Free-range chickens aren't hokey, and this post-90s "Free-Range Chicken Guy" has creative ideas for raising and selling them
The first time I met Yu Peng was at his small chick farm at the cooperative in Shixing Village, Buxian Township, Yueyang County. With short hair, clear eyes, a few pimples still on his face, and a particularly shy smile. This 24-year-old young man had already served as the cooperative's legal representative for 6 years.
The post-90s generation turning into the “Free-Range Chicken Guy” happened somewhat by chance. In 2008, Yu Peng's father lost money on a business investment, returned to his hometown, borrowed 60 free-range chickens from a friend, and hoped to get rich by raising chickens. But in 2010, he was injured in a car accident, so his son Yu Peng gave up his job in Guangzhou, returned to his hometown, and began learning how to raise chickens. The first thing he did was register “Yueyang County Haoyunlai Ecological Chicken Raising Professional Cooperative.”
At first, Yu Peng promoted a “company + farmer” entrusted-raising model, providing chicks to farmers for free, but the farmers did not dare take them. The first person to adopt chicks was Peng Zeliang, a villager from Beidou Village. He adopted 50 chicks at once and became the first and largest breeder at that time. Old Peng made money, and young Yu's reputation spread. The threshold for adoption rose accordingly, and now at least 300 chicks are needed to adopt, but more and more people still come to young Yu.
Yu Peng's cooperative is located in a place called Luonei in Buxian Township, and the chickens he raises are called “Luonei free-range chickens.” “Free-range chickens are everywhere, but our Luonei free-range chickens are especially different! They grow up eating five grains and miscellaneous cereals, are kept free-range for a long time, are especially agile and strong, and are more like pheasants. Even locals cannot dream of catching them bare-handed during the day; they can only catch them at night. Last time our cooperative held a chicken-catching contest, and no one succeeded.” Yu Peng said with a smile that another difference of Luonei free-range chickens is that they have their own “visual identity” system. “Every chicken wears a ring, and every egg is embroidered, so fakes are impossible.”
The ring is an anti-counterfeiting leg band, and the embroidery means using a laser to embroider the words “Luonei free-range chicken egg” on the eggshell. Yu Peng explained that the current service is a one-stop process of “entrusted raising, buyback, and sales.” Farmers can receive chicks free of charge using a “one jin returned for one jin” model. Once raised, the cooperative buys them back directly, or farmers may sell them themselves.
On June 29 last year, Yu Peng registered “Hunan Luonei Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd.” He broke the traditional sales model of chicken-raising cooperatives, selling not only offline but also opening an online store, building a website, launching a WeChat public account, and using 6 online platforms in total. On June 18 this year, Yueyang City's first county-level “Rural Taobao” service center opened and began operating in Yueyang County, and “Luonei free-range chickens” once again leveraged this momentum, blooming fully both online and offline.
According to Yu Peng's thinking, Luonei free-range chickens are now a truly “borderless business model”; customers can buy authentic products no matter where they are. In 6 years, this post-90s young man who loves riding a motorcycle in the countryside developed more than 200 farming households for the cooperative, with annual output value of more than 20 million yuan. Thinking comes first, and action follows. Yu Peng, following his own ideas, established a new brand and new image for Luonei free-range chickens, and also brought real benefits to the local folks.