The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, in a recent response to a proposal made during the 4th Session of the 14th National People's Congress, announced plans to enhance the quality and safety traceability management system for agricultural products. The ministry will work with relevant departments to explore pilot programs for full-chain traceability of key agricultural products, establish a collaborative management mechanism linking production site clearance and market access, and accelerate the revision and formulation of national standards in the agricultural sector. This initiative aims to create a batch of agricultural brands supported by high-standard, full-chain quality assurance and certification.
The proposal, submitted by National People's Congress representative Wang Lianzeng during the annual "Two Sessions," focused on supporting the brand building and market expansion of specialty agricultural products. Wang pointed out that issues such as weak brand influence, low added value, limited sales channels, and insufficient market competitiveness persist, hindering farmers' income growth and industrial value enhancement. He recommended accelerating the development of standards for specialty agricultural products across production and sales stages, constructing a comprehensive traceability system from farm to table, guiding farmers towards standardized and regulated production, and continuously improving overall product quality to ensure stable supply.
Efforts to establish a robust standard system for agricultural products are already underway. On August 5, the Ministry's Agricultural Product Quality and Safety Supervision Department released a notice regarding the proposed formation of two technical standardization committees: one for agricultural product quality and safety management (including sub-committees on green food and rapid testing) and another for agricultural green development. These proposals are currently in the public comment period. National standards for agricultural products generally cover areas such as product quality grading, packaging for distribution and sale, and storage and processing.
Notable developments include the implementation of the revised national standard for navel oranges (GB/T 21488-2025), effective July 1, 2025. In early 2025, three national standards for economic forest products were officially released: Sea Buckthorn Fruit, Hazelnuts and Kernels, and Technical Specifications for Fresh Jujube Storage and Logistics Preservation. Additionally, the national standard for the circulation sector, Technical Management Code for Supermarket Fresh Agricultural Product Sales (GB/T 22502-2025), took effect on March 1, 2025.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs stated that, to date, it has approved and issued national standards for agricultural products such as fresh pears and shiitake mushrooms, covering specialty products across grains, oils, fruits, vegetables, livestock, poultry, aquatic products, and forestry products. Certification mechanisms, including organic product certification, have been established to support brand building, covering production and circulation stages, thereby playing a positive role in improving product quality and brand development.
A representative from a food company in Luoyang, Henan Province, specializing in medicinal and edible products, noted that national standards for agricultural products help standardize cultivation and procurement premiums. Enterprises are more willing to source raw materials from certified production areas and product categories. In Henan, the "Yu Nong You Pin" regional public brand has been launched, with plans to build a "Henan Yu You Ming Pin Exhibition Center." This center, combining public welfare with market operations, aims to serve as a "living room," "resource library," and "traffic pool." Other provinces, including Heilongjiang with its "Hei Tu You Pin," Fujian with "Fu Nong You Pin," and Gansu with "Gan Wei," have also introduced similar regional public brands.
Wang Lianzeng's proposal also called for increased support for the deep processing of specialty agricultural products, guiding leading enterprises and agricultural cooperatives to enhance technological research and application, thereby improving value conversion and overall industrial benefits. In 2021, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Development of Whole Agricultural Industry Chains," aiming to cultivate a number of "chain-leading enterprises" with annual output values exceeding 10 billion yuan, create typical counties with whole-industry chain values over 10 billion yuan, and develop key provincial-level chains with values exceeding 100 billion yuan by 2025.
Research indicates that "chain-leading enterprises" are crucial for the development of specialty agricultural industries. A study by Cai Jie, Associate Professor at Chang'an University's School of Humanities, and her team, based on survey data from 980 Chinese medicinal herb growers in key national poverty-alleviation counties in Gansu and Ningxia, found that embedding in "chain-leading" enterprises promotes green production transformation among smallholder farmers through four pathways: investment return rate, interest linkage, quality supervision, and technological optimization. The mediating effects of these pathways were 12.9%, 11.3%, 20.3%, and 10.5%, respectively. The study recommended strengthening policy guidance to encourage smallholders to effectively integrate with "chain-leading" enterprises, standardizing cooperation processes, and enhancing the internal mechanisms driving green transformation. Given the significant driving effects of close interest linkages and indirect cooperation models, the focus should be on guiding long-term, stable cooperative relationships between "chain-leading" enterprises and smallholders, while using inclusive embedding mechanisms to reduce disparities in green production transformation among smallholders.
In response, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs stated it will select and strengthen agricultural enterprises, develop "chain-leading" enterprises by industry, enhance enterprise services, and strengthen linkages with farmers. The effectiveness of farmer linkages will be tied to enterprise access to support policies, guiding enterprises to establish close interest-sharing mechanisms with farmers. The Ministry will also organize actions to improve the quality and efficiency of new agricultural business entities to drive smallholder income growth and explore mechanisms linking support policies for such entities to their success in driving farmer income increases.
Furthermore, the Ministry's response mentioned accelerating the construction of an agricultural product marketing service system, improving mechanisms for connecting production and sales, and diversifying online and offline methods to promote long-term, stable cooperative relationships and precise alignment between production and sales. It will also continue to increase investment in agricultural and animal husbandry science and technology, promote smart agriculture, support innovation capabilities, and further optimize training programs for high-quality farmers and "head goose" projects to provide stronger talent support for agricultural development.