Since the start of the autumn grain procurement work in 2025, under the careful guidance of the Hubei Provincial Grain Bureau, the Wuhan National Grain Trading Center has firmly adhered to the core principles of "strengthening services, stabilizing the market, preventing risks, and promoting development." Actively leveraging its role as a platform hub and relying on the national grain trading supply-chain financial service system, the Center has adopted a multi-pronged approach to stabilize market order, facilitate the connection between production and sales, overcome financing challenges, and make accurate market assessments. This concerted effort has enabled policy-based procurement and market-oriented acquisitions to work in synergy, fully ensuring that our province's autumn grain procurement operations run smoothly, orderly, and efficiently.

First, promptly activate the price “circuit breaker” mechanism to serve as a “stabilizer” for the market. In response to the new situation in autumn grain procurement, the trading center adopted a problem-oriented approach and, prior to the start of the procurement season, dispatched dedicated teams to conduct in-depth grassroots surveys in major grain-producing counties such as Suizhou, Jingzhou, and Xiangyang. Through on-site visits and symposiums, the center gained a detailed understanding of this year’s mid- and late-season indica rice production conditions, quality status, farmers’ willingness to sell their grain, and market price expectations. This enabled the center to accurately assess market risks and, under the guidance of the Hubei Provincial Grain Bureau, innovatively introduced an open bidding and auction “circuit breaker” mechanism on August 26 during the rotation procurement of mid- and late-season indica rice held by local reserves. The mechanism explicitly stipulates that the actual transaction price must not fall below the minimum procurement price of 1.29 yuan per jin. This targeted measure has effectively provided a floor price, stabilized market expectations, prevented irrational price declines, and protected the interests of grain-growing farmers. Since the launch of this mechanism, it has successfully facilitated the procurement of over 200,000 tons of mid- and late-season indica rice by numerous enterprises, boosting market participants’ confidence and ensuring a smooth and orderly autumn grain procurement process.

Second, we will deepen the alignment between production and sales, building a “connector” trading center for grain sources. We will actively leverage the platform’s aggregation advantages to precisely match supply and demand both within and outside the province, thereby ensuring smooth circulation of grain resources. In terms of reserve grain rotation and release, we proactively address market challenges by analyzing demand, matching grain sources, and recommending appropriate prices, successfully facilitating the sale of aged grain from reserve enterprises in Suizhou, Nanzhang, and other regions—areas affected by rainy weather this year—thus mitigating rotation risks through market-oriented approaches. Regarding the procurement of new rice for reserves, in response to this year’s decline in milling yield caused by prolonged rainy weather and the growing demand from enterprises for high-quality grain sources, we have drawn on our extensive membership base to bring in integrated planting and processing enterprises such as Longping Hi-Tech Group. This has enabled 19 reserve enterprises to procure online, via digital platforms, a total of 140,000 tons of premium medium- and late-maturing indica rice varieties—including Changliang You Xiangjiu and Huanghuazhan—effectively guaranteeing stable grain supplies in sales regions.

III. Innovating Financial Services to Unleash the “Driving Force” of the Industry—Continuously deepening innovation in supply-chain finance models and focusing on breaking through the bottlenecks of “difficult and expensive financing” faced by small and medium-sized enterprises. This year, under the guidance of the National Grain Trading Coordination Center, our financing business has achieved multiple breakthroughs: On the one hand, the “Auction Loan” and “Procurement Auction Loan” products have provided financial support to enterprises participating in the rotation procurement and sales of local grain reserves in Hubei Province, helping to establish an effective supply and stabilize the market. A total of 19 loans have been issued, amounting to 53.853 million yuan, benefiting 13 enterprises. Among these, the earlier-issued loans represent the nation’s first-ever instance of such policy-based financial services, demonstrating the “Hubei Speed” in policy-driven financial services. On the other hand, we’ve achieved significant innovation in serving the market-oriented procurement of grain: In November 2025, the “Grain Order Financing” product was successfully launched in Hubei Province. In this particular transaction, Jingzhou Tianshi Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., leveraging a grain sales contract signed on the National Grain Trading Platform, successfully obtained a bank loan of 4.73 million yuan, earmarked specifically for paying grain payments to two farmer professional cooperatives in Jiangling County—a total of 5.92 million yuan. This innovative approach combines “order financing + delivery warehouse + order-based agriculture,” allowing enterprises to secure loans without requiring collateral in the form of fixed assets. The entire process is conducted online, with preferential loan interest rates as low as 2.6%, and enterprises can obtain loans up to 80% of the total order value. The standardized grain procurement contracts generated by the platform, coupled with the digital monitoring equipment and third-party supervision provided by the designated state-owned delivery warehouse, Jiangling County Reserve Grain Co., Ltd., ensure that electronic warehouse receipts are complete, their value remains stable, and ownership is clearly defined. This effectively safeguards the security of pledged grain and alleviates banks’ concerns. At the same time, this model has also improved the utilization rate of empty storage capacity at local state-owned grain enterprises. The synergistic efforts of various supply-chain finance models have created a virtuous cycle that brings in fresh financial resources and invigorates the overall procurement process. In 2025, through these diverse models, we have cumulatively helped grain enterprises secure financing loans totaling 70.1834 million yuan, facilitating the transaction of 42,400 tons of various grain sources. This has effectively addressed the financing challenges faced by SMEs and greatly enhanced the resilience and vitality of the grain industry chain.

Fourth, we will strengthen situation analysis and risk prevention and control, and further optimize the market environment. The platform attaches great importance to market monitoring and information services. On September 19, under the guidance of the Provincial Grain Bureau, it successfully hosted a symposium on the market situation of mid-to-late indica rice, inviting over 40 enterprises and more than 70 representatives and experts to jointly discuss market trends, providing precise guidance for business decision-making. At the same time, we are making concerted efforts to establish a price monitoring index system covering the entire grain industry chain—from production and procurement to storage, processing, and sales—enabling us to track domestic and international price dynamics in real time and build a comprehensive database that serves as an authoritative reference for government policymaking and enterprise operations. In terms of risk prevention and control, the center takes serving its members as its core mission and is actively promoting the construction of a credit evaluation system. Leveraging big data, we have developed a “multi-dimensional radar” evaluation system to implement tiered and classified management of the credit standing of participating enterprises and to carry out cross-regional joint sanctions, thereby fully fostering a fair, transparent, and trustworthy market environment. Although the autumn grain procurement work for 2025 is nearing completion, the responsibility and mission of safeguarding the “Jingchu Granary” remain firmly on our shoulders. The Wuhan National Grain Trading Center will continue to take the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China as its guiding principle, and under the guidance of the Provincial Grain Bureau and the National Grain Trading Coordination Center, keep deepening the market-oriented reform of grain procurement and sales, optimizing the functions of the service platform, stimulating market vitality with even better services, and strengthening our commitment to solidifying the defense line of food security, thus contributing more grain-storage capabilities to Hubei’s efforts to become a national pioneer in building a new development paradigm.

Source of Information: Wuhan National Grain Trading Center