Agricultural brands are the core indicators of agricultural competitiveness, important engines for modern agriculture, and key support for rural revitalization. In recent years, various regions have vigorously promoted the construction of regional public brands for agricultural products, using branding to drive the scale and industrialization of agriculture. Under the guidance of regional public brands, more and more agricultural products have become local characteristic "golden business cards."

Deep cultivation of characteristic industries

Shandong Province took the lead in exploring the construction of regional public brands nationwide, innovatively creating the "Good Products of Shandong" regional public brand. Since 2022, Shandong has successively launched three batches of 427 "Good Products of Shandong" brands, with over 32,000 brands included in the cultivation database. "Hospitality Shandong, Good Products Shandong" has become a bright business card for the high-quality development of Shandong.

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Due to its unique geographical environment, Zigui County in Yichang City, Hubei Province, has formed a unique advantage of having fresh oranges all year round. In recent years, Zigui has deeply cultivated the "Four Seasons Fresh Oranges" brand, promoted the "1+N" action for the quality improvement of navel oranges, and used branding to drive the scale development of agriculture.

When navel oranges mature, tourists can not only pick them by hand but also visit modern processing plants to understand the whole process from planting to processing. Relying on the natural scenery of the Three Gorges area, Zigui is actively building a "Three Gorges Gallery, Four Seasons of Flowers and Fruits" tourism pattern, allowing every visitor to feel the unique charm of Zigui.

"At present, the planting area of Zigui navel oranges is 400,000 mu, with 90% of the townships, more than 80% of administrative villages, and more than 70% of the population in the county engaged in industries related to navel oranges." Gu Pengfei, Secretary of the Zigui County Party Committee, said that navel oranges have become an important pillar industry in the county. The local area will effectively transform resource advantages into product advantages, brand advantages, and industrial advantages, helping farmers increase production and income.

Inner Mongolia takes brand construction as the guide, focuses on characteristic industries, and cultivates and promotes a batch of advantageous regional public brands, enterprise brands, and product brands, continuously improving the influence, competitiveness, and reputation of agriculture, animal husbandry, and livestock products and related industries. Inner Mongolia takes the "Meng" brand as the regional public brand, focusing on the advantageous characteristic industries of "meat warehouse, granary, dairy can, and cashmere capital", and has innovatively planned the "Meng" brand certification, promoting Inner Mongolia's high-quality characteristic agricultural and livestock products to go out of the grassland and into various markets. Currently, there are more than 60 enterprises with the "Meng" brand certification, and more than 600 products.

Play a driving effect

By creating regional public brands with market competitiveness, various regions continue to play the driving effect of strong agriculture brands, promoting agricultural products to go out of the circle.

"Our ginger product series has an annual output value of over 1 billion yuan, with an annual export volume of more than 280,000 tons." Song Shaobin, deputy general manager of Wanxing Food Co., Ltd. located in Laiwu District, Jinan City, Shandong Province, said.This year, Laiwu has been leveraging its advantage in ginger cultivation and continuously supporting and strengthening leading modern agricultural enterprises. Driven by these leading enterprises, the district processes 1.5 million tons of ginger annually. Ginger products have evolved from primary processing to four major series: preservation, pickling, dehydration, and quick-freezing, with over 100 varieties, and more than 1,000 products have been developed in the categories of "food, medicine, health, and hygiene."

"We are actively creating the 'Laiwu Ginger' agricultural regional public brand. 'Laiwu Ginger' has been sold to over 100 countries and regions worldwide, with a brand value of 12.4 billion yuan. 'Laiwu Ginger' has been included in the national agricultural brand fine breeding plan and has permanently settled in the national geographical indicator exhibition hall," said Liu Qing, Deputy Secretary of the Party Group and Deputy Director of the Laiwu District Agricultural and Rural Bureau.

In the Xiaba Village of Shuitianba Township, Zigui County in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, planter Hu Zhigang is guiding fruit farmers in standardized management.

Last February, Zigui County awarded the title of "local expert" inheritor to 28 orange growers. They not only became wealthy first but also led surrounding farmers to increase their income together, helping Zigui County to build the "Zigui Navel Orange" regional public brand from multiple aspects such as cultural inheritance, talent training, and technology improvement.

Entering the Yihetala Yellow Cattle Breeding Cooperative in the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner, Tongliao City, Inner Mongolia, one is greeted by clean and tidy cattle sheds and well-fed fattening cattle. This year, the cooperative has become one of the seven entities authorized to use the "Horqin Cattle" geographical indication in the Horqin Left Wing Rear Banner. "Obtaining the right to use the 'Horqin Cattle' geographical indication not only increases the visibility of our cooperative's yellow cattle but also urges us to improve cattle breeding and standardized farming," said Yang Guang, the director of the cooperative.

Building a Brand System

Adhering to quality as the core and highlighting high-end positioning, various regions are benchmarking "domestic first-class, internationally leading" to continuously polish their golden signs.

In recent years, Shandong has implemented the "Good Products of Shandong" brand cultivation project in a rolling manner across industries, fields, and levels, and the "Good Products of Shandong" brand has covered agriculture, manufacturing, and service industries. Dou Hu, Deputy Director of the Shandong Provincial Market Supervision Bureau, stated that next, Shandong will follow the principle of "tiered cultivation, systematic improvement," and accelerate the construction of a Shandong brand system with the "Friendly Shandong, Good Products of Shandong" brand as the main body and various brands as the foundation, promoting the "Good Products of Shandong" brand to leap to an international brand.

Last year, "Zigui Navel Orange" won the annual popular fruit regional public brand, with a brand value of 9.073 billion yuan. In September of this year, Hubei released four high-quality agricultural product regional public brands, and "Zigui Navel Orange" was among them, becoming a provincial regional public brand.

Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, focuses on grain, cashmere, beef cattle, sheep, and dairy to strive to create five billion-yuan industries. The local area expands the green, high-quality, and high-end agricultural and livestock product consumer market, creating the "Warm City Multi-flavor" regional public brand, which mainly includes conventional agricultural and livestock products, leisure food and beverages, combination products, customized products, and bulk products from the nine banners and districts of Ordos.The person in charge of Ordos stated that "Warm City Flavors" is a city-level regional public brand that Ordos is striving to cultivate, covering the entire region, all categories, and the entire industrial chain. Ordos will fully leverage the advantage of "industry driving agriculture, and the secondary industry nourishing the primary industry" to make more "Warm City flavors" enter thousands of households and become popular across the country.