Two young men from Yuzhong give up high-paying jobs to start a business, successfully farm shrimp and fill a gap
Tao Wenqing (right) and Zeng Tongtang are studying white shrimp.
Two young men born in the 1980s were determined to benefit their hometown, gave up high salaries at their original work units, devoted themselves to farming white shrimp, and finally succeeded, also filling the gap in white shrimp farming in our province. This was learned by the reporter on August 18 during an interview in Qingcheng Town, Yuzhong County.
Growing up by the Yellow River, two childhood friends and university graduates gave up high salaries and changed careers
On August 18, the reporter came by reputation to the bank of the Yellow River in Dongtan Village, Qingcheng Town, Yuzhong County, where several fish ponds are located. The reporter saw two young people busy at work; their tanned skin and nimble movements made it hard to believe they were once two post-80s university graduates earning high salaries. Amid the roar of 4 large aerators, dense swarms of shrimp swam in the pond, while white shrimp caught with ground cages jumped up and down in a basin.
Tao Wenqing, 29 this year, and Zeng Tongtang, 30, are childhood friends from Shuichuan Town, Baiyin District, Baiyin City, who grew up playing together. Later, they were admitted respectively to Lanzhou University of Technology to study civil engineering and to Daqing Petroleum Institute to study drilling. After graduating in 2010, they worked at Changqing Oilfield and the Fourth Company of Gansu Construction Investment, respectively. After several years of tempering, they had each become young backbones of their units, with annual salaries both exceeding 100,000 yuan.
But the monotonous work gradually made the two young men feel bored, and they developed the idea of starting their own business. “We both grew up drinking Yellow River water. Could we do something with water? Many people in the south have become rich through farming. Could we also give it a try and build a career of our own?” Zeng Tongtang was the first to have this idea, but he met strong opposition from his wife and parents. So he thought of his good friend Tao Wenqing, and the two young men hit it off immediately. Under pressure, Zeng Tongtang first went at his own expense to Panjin in Liaoning, Dongying in Shandong, Baotou in Inner Mongolia, Haikou in Hainan and other places to inspect and learn the farming of South American white shrimp and other tropical aquatic species.
Tao Wenqing is harvesting white shrimp.
Self-raising 200,000 yuan, successfully farming shrimp on the bank of the Yellow River
After mastering the farming technology, in 2015 the two resigned from the high-paying jobs that others envied, raised 200,000 yuan on their own, came to Dongtan Village in Qingcheng Town across the river, contracted 2 fish ponds of 10 mu each in the form of shareholding, cleaned the pond bottoms, and transported 4 large aerators from elsewhere, thus beginning their entrepreneurship.
On June 9 this year, 1.2 million South American white shrimp seedlings arrived by air from Haikou. Watching the seedlings, each only 8 mm in size and difficult to distinguish with the naked eye, enter the water, both men's hearts were in their throats. “Changing from seawater to freshwater, the first 10 days after the shrimp seedlings land are the most important. The two of us spent most of each day watching the pond edge, and every afternoon we had to test the pH value, nitrite content, and ammonia nitrogen content, and deal with any problems at any time. When encountering heavy rain or hail, we were so nervous we could not sleep at night.” Zeng Tongtang recalled.
Hard work pays off. After more than two months of hard work, the first batch of South American white shrimp was finally grown, with a survival rate of 50% and an average body length of 10-15 cm. Aquatic product dealers who had already “smelled” the business opportunity had rushed to order all 500,000 to 600,000 white shrimp in the two ponds.
The white shrimp are fat and large.
Entrepreneurship succeeds, South American white shrimp settle in Yuzhong
Kai Shoucang, director of the Gansu Provincial Aquatic Product Farming Science and Technology Center, who first guided them in farming, said happily that previously some enterprises and individuals in our province had also tried to farm white shrimp, but none succeeded; either the survival rate was low or the output was small. The white shrimp farmed by these two university graduates had a very high survival rate and per-unit yield, filling the gap in white shrimp farming in our province, effectively using the local saline-alkali land, and opening up a new farming model for our province.
Tao Wenqing introduced that South American white shrimp is rich in high protein and highly nutritious, with a meat yield of 60%. Previously it could only be airlifted from other places, and most of it was dead shrimp. The successful local cultivation of white shrimp will actively supply the nearby Lanzhou and Baiyin markets, letting more people taste delicious live shrimp.
Li Fenzhong, village chief of Dongtan Village, told the reporter: “In recent years, villagers have encountered a bottleneck in farming, and the profits from fish farming are also small. The success of the two university graduates in farming white shrimp has brought new hope for increasing the villagers' income. It can reduce costs, solve employment, and increase income. It truly achieves multiple benefits at once. The village will support the young people in expanding production.”
“According to the temperature in Qingcheng, this kind of white shrimp can produce two seasons a year. With the first successful farming this year, after deducting various costs, the profit is more than 100,000 yuan. Next year we will add varieties such as crabs, and at the same time package the products formally, extend the industrial chain, form an integrated production and sales chain, and create more employment opportunities and economic benefits.” Tao Wenqing said confidently.