The contract farming story of entrepreneurial farmers in Dongchangfu, Shandong
Reading note: Recently, a set of statistics from the National Development and Reform Commission showed that in 2015 the number of returning migrant workers reached 2.42 million, and they founded a total of 260,700 small and micro enterprises. Returning farmers have become the main force in rural entrepreneurship. In finding the right market positioning and opening up product sales channels, returning entrepreneurial farmers have demonstrated the various elements for developing modern agriculture that they accumulated while studying and seeking work elsewhere. When new farmers take over old industries, the once difficult problem of unsold goods is solved by a steady stream of orders. Please see——
Once, the rural labor force in Dongchangfu District, Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, moved outward by more than 8,000 people each year, making it truly a labor-exporting place. In recent years, as the local environment for farmer entrepreneurship has steadily
improved, nearly 20 percent of farmers have chosen to return home to start businesses, creating more than 6,000 job opportunities. Moreover, people have found that not only are there more employment opportunities back home, but local agricultural products have also gone from being periodically unsalable and difficult to sell in past years to becoming "in high demand."
Sun Yunduo is a graduate student majoring in journalism at Shanghai University. Although she should have been seeking her career ideal in a large urban media outlet, she chose to return home to sell grapes. Today, her "Yunduo E-commerce Co., Ltd." not only sells the hometown grapes until they are out of stock, but also makes popular those free-range eggs, free-range duck eggs, ugly sweet potatoes... that once seemed worthless.
Online mall——letting good agricultural products have the value they deserve
"Recently, there has been a lot of rainy weather, so we all take advantage of the good weather to concentrate on harvesting. Today more than a dozen workers joined in together, and we completed all the orders that had been held up for three days." While speaking, Sun Yunduo skillfully packed grapes into boxes. To meet customer needs, she also specially customized ice packs to keep the grapes fresh. In mid-July, in Yunduo Manor in Zhangluji Town, Dongchangfu District, there was a scene of a bumper grape harvest.
In 2014, Sun Yunduo was admitted with excellent results to Shanghai University as a graduate student majoring in journalism. When she returned home for summer vacation in 2015, which was originally the peak season for grape sales, her family's grapes were unsalable for a time. Her mother frowned all day, and the growers also sighed repeatedly. Sun Yunduo, who had a keen awareness of publicity, used WeChat to carry out widespread promotion and went to the urban area to hold activities giving away grapes for free. Just for the activities alone, she gave away nearly 50,000 jin of grapes for free, and through the activities and reposts on WeChat Moments, with online and offline efforts proceeding simultaneously, everyone recognized the grapes from Yunduo Manor, and sales naturally ceased to be a problem. After fruit dealers at the Beijing Xinfadi Wholesale Market saw the news on WeChat, they took the initiative to come to Yunduo Manor to order grapes, picking 10,000 jin in a single day. In just one month, the ripe grapes available for picking at Yunduo Manor were sold out.
The successful marketing strategy led Sun Yunduo to decide to take a leave of absence from school and return home to start a business. Although her parents and teachers strongly opposed it, Yunduo's mature entrepreneurial idea still persuaded everyone. He quickly successfully registered and established Yunduo E-commerce Co., Ltd., and within less than a month, the Yunduo Mall went online for trial operation. Online sales platforms such as the WeChat public platform and Taobao store were also opened one after another. The products were green and healthy agricultural products such as Yunduo Manor wine, free-range eggs, free-range duck eggs, Yunduo Manor ugly sweet potatoes, purely handmade sweet potato starch noodles, and local free-range millet.
Since the company began operating, its turnover has exceeded more than 2 million, with more than 30,000 precise customers. In 2016, Sun Yunduo won the honorary title of "Liaocheng City Model Worker." "We want to build a platform connecting consumers and the source of agricultural products, provide everyone with the best, and let truly good agricultural products have the value they deserve. There are many ways for young people to realize their dreams. I come from a farmer's family, and I think that starting a business while holding on to the land can also achieve something." Sun Yunduo is full of confidence in her career.
What Zheng Xiukun raises are "contract chickens." The chicken farm is responsible for breeding management, while chicks, epidemic-prevention drugs, feed, and all other necessities are provided by the manufacturer. After the chickens are ready for market, according to the contract price, after deducting these costs, the rest is the breeding profit.
Order first, then raise——contract chicken farming leaves no worries about sales
Early in the morning on July 15, Wang Fangyou, Zheng Tianying, and several others came together to Zheng Xiukun's chicken farm at the south end of the village. Each held a notebook recording their own work hours. Zheng Xiukun checked with everyone one by one and prepared to settle this month's wages for everyone.
"As of last night, we worked 5 nights in a row and moved all the chickens from 6 sheds. Because the manufacturer's vehicles were in short supply, we could only work overtime at night. Thanks for everyone's hard work. Today we will settle this month's wages." Zheng Xiukun took out the money he had withdrawn and registered and distributed it one by one. "If you don't pay, we won't demand it from you either. You don't even charge tuition when we learn techniques." Wang Fangyou said jokingly, and everyone laughed along.
Zheng Xiukun is from Dengwang Village, Houying Town, Dongchangfu District. Although he is only 29 years old, he is a well-known chicken-raising expert in the village. In 2009, he began learning household breeding from his older cousin. Being attentive, for every batch of chickens he raised, he kept a notebook of "breeding notes." From the arrival of chicks to the chickens being ready for market, every step was recorded in detail. Over the years, these records became valuable breeding experience. In 2014, he began scaled breeding, constantly experimenting with purely market-based breeding and contract breeding.
In 2016, Zheng Xiukun and his older cousin Jia Qingzeng established the Dengwang Chicken Raising Cooperative and invested nearly 1 million yuan to build 6 chicken sheds to high standards, covering more than 20 mu. "The batch of 75,000 chickens we just moved out were contract chickens signed with Feixiang, a well-known local agricultural product processing enterprise. We are responsible for breeding management, while chicks, epidemic-prevention drugs, feed, and all other necessities are provided by the manufacturer, and these inputs are borne by the manufacturer. After the chickens are ready for market, according to the contract price, after deducting these costs, what remains is our breeding profit." Zheng Xiukun introduced.
"Raising contract chickens can effectively reduce upfront investment, lessen the impact of market price fluctuations, and avoid market risks. The only key link is breeding management. As long as daily routines are handled well and temperature, humidity, epidemic prevention, and other links are scientifically controlled, stable returns can be ensured. For scaled breeding, it is a good choice." At present, Zheng Xiukun's cooperative has signed a full-year breeding contract with Feixiang Group. The 6 chicken sheds can produce 500,000 broiler chickens annually, with a profit of about 1 yuan per chicken, and annual net income can reach about 500,000 yuan.
In 2016, the local government also designated Zheng Xiukun's breeding base as a poverty-alleviation industrial project base, and Zheng Xiukun was responsible for helping 19 poor households escape poverty. Honest and straightforward Zheng Xiukun said: "With the government's guidance and support, we will develop faster, and the responsibility on my shoulders is also heavier. Even without the government's support, I still have to lead my poor fellow villagers to prosperity. I have this technique and experience. Isn't it even better if I can help everyone become prosperous!"
"If you want to start a business well and preserve it, you must master science and understand the market." Against the background of many nursery-stock growers crowding in to expand scale, with goods but no market, Zheng Guangyi's saplings seem especially easy to sell. "Finding the right market is the premise, but responding to the market still depends on scientific planting."
Find the right positioning——grasp the cycle to master the market
"Old Zheng, do you have euonymus balls there now? I need some with a large crown diameter. How is the price now?" Zheng Guangyi's phone kept ringing, either for reserving nursery stock or for landscaping construction projects. He was busy and enjoying it.
In Tianzhuang Village, Houying Town, Dongchangfu District, there is an entrepreneurial farmer who started with 3 mu of poplar saplings and became the leader of a nursery cooperative of more than 3,000 mu. He is Zheng Guangyi. "Pay attention and look, is there anything different about my white wax saplings?" Before anyone could reply, Zheng Guangyi began pacing to measure them. "My nursery stock all uses a spacing of 4 m x 4 m. Saplings grown at this distance have a uniform tree shape and full crowns. Customers all like saplings like these."
"Now, with the needs of urban development, demand for landscaping nursery stock keeps increasing. Nursery growers are crowding in to expand scale, and many have goods but no market. I think one important reason is that they have not carried out scientific cultivation." Zheng Guangyi, who had a keen eye for the direction of market development, positioned his target on large nursery stock. "I just moved out a batch of white wax to Tianjin. The average diameter was all above 20 cm, and one tree can sell for more than 5,000 yuan."
Finding the right market positioning is the premise, but how to plant is the key. In order to shorten the nursery cycle and speed up the circulation of the capital chain, Zheng Guangyi, according to the climate characteristics of the north, pioneered a planting method of "using short-term crops to support long-term ones, and small ones to interplant among large ones." Taking the planting of white wax, poplar, and wintergreen as an example, plant white wax saplings at a spacing of 4 m x 4 m, plant poplar saplings among the white wax nursery stock, and plant wintergreen under the poplar saplings. Poplars can be sold after one year as saplings, wintergreen needs 2 to 3 years to reach market, and white wax needs 4 to 5 years to mature. In this way, the time differences are exactly staggered, achieving planting every year, maturation every year, and sales every year, shortening the cycle and speeding up capital turnover. "Farmers starting businesses cannot rely only on experience; they must also pay attention to science. Every year I invite forestry experts from the province, city, and district to give lectures here, and I have also trained more than 10 nursery-stock pruners, sending them regularly for training. If you want to start a business well and preserve it, you must master science and understand the market." Zheng Guangyi has a deep understanding of entrepreneurship.
After succeeding in business, Zheng Guangyi established the Yuanhao Landscape Nursery Stock Planting Professional Cooperative in 2011, leading more than 500 farmers to plant more than 2,000 mu of landscaping nursery stock. Joining forces to venture into the market enhanced the ability to resist market risks. Now Zheng Guangyi's annual profit from selling nursery stock reaches more than 5 million yuan.