Master's graduate gives up high salary to start a fish and shrimp farming business, annual turnover reaches 30 million
A master's graduate, once the only master's student in his college to publish a paper in an international journal - Liu Xiaolong, haloed with glory, did not stay at a university to do research, gave up a position with an annual salary of 300,000, and went alone to Jinwan to farm fish and shrimp. "Plenty of villagers with no professional background play mahjong while farming shrimp and still make a fortune. I'm academically trained with professional knowledge, so there's definitely no problem for me."
In the blink of an eye, 6 years passed. After experiencing entrepreneurial failure, transferring his shrimp ponds, then starting over again, and innovating farming methods and other ups and downs, Liu Xiaolong's company has already become an aquatic enterprise integrating "seedlings, fish medicine, feed, farming, sales, and research and development," with an annual turnover of 30 million.
What delighted him was not only the economic benefit. While making breakthroughs in the market, he also established a farmers' aquaculture professional cooperative, leading 110 farmer households to achieve a win-win in the market.
Original intention for starting the business:
A shrimp farmer's one remark secretly strengthened his determination to start a business
Liu Xiaolong graduated in 2010 with a master's degree from the College of Animal Science at South China Agricultural University. During his university years, glory surrounded him. According to confirmation by his supervisor Zhang Yongliang, Liu Xiaolong's paper had been published in an international journal, and he was the only master's student in the college at that time to publish a paper in a journal of that tier. Such achievements brought Liu Xiaolong many opportunities: continuing to do research, staying at the university as a teacher, and even a position at a feed company with an annual salary of 300,000.
But in Liu Xiaolong's heart, he hoped even more to clear the name of the academically trained. As early as 2008, when doing his master's research project, Liu Xiaolong had already farmed shrimp for a year in places such as Nanshui in Zhuhai and Xinhui in Jiangmen. During the "golden period" of shrimp farming from 2000 to 2010, because the water quality was good, shrimp farmers only needed to put shrimp seedlings into the ponds, play mahjong while farming shrimp, and they could make a fortune: the cost was only 10,000 yuan per mu, while the return was 15,000 yuan per mu.
However, the shrimp farmers looked down on university students from an academic background. "Even if university students farm shrimp, they won't necessarily farm better than us." That one remark from a shrimp farmer made Liu Xiaolong hold in a burst of determination: he wanted to clear the name of the "academically trained."
Experience of setback:
Lost all of his girlfriend's 300,000 yuan dowry money
Starting a business requires capital. At this time, Yang Lin, who was still his girlfriend, took out 300,000 yuan of dowry money to support Liu Xiaolong's entrepreneurial dream. With his girlfriend's dowry money, Liu Xiaolong raised another 300,000 yuan himself, rented 60 mu of fish ponds in Hongqi Mine, and began his dream of getting rich.
With a professional background, Liu Xiaolong was not content to use traditional farming methods. He discovered that, compared with traditional surface aeration, because shrimp like to move around at the bottom of the pond, if aeration could be done at the bottom of the pond, production would inevitably increase greatly. Although the cost of aeration would increase 8 times, Liu Xiaolong still chose to believe in technology and modified the aeration equipment at the bottom of the pond.
As expected, shrimp production did indeed increase greatly, which also made Liu Xiaolong quite delighted. But the good times did not last. One day the weather was muggy, and Liu Xiaolong turned on the aeration equipment of 6 shrimp ponds at the same time at night. Who would have thought that early the next morning, when Liu Xiaolong got up and came to the shrimp ponds, he saw a "tragedy": because the electrical load was too heavy, the aerators tripped in the middle of the night, and all the shrimp in the 6 ponds died. Looking at the pond full of dead shrimp, Liu Xiaolong knew that his first attempt at entrepreneurship had failed.
A turn for the better:
A new partner joins to innovate the farming model
After losing all 600,000 yuan, Liu Xiaolong also began to think about backing out. However, a dramatic scene occurred: someone took a fancy to Liu Xiaolong's professional background and his drive to dare to try. At this time, Lu Xiting, a well-known aquatic expert in Jinwan, came to Liu Xiaolong with 1.5 million yuan in cash. He was willing to invest and hold 50% of the shares with Liu Xiaolong, establishing Zhuhai Hailu Aquaculture Co., Ltd.
In this venture, Liu Xiaolong still chose to believe in technology. At that time, because water quality had deteriorated, the per-mu yield of shrimp farming had already dropped sharply, and many farmers had lost money. Many farmers polycultured grass carp and shrimp together, which could create more economic value. But what Liu Xiaolong favored was not grass carp, but the yellowfin seabream that was selling well in the market.
"Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp." There had been precedents for polyculturing grass carp and shrimp, but if yellowfin seabream were polycultured with shrimp, the shrimp would definitely be eaten all up. Many shrimp farmers warned Liu Xiaolong. But Liu Xiaolong refused to believe it. In one month, Liu Xiaolong conducted a polyculture experiment with shrimp and yellowfin seabream. He quickly discovered that the mouth of the yellowfin seabream is very small, and as long as shrimp seedlings were raised to 5 to 6 cm before being put into the pond, the risk of the yellowfin seabream eating all the shrimp seedlings would be avoided. Moreover, yellowfin seabream are in the middle and upper layers of the water, while shrimp are at the bottom. Polyculture could not only make rational use of space, but diseased shrimp could also be promptly swallowed by the yellowfin seabream, playing a role in disease prevention and control.
Expanding scale:
The company transforms to develop the entire industry chain
The innovative farming model enabled Liu Xiaolong's company to earn its first pot of gold in life one year later - more than 2 million yuan. Soon, the company, whose business was on track, gradually expanded the area of its farms and increased the varieties farmed. Spotted scat, Japanese seabass, and the four major Chinese carps became new favorites, and the farming scale further expanded.
"In 2014, we encountered a bottleneck period in our business, and also a period of decision-making." Liu Xiaolong said that during that time, the company's 6 shareholders had been discussing whether to continue repeating the previous farming model and expand scale, or to expand into fields such as seedlings, feed, farming, sales, and research and development, and develop the entire industry chain. The team quickly decided that since this was entrepreneurship with a professional background, simple replication could not give play to professional advantages, and developing the entire industry chain was the right path.
Since it was the entire industry chain, the farming segment with mature technology could be transferred to farmers, developing agricultural cooperatives and achieving prosperity together. In 2014, promoted by the Ocean Fisheries and Water Affairs Bureau of Jinwan District, Hailu Company led the establishment of the Zhuhai Jinwan District Hailu Aquaculture Professional Cooperative, spreading the model of polyculturing yellowfin seabream with whiteleg shrimp. Seeing that Liu Xiaolong had gained profits through technology, 110 farmer households joined the cooperative one after another.
Achieving a win-win:
Creating income for himself while also leading farmer households to prosperity
The establishment of the cooperative transformed Liu Xiaolong's company from a former farmer into a supplier of seedlings and feed, and a buyer and seller of fish and shrimp. In the upstream of the industry chain, the company provides seedlings of high-quality varieties and feed at preferential prices; during the farming process, it provides technical guidance to farmers to increase production; in the downstream of the industry chain, it has formed stable purchasing channels, solving farmers' worries about sales.
A very simple example: not counting the help in technology, sales, and other links, through feed discounts alone, Liu Xiaolong's company gave each member farmer household a benefit of 5,000 yuan per year. While farmers became prosperous, Liu Xiaolong's company also obtained rich returns. After forming an entire industry chain integrating "seedlings, fish medicine, feed, farming, sales, and research and development," the company's annual turnover reached 30 million.
"Achieving a win-win while earning profits for my own company, benefiting both myself and others, makes my entrepreneurship very fulfilling." Liu Xiaolong said that relying on professional technology to do agriculture, his team was not satisfied with the traditional farmer-style goal of "supporting the family." What he wanted was an entrepreneurial team with broader vision and stronger professional technology.
Future plans:
Build chain stores and expand into the deep-processing field
Now, Liu Xiaolong's company is going deeper and deeper along the direction of the entire industry chain. At the sales end, Hailu Company has invested wholly to build the "No. 10 Fish Manor" brand, and plans to open 5 fresh fish sales stores across the city this year, launching fresh aquatic products "caught the same day, sold the same day" for direct supply to the local market. At the same time, the company is developing products such as fish balls and canned fish.