On Competitiveness Of Agricultural Products In Shanxi Province

Competitiveness of agricultural products is the central problem in the development of agriculture in rural areas in China, especially in Shanxi Province. The study aimed at, based on competitiveness analysis of each category of agricultural products, that its competitive advantages and disadvantages and the direct and indirect factors which impact competitiveness would be highlighted, that evaluation frame of agricultural products competitiveness would be explored from the theoretical view, and that suggestions would be made on agricultural industry policy making, agricultural production structure adjusting, and agricultural production promoting. By means of modem competitiveness theory and the qualitative and quantitative analysis, competition states in world and domestic markets were studied of Shanxi's agricultural products which are namely wheat, maize, sorghum, millet, buckwheat, naked barley, dry beans, sunflower, cotton, apple, pear, red date, walnut, potato, vegetables. There are totally 16 categories.The primary result in theory was to build an evaluation frame of agricultural products competitiveness, that is, competitiveness of one agricultural product in one geographic region may be evaluated by the index which was called the market occupation amount in that region, when compared with its competitors, i.e., the same agricultural products from other geographic regions. The fact that the more market amount the agricultural products from one area of one category occupy in a region market, the higher competitiveness they have in this market, compared with the same category products from other geographic regions. Factors which influence competitiveness of agricultural products may be classified into two categories: direct and indirect ones. Direct factors are extroverted and obvious in the market, on which customers depend to make consumption decisions. Among direct factors are cost price, quality, brand, otherness. Indirect factors are introverted and hidden in the market, which put impact on competitiveness by interacting with direct factors. Indirect factors lies in sessions of agricultural products producing, storing and fresh-retaining, processing, and marketing. Among indirect factors are within-region agricultural natural resources and conditions, agricultural infrastructure construction, agricultural science and technology level, agricultural labor power, agricultural investment, farmers' management capacity, agricultural industry organization, government's support and protection of agriculture. Those factors play a dominant role in cost price, quality, brand, and otherness of agricultural products, influencing competition capacity indirectly.In practice, all 16 categories of agricultural products studied were classified into 3 types according to their market tompetitiveness: the first type was the competition-preponderant products including millet, potato, apple, walnut; the second type was competition-inferior products including wheat, cotton, soybean; the third type was competition-middle products, including maize, sorghum, buckwheat, naked barley, dry beans, sunflower, pear, red date, vegetables, which were competition-superior in some aspects while competition-inferior inother aspects, of which some varieties are competition-superior while others arecompetition-inferior. To sum up all above, production development prediction of smallscale food crops, fruits crops, vegetables crops and staple food crops should be made witha careful attitude and a conscious brain. Fruits production in Shanxi has comparativeadvantages. Fruits farmers' poor profits could be attributed to competition advantageproblems. Competitiveness of fruits products can go up a stair as long as problems in someways in the formation of competitiveness. Cutting off fruits trees when profits go downand decreasing orchard area doesn't accord with the current and future positions ofShanxi's fruits in domestic market. Production development should emphasize onnightshade ve...