"Luffa King" Zhou Weifeng Leads Fellow Villagers to Prosperity Together
Reporter Chen Si
In early summer, vegetation is lush and wheat waves give off fragrance. Walking into the clean and tidy luffa skincare production workshop of Zhumadian Chenzhong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in Zhouzhuang Village, Huangbu Town, Shangcai County, several female workers in work uniforms are affixing anti-counterfeiting labels to freshly off-line products and packing them into boxes.
Led by Zhou Weifeng, chairman of the company, our reporter's group toured workshop by workshop along the visiting corridor. The reporter learned that this company was founded in 2007 and takes the research and development, production and sales of Giant No.1 luffa skincare products and cosmetics, plastic mold production, and special planting as its three main industries. From products to filling bottles and packaging boxes, it has formed a complete industrial chain. As a deputy to the Henan Provincial People's Congress and the Shangcai County People's Congress, and the renowned "Luffa King," Zhou Weifeng is not satisfied. In 2015, led by Chenzhong Biotechnology Co., Ltd., the Chenzhong Economic Consortium was established. The consortium's members are composed of surrounding planting professional cooperatives, agricultural machinery professional cooperatives, family farms, as well as rural brokers and online marketing teams, absorbing hundreds of rural surplus laborers for employment. The consortium currently transfers a total of 7,000 mu of land, with an annual output of 4,200 tons of luffa raw liquid, annual sales revenue of nearly 100 million yuan, profits and taxes of more than 2 million yuan, and absorbs more than 500 rural surplus laborers for employment, among whom 29 impoverished household laborers work in the consortium, with an average monthly income of about 2,500 yuan. Zhou Weifeng introduced that in order to demonstrate corporate social responsibility and help poverty alleviation, the consortium first gives priority to transferring the land of registered impoverished households and disabled people. Each mu of land is used for only 2 to 3 months per year, with a transfer fee of 1,300 yuan per mu, and the rest of the time it is still handed back to them for personal cultivation, with the income belonging to the impoverished households. Second, it gives priority to arranging employment for laborers from 21 impoverished households, with an average monthly income of about 2,500 yuan. Third, it absorbs 125 impoverished households to invest the government's household income increase funds as shares in the consortium, and each household can receive a dividend of 1,200 yuan per year.
In the process of helping disadvantaged people escape poverty and become rich, Chenzhong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. gives priority to providing employment positions to impoverished households with labor capacity throughout the county, especially in surrounding areas, provides free technical training, free food and accommodation, and effectively changes their living circumstances.
Liu Gengchen of Miaowang Village, Shaodian Town, once lost confidence in life due to high paraplegia. After receiving free government entrepreneurship training, he mastered online marketing skills. Now, Liu Gengchen does WeChat business at home, with Giant No.1 luffa water cosmetics as his main product, earning about 2,000 yuan a month, realizing the dream of a severely disabled person to "easily earn money even lying in bed."
Villager Zhou Jianhua, from the same village as Zhou Weifeng, has suffered from polio since childhood and cannot take care of himself with his right leg. He has 80-year-old parents at home, and life is very difficult. Considering Zhou Jianhua's actual family situation, in 2011, Zhou Weifeng arranged for Zhou Jianhua to work as a gatekeeper at the company and helped him learn the craft of repairing machines, thereby obtaining a reliable and stable income. While his life improved, his confidence in life was also strengthened.
"Relying on leading enterprises, with e-commerce sales as the main channel, and through strengthened training and equity incentives, we provide every person with dreams and ability an operable, visible and tangible platform for entrepreneurship and wealth creation." Zhou Weifeng, who worked away from home in his early years and later peddled goods through the streets and alleys of his hometown, started out selling towels, gloves, shoes and so on. Along the way, he deeply understands the hardships of entrepreneurship and the bitterness of life. Although he has now become a big boss worth hundreds of millions, he better understands that for a company to grow bigger and stronger, it must focus on discovering talent, cultivating talent, and boldly using talent.
Zhang Huan, a post-90s generation, entered Chenzhong Biotechnology Co., Ltd. after graduating from university in 2014, serving as a copywriter and planner as well as a driver. Due to diligence, a love of learning, down-to-earth hard work, and outstanding performance, Zhang Huan was successively promoted by the company to production factory director, sales department manager, and company deputy general manager. The Giant No.1 Chenlu series products that Zhang Huan participated in designing and developing have been highly favored by consumers since coming onto the market, with sales in the first month alone reaching 200,000 yuan. Up to now, Zhang Huan's cumulative sales of the company's products have exceeded 20 million yuan, and for this he was gifted 50% of the shares of the Giant No.1 Chenlu series products, leaping from a university student with nothing to a veritable millionaire. While achieving success in his career, Zhang Huan was successively elected as a Henan Provincial Youth League representative, a top talent of the 10th Shangcai County, a deputy to the 14th Shangcai County People's Congress, and a deputy to the 4th Zhumadian Municipal People's Congress. Speaking of his growth in the company, Zhang Huan was full of mixed emotions. He said: "Thank you to Chenzhong Biotechnology Company and General Manager Zhou for cultivating me and giving me a stage for entrepreneurship and innovation and for realizing the value of life."
As a deputy to the 12th Henan Provincial People's Congress, a deputy to the 13th Shangcai County People's Congress, one of the city and county's top ten outstanding youths, a leader in becoming rich through science and technology, and a winner of the Municipal May 1 Labor Medal, Zhou Weifeng has never forgotten his social responsibility. While winning the market with extraordinary courage and keen vision, he actively participates in targeted poverty alleviation and poverty eradication work, helping disadvantaged people out of difficulty and bringing prosperity to the people of his region. Looking to the future, Zhou Weifeng is full of confidence: "At present, more than a dozen people engaged in online cosmetics sales in the consortium have a monthly income of more than 100,000 yuan, and hundreds of people have monthly incomes ranging from several thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan. My dream is to build the consortium into a relatively strong characteristic planting base and a labor transfer employment base."