Farming requires doing the right things with heart: Kong Bo shares his insights
After seeing the news story "Elderly Man from Qinghai Travels Half of China to Deliver 32 Tons of Potatoes Only to Be Refused; Shenzhen Citizens Buy Them All Overnight," Kong Bo wrote this passage on his WeChat Moments: "Journalists dig for news value and spread positive energy, but from a farmer's perspective, we see a different world. First, the smallholder economy lacks standardization. Second, no matter how sincere the goodwill, this kind of outcome is undignified for farmers. There must and will be people who push for the industrialization, standardization and modernization of agriculture, truly meeting market needs and selling at the best price. That day will surely come for agriculture."
This is a 30-year-old Beijing young man's vision for the future of agriculture. Having worked as a white-collar employee and a consultant, Kong Bo quit his job 5 years ago and returned to his hometown to start a business selling fresh produce. He achieved success for himself and also helped three thousand farming households get rich together.
It is precisely because he saw both the prospects and the problems of agriculture in the internet era that he became even more determined in his goal: in farming, you have to do the right things with heart, and only then will "new farmers" gain dignity and respect.
Opening an online store to sell fresh produce
Tall and slender, refined in appearance and quick-witted, Kong Bo seems quite different from his ancestors who faced the yellow earth with their backs to the sky. Yet it is exactly this "refined young scholar" who created the legend of ranking first in Taobao's local fresh produce category for many consecutive years.
Kong Bo is from Lianghe Village, Henanzhai Town, Miyun District. After graduating from Beijing Institute of Technology with a degree in automation, he worked in the city for 3 years and returned to his hometown to start a business at the end of 2011. The initial business idea was simple. At that time, Kong Bo and his wife both worked in the city, renting near the North 4th Ring Road. They were facing the dual pressure of buying a home and having a child.
"Every morning at 7, I took Bus 300 from Xibahe to Guomao, then to the office. I did that for a year and a half. It was too tiring. Considering that my family was not well-off, buying a house was too difficult, and there were elderly people to care for, I analyzed what I could do if I returned to Miyun. Miyun's specialties are tourism and agriculture. Starting with vegetables, this would be a market of consumption upgrading with very broad prospects."
Doing fresh produce e-commerce -- at that time, few people on Taobao were doing this. The only one made Kong Bo feel there was huge room for improvement, because the vegetables sold were all delivered only the next day. He thought that if he did it, he could certainly do better. So after quitting his job, Kong Bo set up an online store called "Mi Nong Ren Jia" and began selling vegetables.
Every morning at four or five o'clock, the vegetables picked from the garden still had dew on them and were packed and shipped directly, ensuring they reached consumers by that afternoon. In this way, Kong Bo's first-year sales completely beat his competitors.
He endured every kind of hardship
Including himself and his wife, Mi Nong Ren Jia had only 3 employees in the first year. What they sold was simply "whatever was available." In order to understand the customer base and build trust, Kong Bo often spent time on various forums chatting with potential customers and introducing knowledge about agricultural products. Sometimes, for an order worth just over ten yuan, he would still chat with the other person thoughtfully for more than an hour.
The packaging equipment was also very simple: a vacuum machine costing just over 200 yuan and a dial scale costing just over 20 yuan. Kong Bo said the vacuum machine was bought later. By then his online store was already receiving orders from all over the country, including some orders of Guoguang apples shipped to Hainan. At that time, fresh produce e-commerce was just starting out, and there was not much practical experience about what kind of packaging could prevent bruising, so he bought a vacuum machine. But vacuum-treated apples were still badly bruised. This method was used for more than half a year before it was replaced with mesh bags.
The delivery stage was even harder. At the beginning, the couple delivered the goods themselves. Every day they bought vegetables from the vegetable base, then went to the city to deliver them. At that time they did not yet have a car and relied on public buses every day. Sometimes they carried a huge amount of goods, and sometimes they had to ride a long way. Only they themselves knew the hardship involved.
Kong Bo's dedication secured the online store's first group of loyal supporters. By the second year, things gradually improved. He bought an electric tricycle, and later also equipped a special delivery truck for vegetables. He also recruited some like-minded people, and the team was finally formed. But the pressure that came with it also grew. Sometimes when friends ate together, if Kong Bo drank a little too much, he could not help but shed tears. He felt that farming was too difficult and too hard. So many people trusted him, and no matter what, he had to do this well.
He caught every opportunity
"When I started doing fresh produce, I never imagined I could grow it big. I only thought about making some money to support my family. From selling only vegetables to selling all kinds of agricultural by-products, the variety grew more and more, and later my ideas also gradually changed." In order to enrich the online products, Kong Bo traveled through every village, big and small, in Miyun, and he knew clearly what each place produced. Now, as the business expands, the team has gradually grown. The office location also changed from a small room at home, to a rented factory building of several dozen square meters, and then to a professional warehouse of two thousand square meters. Kong Bo attributed these changes over the years to the opportunities suited to the development of fresh produce e-commerce, all of which he caught.
People describe 2012 as the first year of fresh produce e-commerce. When Kong Bo had just started, there were fewer than four or five online stores nationwide selling agricultural products. At that time, few people sold and few bought, so competition was relatively small. People's mindset still lingered on the idea that online shopping was only for clothing, hats and shoes, not fresh produce. This early advantage gave Kong Bo a huge edge.
Later, more and more people imitated him, and a group of similar new farmers appeared around him. This also pushed Miyun's agricultural product e-commerce ahead of the whole city, with a share of more than 50%.
The e-commerce market is full of capital and competition, and countless fresh produce online stores have fallen. Why could Mi Nong Ren Jia survive? Kong Bo often reflected on the reasons. He believed that one reason was the boom period, during which they grew big. Another important reason was Miyun's uniquely advantageous agriculture. "Eight parts mountains, one part water and one part farmland. Vegetables, fruits, coarse grains and fish -- Miyun has everything. I earned my first pot of gold by selling vegetables. Some people say that selling vegetables well is my achievement, but I do not think so. Without the agricultural facilities vigorously promoted in previous years, and without the various policies on subsidized fertilizer and seeds that were fully implemented, there would not be such good resources now."
Products and services are the key
During the recently concluded Double 11, Kong Bo's online store completed more than 8,000 orders, while on ordinary days the number is more than 800 orders per day. The impressive sales volume also earned Mi Nong Ren Jia the crown of ranking first nationwide in Taobao fresh produce sales.
"Agricultural products are special. We cannot let orders overwhelm our capacity, or they will no longer be fresh. Nor can we, for the sake of promotions, affect regular orders from old customers, let alone damage their confidence because of discounts." This year was the first time Kong Bo's online store participated in Double 11. Only a few products had their prices reduced a little, yet it still received a huge number of orders. The whole team mobilized and took two and a half days to smoothly ship all orders without affecting normal delivery.
"Everyone else is busy doing e-commerce and building platforms, while we are busy working on the agricultural products themselves." The core value of agricultural products cannot be separated from the two commercial attributes of products and services. Centering on users, Kong Bo made many new attempts, from finding the best products for customers to introducing the best varieties and producing them. For example, in order to bring back the old taste of cabbage, he "learned from experience" at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and distributed seeds of old varieties restored by experts to farmers, having them grow on an order basis. In order to make pumpkins more glutinous and fragrant, he asked a friend to bring back new varieties from Japan... These attempts all achieved great success. This year the online store's sales have exceeded 12 million yuan, and many farmers, driven by Kong Bo, have seen steady income growth.
Kong Bo said that consumers will not forever pay for sentiment; they will only pay for products that have value. Therefore, future farmers should better adapt to market needs and push forward the industrialization of agriculture with heart.