The sorrow of pepper farmers
By Li Limin
It is now the season for picking Sichuan peppers. Faced with a bumper harvest in sight, pepper farmers do not have the joy of previous years. Instead, they are filled with more sorrow and helplessness as the current market price is far below the cost price.
A few years ago, when the price of Sichuan pepper reached its peak, a kilogram of dried Sichuan pepper sold for 40 to 50 yuan. Looking around, Sichuan pepper is a good thing. Sichuan pepper trees are money trees and farmers' money bags. In droughts, water is drawn over and over again for fear that the trees will die of drought. For this reason, many people have lost their lives. Starting from the Waking of Insects, pesticides are sprayed once a month. Not to mention the cost of pesticides, how many people have lost their lives on the road of spraying pesticides. Some people are half dead and disabled for life. They have paid a heavy price for the production of Sichuan pepper. The surviving family members regret their whole lives, all because of the Sichuan pepper.
At the peak of the Sichuan pepper industry, the market situation hurt the feelings of pepper farmers again and again. Pepper farmers, who were not yet wealthy, could no longer withstand the market's beatings. The price of Sichuan pepper dropped day by day, and there was almost no hope of reversing the situation.
There are many reasons why the pepper industry has come to this point. Any agricultural product cannot withstand excessive "hype". In the Internet age, information spreads quickly, and people plant whatever makes money. In addition, the media's exaggerated propaganda makes it seem that pepper is a highly profitable industry, and investment and labor are not taken into account, which fuels the trend of planting.
Stir-frying is a cooking method, and the definition of "hype" is to expand the influence through repeated publicity in the media to attract everyone's attention. When the hype reaches a certain level, following the trend becomes a trend. Walnut trees are cut down! Apple trees are dug! Grapes are coming soon, and other industries that are making money are being vigorously developed in various places. When following the trend becomes a mindset, the fate of each industry will not last too long. When everyone rushes to it, any agricultural product will be in excess. When everyone follows the trend, misfortune is not far away, and over-stirring will lead to a situation of oversupply.
In addition, Sichuan pepper is an agricultural product. The product has not been upgraded to a commodity, and the commodity has not formed its own independent brand. Sichuan pepper in various places is basically named after the region. For example, the Sichuan pepper in Hancheng is called Dahongpao, the Sichuan pepper in Fuping is called Qijiao, the Sichuan pepper in Sichuan is called Majiao, and the Sichuan pepper in Gansu is called Fengjiao. At the same time, the majority of pepper farmers lack marketing experience and e-commerce technology, and still remain in the traditional transaction of "you buy and I sell". They lack certain business thinking and are not adapted to the new marketing model. Douyin short videos remain at a low level, lacking knowledge and culture, and cannot attract consumers to watch and buy honor of kings tokens . Good anchors sell not only products, but also culture, listen to stories, and learn knowledge. Even if you shoot a Douyin video, post a circle of friends, and shout at the top of your lungs, you still can't sell it.
Consumers buy for two reasons: one is because of demand, and the other is because of liking. Online shopping is a kind of cognition, an experience, and an impulse. Consumers will only place orders when they have a spiritual understanding with the anchor. If consumers can resonate with the anchor and ultimately buy to satisfy their personal psychological pleasure, and buy for poetry and the distance, that's good. Last year, when the live broadcast of "Hongxing Erke" was popular, consumers bought it for the entrepreneur's good deeds.
In fact, not everyone can do live streaming to sell goods. What they sell is a kind of cognition and culture. If a good anchor can live stream Sichuan pepper, perhaps you can smell the spicy aroma of Fupingqi pepper across the screen.
According to Compendium of Materia Medica and other data, it can be inferred that Fuping Qijiao should be Qinjiao at first. "Qi" and "Qin" have the same initial consonant, and the names may be confused due to homophony.
Although Qi pepper has deep historical roots, the pepper industry has not yet been developed into a culture, and there is not even a slogan that can capture the market.
As we all know, there are many brands of pure water on the market. Why can "Nongfu Spring" become the leader in the industry? Why can Zhong Shanshan (shan) become the richest man in the country? It's all because of an ingenious advertising slogan. They are obviously selling water, but the result is the opposite. ["Nongfu Spring" never produces water, we are just nature's porters. We have 100 water source engineers to find the best water in the world.] Such an advertising slogan has achieved the publicity effect of "not stopping until the words are shocking", conquered the public's cognition, and has always been favored by the market.
The production of Sichuan pepper has doubled this year, but pepper farmers are not happy. Picking has become a torture. The previous smiles have turned into frowns. The money tree has now become a deadly tree! Farmers can't hire people, and they can't afford to hire people. If they hire people to pick, they need a car to pick them up and drop them off for a long distance, and they will be provided with a meal at noon. Picking one catty costs 2.5 yuan, and fresh green peppers sell for 3 yuan. The price of red fresh peppers has dropped from 7 yuan to 5 yuan. If you calculate carefully, it is equivalent to giving away Sichuan peppers for free. The increase in production has not increased income. Farmers are reluctant to hire people, so they work for themselves. The Sichuan peppers themselves do not make money, but they earn a little 2.5 yuan per catty of picking fees.
Because of the large planting area, the production capacity exceeds market expectations and the output is absolutely in excess.
Changes in supply and demand cause price changes. The changes in supply and demand of commodities interact with price changes. If supply and demand are not in line, price drops become inevitable.
Traders at all levels no longer have to worry about not being able to get peppercorns. The pepper trade has changed from a "seller's" market to a "buyer's" market. Pepper farmers no longer have room to bargain. The traders have the final say! Pepper farmers can only stretch their necks and let the market slaughter them. They will not stop until they see the bones! They have already hit the bottom.
Farmers cannot leave their fields and have to stay in the pepper garden all year round, weeding, fertilizing, and spraying pesticides over and over again. Facing a bumper harvest of pepper, they hope to get a good price to cover their daily expenses for the year. It seems that it is not easy to rely on the income from pepper to support their retirement.
They have to sell the peppers no matter how low the price is. When the bright red peppercorns are exchanged for cash, the pepper farmer stretches out his bloody hand that was pierced by the pepper thorns, takes the cash, and on his wrinkled face that has been exposed to the high temperature for a long time, he forces a helpless smile.
Professor Wen Tiejun is an expert on the "three rural issues". He said: China currently has no surplus except for grain, all agricultural products are in surplus to varying degrees. China accounts for 19% of the world's population and consumes 70% of the world's fruits and vegetables, so there will inevitably be a contradiction of oversupply.
Sichuan pepper is no exception, and the surrounding provinces, cities and counties are all developing Sichuan pepper.
From 1978 to 2020, the price of Sichuan pepper has risen from 1.5 yuan to about 50 yuan. The price is generally good, and no other planting industry dares to compete with Sichuan pepper. The considerable economic benefits of Sichuan pepper have produced a huge sensational effect, which has boosted the enthusiasm of the whole people to plant Sichuan pepper. All the contracted land in the place of origin has been planted. People in non-planting areas are jealous of the considerable income from Sichuan pepper, and they buy a large number of Sichuan pepper seedlings and plant them in a trend, hoping to get rich from Sichuan pepper. The good dream has just begun, but the market has given people a blow. Since 2020, it has been falling again and again. In order to curb the trend of planting, adjust the structure, and increase food prices, the wheat price remains at around 1.7 yuan per catty, which may change the future fate of the Sichuan pepper industry.
Some people say, why not do deep processing of Sichuan pepper? If we think about it, can we solve the problem of overproduction by combining deep processing of other industries? I am afraid not! It is possible that the Sichuan pepper market will be even worse, and then there will be a chaos of bad money driving out good money and inferior goods being sold as good ones. The deep processing of apples is an example. Deep processing only accepts rotten apples worth a few cents, and will never accept apples worth a few dollars. All rotten fruits are packaged and put on the market.
Many years ago, walnut industry was developed in various places. Walnut trees were everywhere. After growing for more than ten years, walnuts were just in the peak production period. As a result, no one wanted green walnuts at a few cents, and dried walnuts could not be sold at a few dollars. In the end, they had to cut down the trees. Deep processing, walnut milk, and the famous "six walnuts" still did not solve the problem of walnut overproduction. The only way out was to dig up the trees. Therefore, agriculture is a vicious circle. There is no sustainable industry in the vicious cycle.
In recent years, the pepper industry has brought prosperity to the agricultural materials and machinery market. The average annual cost of fertilizers and pesticides is half a million yuan per household, and the price keeps rising year after year. Take urea as an example. The lowest price was 80 yuan per bag (100 jin per bag), but now it is more than 140 yuan per bag, an increase of more than 42%, which has made the agricultural machinery market popular. Every household needs various tricycles, micro-tillage machines, weeders, and pesticide spraying machines are indispensable tools.
Nowadays, pepper is planted on a large scale, with a production of hundreds of millions of peppers. Regardless of the price, the honest pepper farmers never care about gains and losses, and still work from sunrise to sunset. In the dog days of summer, they are not afraid of high temperature and high humidity, and they eat hastily, freeing up more time to pick peppers.
No matter how hard or tired they were, they never cried because they had no tears; they never prayed because it was useless; they never showed off because they were dressed in rags. They placed their hopes for their future retirement on the prickly ash tree and never dared to neglect or be lazy.
In the pepper industry, some links cannot be replaced by machines and must be completed manually. People born in the 1940s still persist in their struggle, and they are still standing under the pepper trees in their 70s. As long as they are not sick, they will go to the fields to work every day. People born in the 1950s and 1960s are the main labor force in the pepper industry. A small number of people born in the 1970s pick peppers, and some people born in the 1980s do so. Almost no one born in the 1990s picks peppers. The smart people born in the 2000s grew up in pepper-producing areas and enjoyed the benefits of peppers, but they will not follow the old path of several generations and are not interested in peppers. In the future, new business models will definitely emerge in the pepper industry.
An industry suitable for regional planting was unexpectedly submerged in the wave of national following. Where will the pepper industry go in the future? Where is the road ahead?
Author profile: Li Liming, special contributor to "Fuping People", pays attention to agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and focuses on industrial development.
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