College-graduate couple grows chili peppers exclusively for a big factory to make sauce
Original title: College-graduate couple returns home to grow chili peppers, leading more than 300 farming households to a prosperous life
Yang Yaming (right) and Yang Lanfen, a married couple, studying chili pepper cultivation techniques at the base. Photo by correspondent Chen Ke
Sannong Direct Express comprehensive report: Yesterday (June 30), in Liuqiao Village, Wangjiahe Street, Huangpi District, the couple Chen Qingguang dragged just over 100 kg of thin-skinned green peppers to the "Nonglehong" Chili Pepper Professional Cooperative in Qunyi Village, where they were inspected, weighed, and boxed; box after box of "Nonglehong" chili peppers were loaded onto trucks and shipped to the vegetable wholesale market. Chen Qingguang told a Changjiang Daily reporter gratefully: "If we hadn't finally followed Boss Yang in growing chili peppers, our whole family of 5 would probably have had to go back to our hometown."
It turns out that the Chen Qingguang couple came from Henan. A few years ago they brought their parents and children to Huangpi and rented more than 100 mu of abandoned land for farming. At first they grew radishes and corn, but sales were always poor, and the whole family lived in difficulty. By chance, they learned that in neighboring Qunyi Village there was a "Nonglehong" chili pepper cooperative that not only provided farmers with unified chili pepper seedlings and technical services, but also helped with sales. So Chen Qingguang found the cooperative's head, Yang Yaming, hoping to also join the ranks of chili pepper growers. Unexpectedly, after two years, annual income actually reached more than 200,000 yuan. Yang Yaming told the reporter: today the cooperative has driven more than 300 farming households near and far to grow chili peppers, with a planting area of more than 5,000 mu, and farmers' income reaching more than 2,500 yuan per mu per year.
The couple returns home together to start a business
The post-80s young couple Yang Yaming and Yang Lanfen are the founders of "Nonglehong". Both born and raised in Huangpi, the couple graduated in 2006 from Huazhong Agricultural University and Wuhan University of Technology respectively. Yang Yaming returned to Huangpi and did raw material procurement at the sauce factory opened by his father, while Yang Lanfen applied for a job at a company in Hankou and became an accountant.
The sauce factory needed large quantities of red chili peppers, but local chili peppers could not meet the factory's demand. To procure high-quality raw materials, Yang Yaming ventured alone through Hebei, Shandong, Hunan, Inner Mongolia and other places. He witnessed the industry's bad habit of abusing food additives, and finally an idea sprouted: could he grow chili peppers himself in Huangpi and thoroughly solve the supply problem of red chili peppers?
He acted as soon as he decided. With his father's support, in 2009 Yang Yaming transferred 100 mu of land in Liuzhi Street, introduced and cultivated chili pepper seedlings, then provided the seedlings to farmers to grow, and finally the sauce factory purchased them in a unified way. However, unexpectedly, what looked like simple chili pepper growing caused him heavy losses. Because the chili pepper variety introduced from Hebei grew too tall, after a heavy wind and rain during Wuhan's plum rain season and the scorching sun the next day, all the chili peppers that had already set fruit rotted in the fields, and he lost nearly one million yuan at once.
The next year, Yang Yaming regrouped and fought again. This time he introduced a new variety from Sichuan, and the harvest was good in the end. But because the chili pepper variety introduced from Sichuan was too spicy, it did not suit local market tastes, leading to unsold stock, and he lost more than 500,000 yuan again.
After two consecutive years of failure, Yang Yaming, though badly hit, did not lose heart. To support her husband, his wife Yang Lanfen also resolutely resigned from the company and returned to Huangpi to struggle alongside Yang Yaming. The two studied the market together and delved into chili pepper cultivation techniques. With no funds, they even transferred part of their shares in the sauce factory. In the end they found a chili pepper variety suitable for growing in Huangpi, and also discovered: supplying raw materials only to the sauce factory meant waiting for the chili peppers to turn red, a cycle that was too long; while the market needed large quantities of green peppers, so they could first sell green peppers on the market, and after the last crop of chili peppers turned red, supply them to the sauce factory.
Of the couple, one handled technology and found markets outside, while the other stayed home doing accounting and management. Chili pepper cultivation finally succeeded in 2011. Farmers growing chili peppers could sell both green peppers and red peppers, and the highest income per mu could reach 3,000 yuan.
Afterward, the couple decided to bring in partners and farmers as shareholders, raised 5.72 million yuan in funds, and established the "Nonglehong" Chili Pepper Professional Cooperative, focusing on developing the chili pepper industry.
"Company + farmers + market" breaks open the chili pepper market
A planting scale of 5,000 mu is not the largest in terms of chili pepper cultivation in Hubei. But Yang Yaming discovered: most chili pepper growers in the province are scattered individual farmers, and vegetable vendors go to purchase from them; once the market is bad, no one collects the farmers' chili peppers, so they can only let them rot in the fields.
"Nonglehong" initially adopted the "company + farmers" model, with the cooperative uniformly providing farmers with seedlings, chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and then the cooperative uniformly purchasing and selling them. Although farmers had a guaranteed floor price, when market prices were high, farmers lost out; at the same time, because logistics took a long time, green peppers easily rotted. Yang Yaming and his wife put their heads together and decided to buy several stalls in the Sijimei Agricultural Trade Market, Baishazhou Agricultural Trade Market and Changsha Haijixing Wholesale Market. Farmers could go to "Nonglehong" stalls on their own and uniformly use the "Nonglehong" brand for sales, while the cooperative took a commission of 0.1 yuan per jin. If the market was bad, the cooperative guaranteed purchase of the farmers' chili peppers.
With the "market" link added, the income of the cooperative and farmers increased rapidly. Yang Yaming also developed chili pepper cultivation models such as traditional open-field planting and greenhouse planting. The time chili peppers were on the market extended from May to November each year, and the number of farmers participating in chili pepper cultivation increased from more than 20 households at the beginning to more than 300 households. Today, "Nonglehong"'s annual sales of green and red peppers have reached 20,000 tons, with the average annual growth rate always maintained at 10%-15%.
Shenhuang Village in Luohansi Street had more than 10 poor households. After learning about the chili pepper industry of the "Nonglehong" cooperative, the village Party secretary took the initiative to find Yang Yaming and his wife. With their help, the poor households grew more than 200 mu of chili peppers together, and annual income suddenly reached 500,000 yuan, making the poor households grin from ear to ear. (Reporter Peng Zhong, correspondents Hu Pei, Chen Ke)