CRI听力:High-end Agricultural Talents in Urgent Need in China

Zhao Jiying is the general manger of an agricultural product company based in Hangzhou. His company produces pickles and tea oil products. The company expands at a rate of 40 percent annually. The rapid growth has urged him to seek a higher-end of talent for the company. However, he says it's not easy even by offering sky-high salaries.

"We offer 200 thousand yuan and up to one million yuan to lure those high-end talents. For example, we provided a car and one hundred million yuan annual salary for the Marketing Director, but unexpectedly, it took half a year to find such a person."

Consultant Lang Yueshi works for a headhunter company in Hangzhou.

"We usually have two to three phone calls seeking such talents everyday. This year, the demand for agricultural talents has taken up more than 40 percent of the total number of job positions based on our statistics, a six-to-seven-time growth compared to that of last year. It's a very sharp surge."

So,why does sky-high salary not bring appropriate employees? Professor Xiong Yinjie from Huazhong Agricultural University says the development of agricultural talent in China is imbalanced.

"High-end agricultural talents are scarce in China. But the idea of attracting such personnel in companies along the coastline is stronger than companies in inland region. For example, provinces like Zhejiang and Shandong have already realized that they need to hire highly skilled personnel to cope with the enterprise development."

Aspects like sales and marketing, quality inspection, production management and cultivation of new products are mainly in urgent need for talents. Professor Xiong Yinjie says this is huge change in Chinese agriculture development.

"The development model of agricultural activity has used to be very traditional in China. But now more and more agricultural companies are operating in enterprise model. Some of these companies have just finished their basic development and are upgrading in scale and in professional level, some of them want to enhance their brand impact. That's when they wish to hire people from outside by offering high salaries, especially people in management."

The expert says agricultural development in China hasn't provided a mature environment to nurture enough high-end workers in the industry.

Agricultural companies usually are located in smaller cities and rural areas, but people looking for high salaries in China usually are not willing to work and live there.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.