Growing gourds but not selling them, how does he make 80 million yuan a year?

Zhou Weifeng from Zhumadian, Henan, is an expert at growing loofahs. The loofahs he grows can easily reach two or three meters. But these rare giant loofahs are not sold at all. They are even all cut off as soon as they bloom. Growing gourds but not selling them, yet earning 80 million yuan a year - what overlooked wealth did Zhou Weifeng discover in his loofah field?

In Zhumadian, Henan, there is a loofah-growing expert named Zhou Weifeng. The loofahs he grows are extraordinary. The one he is measuring right now has only taken 4 days from flowering to fruiting, yet it has already reached an impressive size.

Zhou Weifeng: "This one is already two meters now, 2.2 meters."

Reporter: "Is it this one? This very thin one."

Zhou Weifeng: "Yes, this very thin one. It's still a baby now, a loofah baby."

Our usual loofahs are only about fifty or sixty cm, but Zhou Weifeng's loofah grew to over 2 meters in just 4 days. But this kind of loofah is already commonplace here, nothing surprising. In fact, Zhou Weifeng's loofahs used to easily grow to three or four meters.

This is footage of loofahs filmed previously. Zhou Weifeng randomly picked one and measured it with a ruler - it was nearly 3.2 meters. But unfortunately, an accident in July this year collapsed this loofah shed, posing a great threat to Zhou Weifeng's harvest next year.

Zhou Weifeng: "Several tens of millions a year all depend on this shed for breeding. Planting next year - and now it has collapsed all at once, the impact is huge. If I can't produce seeds this year, I'll be anxious next year. This is what I temporarily replanted. Normally they should have covered the whole shed by now."

This is the birthplace of Zhou Weifeng's wealth, tied to his 80 million yuan annual fortune. Over the years, Zhou Weifeng has selected the larger loofahs each year to keep as seeds. Through generations of selective breeding, the loofahs have grown longer and longer.

Zhou Weifeng: "This one is good. This year's loofah should be kept as seed. I feel this seed is quite good. If this seed continues to mutate, this kind will definitely be good, because it's a bit thicker. Compare it with that one - you can't even reach it with your hand stretched up. This one is 2.2 meters, which isn't considered big, it's very normal. They easily grow over two meters."

After the loofah shed collapsed, Zhou Weifeng quickly replanted this batch of loofahs. During the interview, Zhou Weifeng would go into this loofah field whenever he had time.

Zhou Weifeng: "Not only do I keep coming to look, I have dedicated staff who come to check every day, and at night there are even people standing guard, all for these loofahs."

Reporter: "What are you worried about?"

Zhou Weifeng: "I'm worried about these loofahs. Because these loofahs are quite long, and there are fewer long loofahs this year, I'm afraid someone will see them as a novelty and pick them."

Zhou Weifeng fears the slightest mishap with his loofahs, even sending people to guard them at night. But during the interview, the reporter discovered that while Zhou Weifeng desperately protects the loofahs, he also has his partner farmers cut the loofahs.

In Shangcai County where Zhou Weifeng is located, over 4,000 mu of loofahs are planted. Farmers here are swinging sickles, cutting down loofah vines over large areas.

Farmer: "Once it bears fruit, it's no good."

Reporter: "Don't want the gourds?"

Farmer: "Don't want the gourds. The gourds are useless, don't want them. Cut them all off."

These cut loofah vines have quite a few small loofahs that just grew out, some even just blooming. Right now is the best time for loofah growth. In another ten days or so, each mu could yield twenty to thirty thousand jin of loofahs, with economic benefits reaching about ten thousand yuan.

Farmer: "At first it was heartbreaking too. We felt we planted these gourds to eat as vegetables, to eat these gourds."

Growing loofahs but not wanting the loofahs - what exactly do the farmers here rely on to make money? And Zhou Weifeng, who controls this, says the loofahs are gone, but the secret to making money is in the cut loofah stems.

Zhou Weifeng: "These loofah stems are treasures now. Compared to growing loofahs and selling loofahs, this is much better. Each loofah vine can bring me ten to twenty yuan in income."

Cutting down all the loofah vines full of small loofahs, just for a stem - in just 3 short days, a tiny loofah stem can bring over 80 million yuan in wealth. The secret is that Zhou Weifeng discovered something in the loofah field that many people overlook. What exactly is it?

Zhou Weifeng can easily grow loofahs to three or four meters long, yet he grows gourds but doesn't sell them. He was once seen by some as crazy, "Mad Zhou," and his life once sank so low that he survived on steamed buns and plain water, and he even nearly ruined his face. But now, relying on the secret he discovered in loofah stems, he has been pushed through the door of wealth. Zhou Weifeng: "For a period of time, it basically stabilized at a net profit of 100,000 yuan a day. At the most stable times, saying I was raking in money daily is not an exaggeration at all." What exactly did Zhou Weifeng discover in the stems of large loofahs, and how did he use tiny loofah stems to create over 80 million yuan in wealth a year?

Zhou Weifeng is 44 years old this year. After graduating from junior high school, he roamed the streets doing small trades. One day, he saw this newspaper report about loofah insoles selling well and decided to grow loofahs. At the time, Zhou Weifeng never imagined that loofah insoles wouldn't make him money - what truly made him rich was the overlooked thing in the loofah stems.

In 2000, Zhou Weifeng tore up 2 mu of his family's cornfield and planted loofahs. As the harvest season approached, among the many loofahs, one stood out.

Zhou Weifeng: "It was this thick, this tall, 1.3 meters. At the time it was very shocking. 1.3 meters was very eye-catching. Where would we have loofahs this long? Normally they were thirty cm, twenty cm per loofah. So it was very eye-catching. People from ten li and eight villages all came to see this loofah."

Zhou Weifeng thought, the bigger the loofah, the more insoles could be made from it. So he kept the seeds of the larger loofahs each year for breeding.

These are insoles made from loofah sponge. Zhou Weifeng still has many unsold ones. At the time, Zhou Weifeng's loofah insoles simply couldn't open up the market. In 3 years, not only did he fail to get rich from it, he also squandered all of his family's 100,000 yuan in savings.

Zhou Weifeng's wife: "What makes me feel aggrieved is that day after day passes, and it's still the same, without the slightest improvement."

Zhou Weifeng realized that selling loofah insoles wouldn't make him rich. He had the idea of giving up growing loofahs and changing careers, but found a glimmer of hope in his wife's pharyngitis.

At the time, his wife had contracted pharyngitis. Someone said the water dripping from loofah stems could treat throat diseases. Zhou Weifeng was skeptical - he had grown loofahs for so many years and had never discovered that loofah stems could produce water. With a try-it-and-see attitude, Zhou Weifeng cut a loofah stem to collect water.

Reporter: "Can water be collected from all loofah stems?"

Zhou Weifeng: "No. It must be the main root. Branches don't produce water. Generally you cut at about one meter, cutting one meter up from the root above ground, that produces the most water. Cut at an angle - the wound area is larger, so more water flows. Look, it's already producing water. This is fast."

To Zhou Weifeng's amazement, the loofah stem really did produce water. This became the future explosion point of his wealth from loofahs.

During the interview, the reporter did a test: this loofah stem, not even as thick as a little finger, how much loofah water can it actually produce?

Zhou Weifeng: "This one is relatively thick, its root system is well developed. The more developed the root system, the more water can be collected. See, this is an angled cut, sloping down to collect water."

Reporter: "Is it producing water?"

Zhou Weifeng: "Not yet. You have to wait a while. The weather is quite hot now, so water comes out slowly."

Zhou Weifeng discovered that about half a month after the loofah grows out, loofah water can be collected.

After 8 hours, we returned to the place where we did the test in the morning to see how much water this loofah stem had produced.

Zhou Weifeng: "Not much collected. If the temperature were suitable, it would have filled half a pot by now. How much is this? This is about two liang."

Zhou Weifeng told the reporter that the best time to collect loofah water is when the temperature is 28 degrees and the air is humid. During the reporter's interview, it was midsummer, with temperatures as high as 38°C, which greatly affected the water output of the loofah stems. So how much water can one loofah stem produce? We did a test before during the peak loofah water collection season.

One loofah stem can produce about 2 jin of water. Zhou Weifeng was shocked, and it really did cure his wife's pharyngitis. This discovery was like a treasure to Zhou Weifeng. He not only abandoned the idea of changing careers, but also had an idea that others saw as fantastical - since loofah insoles couldn't make big money, maybe loofah water could.

Zhou Weifeng's friend Ma Shuixian: "This water seemed completely worthless to us, but he would fiddle with a little bottle every day, lying in the loofah field collecting this water. Everyone at the time thought he was... he had no relatives or friends left around him. It felt too abnormal."

In many people's eyes, making a fortune from loofah water was full of doubts. Who on earth would buy loofah water?

Zhou Weifeng began looking up information. In herbal medicine books such as the Compendium of Materia Medica, he found that the medicinal use of loofah had long been recorded. So Zhou Weifeng tried to sell loofah water as a traditional Chinese medicine.

Reporter: "You can just drink it like this. Let me taste it. It's very tasty, with a fresh plant-like flavor."

His wife's personal experience gave Zhou Weifeng great confidence in loofah water. He took it to pharmacies to promote it, but ended up losing face. Zhou Weifeng: "The manager pushed me to the door all at once, saying 'Are you here to disgust people? Who dares to drink your loofah water?' But I still blush about it even now. You know how embarrassing it was at the time."

Zhou Weifeng firmly believed that loofah water was gold that hadn't yet shone. Every year he would store some loofah water. Because loofahs have antioxidant properties, loofah water can be preserved for at least 3 years. Zhou Weifeng kept trying to find suitable sales channels, even later leaving his hometown and living on steamed buns and plain water, yet he never gave up growing loofahs. Until one day, something brought Zhou Weifeng closer to wealth. Zhou Weifeng: "The computer really saved my life. The computer is truly powerful. It changed my entire life's destiny."

In Zhou Weifeng's 4th year of growing loofahs, he learned of a new concept at the time - e-commerce. Zhou Weifeng, always good at seizing opportunities, became interested immediately. He acted first and reported later, buying a computer for over five thousand yuan behind his wife's back. He couldn't even type, but he studied day and night without eating or sleeping, and began mining gold online.

Zhou Weifeng posted information about loofah water online. After several months, there were still no sales, but it didn't dampen his enthusiasm for e-commerce at all. Zhou Weifeng thought the internet speed in the village was too slow, unsuitable for developing e-commerce. So, clutching his computer, he went to Zhumadian, the nearest city to his home, and rented this small room of six or seven sq m for one hundred yuan a month. Zhou Weifeng: "That little hole they drilled for the broadband back then, look, it's still there."

Zhou Weifeng's former landlord Yin Zhibin: "His broadband was connected there, and he was always complaining about the slow speed. Sometimes when I was asleep in the middle of the night, I could still hear his computer, bang bang bang."

During that time, Zhou Weifeng guarded his computer every day, waiting for people online to buy his products. In order not to miss any opportunity that might arise at any time, Zhou Weifeng only went out once every 3 days. He developed the habit of eating steamed buns with chives and scallions like this.

Zhou Weifeng: "Basically when I buy steamed buns, I buy enough for three to four days, plus some scallions, some chives, pickled vegetables. Generally like this. It's convenient, saves time. Time is what's most precious."

Zhou Weifeng only went home when it was time to plant loofahs each year. The villagers talked about it endlessly, not understanding why Zhou Weifeng grew loofahs only for the loofah water. Could something be wrong with his nerves?

Zhou Weifeng's friend Zhou Guanhua: "None of the folks trusted him. They thought he was messing around, that he was crazy. They told his family and my family, 'Don't let Guanhua hang out with Zhou Weifeng. Look at him, always coming up with crazy ideas and crazy actions. Is this guy a bit abnormal? Don't let him turn Guanhua abnormal too.'"

The long wait began. At the time, nobody knew what loofah water was actually good for. Loofah water sold only a few jin a year online. Zhou Weifeng could only rely on selling some digital products online to make a living. He became the person everyone had given up on.

Zhou Weifeng: "I thought at the time, I must work hard, otherwise no one will respect me. Wherever I fell, I must get back up from there."

What nobody expected was that Zhou Weifeng really did pull off a miracle. Loofah water that couldn't be sold online for 3 years actually sold out. At its peak, 100,000 orders were completed in a single day.

Zhou Weifeng: "I worked for three days and two nights straight before I finished processing these orders. Without a computer, just checking the accounts would wear you out. 200 people couldn't finish checking the accounts in three days and two nights. 200 people just checking accounts couldn't finish. Not to mention writing shipping labels by hand - that's a joke, you couldn't finish writing them in 3 months."

How did loofah water, unsold for years, suddenly become a hot commodity? Who exactly is buying it, and what for? In fact, Zhou Weifeng was puzzled at first too. He curiously asked customers and also started searching for information online. It turned out that most buyers of loofah water were young girls, and the use was something Zhou Weifeng could never have imagined.

Reporter Zhao Xinyue: "Did you know what toner was back then?"

Zhou Weifeng: "No. I just knew they used it to apply to their faces, for wiping their faces. Entering the cosmetics industry - I was truly an outsider. Others lifted me in. It was word of mouth that lifted me into this industry. At first I didn't understand anything."

At the time, some reports appeared online saying that loofah water could care for skin and whiten it, that it was a natural skincare product. Loofah water began to be sought after by many young people.

Reporter Zhao Xinyue: "Excuse me, do you know about loofah water?"

Zhumadian, Henan resident: "I know loofah water, yes. I use it to soak mask sheets, for skincare."

Jiang Jun, researcher at the Institute of Horticultural Crops, Zhumadian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Henan: "The most crucial things are polypeptides, alkaloids, and proteins, amino acids, terpenoids. These are all antioxidant and anti-aging."

Reporter Zhao Xinyue: "Don't other plants have these?"

Jiang Jun, researcher at the Institute of Horticultural Crops, Zhumadian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Henan: "Other plants do have them, but the content is relatively very low."

Although Zhou Weifeng knew nothing about the cosmetics industry, the experience he had accumulated in e-commerce over the years made him keenly aware that this was a huge business opportunity. Zhou Weifeng quickly designed packaging for loofah water, applied for a trademark, and developed farmer planting of loofahs, buying back loofah water at about one thousand five hundred yuan per mu. At the time, there weren't many companies producing loofah water cosmetics - it was a new product. Zhou Weifeng's loofah water started selling well in his online store.

Zhou Weifeng: "Computers and the internet, that was basically me stepping up in life, from scratching food out of the soil to a very relaxed industry, going to Taobao in there."

Zhou Weifeng's annual sales maintained high-speed growth every year. By 2011, his loofah water sold over 40 million yuan. Just when Zhou Weifeng was gloating over his money-making vision, a crisis struck, pushing his company to the edge of life and death.

It got out of control. Prices went lower and lower, one lower than the next, until eventually you couldn't sell at all. From 35 to 9.5 yuan a bottle, some people would even sell at 5 yuan a bottle.

In 2012, loofah water brands sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, with over twenty appearing at once. To capture the market, many companies kept fighting a price war desperately even knowing they were losing money. Zhou Weifeng, struggling to keep up, also lowered his prices again and again. In 2013, sales plummeted to just over ten million. Just when everyone was anxious for Zhou Weifeng, his behavior suddenly became strange.

Zhou Weifeng's wife Wang Juan: "Every day he would stick all kinds of masks on his face. When signing documents and meeting clients, he was applying masks. It was like he had become possessed. Peel one off and apply another, peel one off and apply another."

At the time, Zhou Weifeng applied twenty or thirty masks a day, almost to the point of madness. Finally, Zhou Weifeng's face couldn't take it anymore.

Zhou Weifeng: "When I got up in the morning, a bump this big had appeared, a bump as big as an egg yolk, even bigger than an egg yolk. Very frightening. My face was covered with bumps like these."

It turned out that at the critical moment for his company, Zhou Weifeng once again found a new wealth explosion point through computers and the internet. He discovered that in the past two years, the mask market had grown rapidly, and most people who bought loofah water would also buy compressed mask sheets, soak them in loofah water, and use them on their faces. Through the new business opportunity discovered online, Zhou Weifeng decided to develop a mask. He personally tested it repeatedly and also invited experts to develop the formula. In 2015, mask products made with loofah water came out, and annual sales exceeded 80 million yuan.

Zhou Weifeng was full of confidence in the mask market. In 2016, he decided to lead more farmers to plant loofahs and expand production. But the collapse of the giant loofah shed forced him to postpone this year's development plan, to prepare for even greater wealth.

Zhou Weifeng: "Without computers, I would still be in the countryside riding a bicycle, hawking along the streets. I estimate my fate would still be here. How could I make it to CCTV? How could I possibly rake in money daily? That would be impossible."