total volume problem, there are also structural contradictions. Firstly, the development of cold chain in urban and rural areas is not balanced; in some areas, there are homogenization, low price competition and low-level duplication of construction, and the utilization rate of a considerable part of cold storage is not high. Secondly, the standard specification of facilities is lagging behind, the existing standards are not unified and insufficiently articulated, and many places have sloppy means of temperature control and low degree of informatization, which affects the benefits. In addition, the main body of the operation is also facing some difficulties, most of them are weak, with poor financing ability, and there are blockages in the key links such as electricity and land use.

Growing cold chain can not be separated from scientific and technological support. Cold chain logistics of agricultural products itself is a technology-intensive industry, but also need to meet the requirements of the regulatory authorities can be traced and traced. For market players, it is imperative to strengthen the application of intelligent cold chain technology such as intelligent sorting and full temperature control, promote the combination of 5G, Internet of Things (IoT) and other technologies with the cold chain, and increase the investment in equipment such as video capture and temperature and humidity sensing. For government departments, it is necessary to carry out the pilot project of digital cold storage, build a multi-level digital cold storage network, improve the construction of cold chain logistics information platform, and open up the information and data barriers in the industry.

Strengthening the cold chain requires increased capital investment. Cold chain facilities have a large scale of investment and a long recovery cycle, and although there are significant benefits, the risk is also great, and there is also a great public welfare. For example, Japan and South Korea have formed a cold chain system of warehousing and preservation mainly based on agricultural associations. France and the Netherlands rely on large-scale public welfare wholesale markets for agricultural products to build a cold chain logistics system. China has been exploring the mechanism of financial funds to leverage social capital investment, to promote further reduce market risks and attract more social capital investment. In recent years, some third-party cold chain platforms have cooperated with insurance companies to innovate and explore the claims service during the transportation of agricultural products, which has better solved the problem of "no insurance to buy" for the circulation of agricultural products, and various places can learn from this practice.

The cold chain of agricultural products is a bridge between the origin and the market. On the whole, it is necessary to make up for the short board of cold chain facilities, improve the quality and efficiency of the cold chain, and do a good job of connecting various links. At present, the cold chain construction of the wholesale market of agricultural products has taken shape, and the next step is to do a good job in the connection of the two "kilometers". To connect with industrial advantages, focus on the origin of the "first kilometer", in the field to build a number of preservation, pre-cooling, primary processing functions of small and medium-sized storage facilities. To connect with the consumer demand, facing the city "last kilometer", improve the cold chain distribution and delivery system in the place of sale, and guide the supermarket enterprises to improve the cold chain logistics facilities at the end of the city.