Rao Mali: A woman leader guiding her fellow villagers to prosperity
"In the less than 6 months before and after tea picking, I earned more than 20,000 yuan. My pockets are full, and I no longer have to worry about the family's expenses for the whole year. It's all thanks to Sister Mali." Recently, during an interview at the Gaolong Tea Plantation in Zhenfeng County, Feng Guangli, a woman who picks tea at the plantation, was beaming with joy.
The "Sister Mali" Feng Guangli mentioned is none other than Rao Mali, the person in charge of the Gaolong Tea Plantation in Zhenfeng County.
"At present, the tea plantation and processing factory provide long-term employment for more than 80 people, mostly women, while also helping more than 1,000 farming households in the surrounding area increase their income. My original intention was to lead women to find employment and increase income together, fill their pockets, and live a good life." Rao Mali, who looks young and beautiful and is shrewd and capable, said this.
A difficult entrepreneurial dream
Rao Mali, 35 years old this year, began exploring the way of doing business as early as 2001-2003, investigated the tea market in 2005, and explored the path of tea in 2006.
"At the beginning of starting the business, I went through many hardships. In 2006, I invested all my savings and began to grow tea. After several years back and forth, it was not until 2010 that I saw returns." Speaking of that entrepreneurial experience, Rao Mali had a bellyful of bitterness.
It turned out that in mid-2006, Rao Mali, full of drive, spent all the savings she had accumulated from her earlier years of hard work and took over a stretch of barren hillside at what is now the Gaolong Tea Plantation in Mingu Subdistrict, planting 600 mu of tea, looking forward to the arrival of good days.
"Storms gather without warning. From 2007 to 2010, there were severe droughts, freezing weather, and other conditions, and the tea garden base was damaged." Rao Mali explained, "Good things come after trials." After several years of hard work, her tea base gradually took shape, and the tea plantation gradually began to yield returns, but selling fresh tea leaves did not bring much profit. So Rao Mali purchased professional tea processing and production equipment and started primary tea processing. A production line integrating tea production, processing, and sales opened up Rao Mali's road to prosperity and also brought her arduous entrepreneurship to a satisfying close.
At present, Rao Mali has established a company. Its tea products have registered the trademark "Dadi Shengmu," its production has obtained QS certification, and it has successfully developed a series of premium products such as Shengmu Yinzhen, Shengmu Yinya, and Shengfeng Oolong Tea. The company's annual sales revenue is nearly 5 million yuan.
"Leading women to prosper together"
The tea planting base has grown from 600 mu at the beginning to more than 2,100 mu today. The tea is sold far away to Fujian, Zhejiang, and Anhui, and Rao Mali's tea business is thriving.
"The ultimate goal is to drive surrounding farming households to grow tea and lead more women to prosper together." Rao Mali said this, and she has done exactly that.
Rao Mali explained that every year 6,000 person-times come to the tea plantation to pick tea. According to incomplete statistics, more than 1.8 million yuan in labor fees is paid each year. "When the tea-picking season comes, tea pickers are everywhere at the plantation. On the busiest day there are more than 400 people, 95% of them women. If you came then, you could still hear them singing mountain songs." As she spoke, Rao Mali recalled the scene of tea picking at the plantation.
"Usually, when work ends early because of bad weather or other reasons, she invites us to eat, and everyone chats together and shares what's on their minds." In her assessment of Rao Mali, tea-picking woman Li Yongjuan used the phrase "as close as sisters."
Rao Mali said that most of the workers hired by the tea plantation are farming households from surrounding villages. While participating in strengthened management of tea seedlings, the workers received systematic training in tea tree planting techniques, which laid the foundation for surrounding farming households to develop tea planting.
"Up to now, we have invested 15 million yuan and guided farming households to plant more than 5,000 mu of tea in a standardized way, covering multiple villages and groups, and leading farming households to start businesses, find employment, and become prosperous." Rao Mali explained that her long-term plan is to drive the masses to plant 50,000 mu of organic tea gardens and 50,000 mu of ecological tea gardens in a standardized way, and to strive to promote the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture.
Expanding development and helping women find employment
Now, through the demonstration role of the base, Rao Mali's company is striving to improve local tea processing capacity, improve the backward situation of local tea processing being "small, scattered, and disordered," build local famous, special, and high-quality product brands, increase the added value of agricultural and forestry products, and accelerate the transformation of resource advantages into economic advantages.
"Tea production and processing is a labor-intensive industry. The base can provide employment for more than 300 surplus rural laborers, especially left-behind women who cannot go out to work." Rao Mali explained that next, through a radiating and driving effect, she plans to build more than 10,000 mu of ecological tea gardens in Dabe Village, Mingu Subdistrict, beside the Shuangru Peak Scenic Area in Zhenfeng County, expand the tea processing workshop, solve the problem of fresh tea leaf sales for tea farmers, guide more than 2,000 tea farming households onto a path out of poverty through both tea planting and ecological tourism income, and increase tea farmers' economic returns.
"Now, all parts of the country are carrying out poverty alleviation work. I also hope to do my part, strengthen the tea industry, and drive more impoverished ordinary people to prosper together." Rao Mali said.