Returning home to start a business growing blueberries, father and son build an orchard together
Entrepreneurship Building a blueberry orchard together" />
The "purple elves" in the mountain hollow become "fruit of prosperity"
Recently, led by relevant officials from the Party Committee and Government of Dashi Town, the reporter walked into the blueberry orchard of Wang Chunsen, a post-90s university graduate, in Lianshan Village, Dashi Town. Rows of knee-high blueberry bushes were lush and green, and clusters of purple-black blueberries were fresh and plump. Dozens of visitors in the orchard chatted and laughed, exchanging tips while picking fresh blueberries. Beside the orchard, Wang Chunsen, his father Wang Zhiyong, and villagers from Lianshan Village were busy packing the fresh fruit. It is now the season when blueberries ripen and hit the market in large quantities. In today's era of booming e-commerce, these high-priced blueberries are sold across the country through e-commerce platforms.
One is a father who has been to Japan and worked in the United Arab Emirates and seen the "wider world"; the other is a son who graduated from the Physics Department of Xiangtan University and briefly studied in the United States. In 2014, the father and son, who shared the same entrepreneurial dream, returned to their hometown and began growing blueberries. Each contributed his own strengths: one handled growing techniques, the other built an e-commerce platform, turning the "purple elves" in the mountain hollow into the "fruit of prosperity."
Better to return and rediscover the land
The road from Dashi Town to Lianshan Village winds along, and during the more than 20-minute drive, the view is filled with the green of mountain forests.
Wang Chunsen is a post-90s university graduate, born in Lianshan Village. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to an enviable key university. After graduating from university in 2014, Wang Chunsen chose to work in Chengdu, seeking a broader world. However, in a big city teeming with talent, it is no easy thing to make one's own splash. Having experienced failed job searches and been turned away, Wang Chunsen felt the gap between dreams and reality.
Just as Wang Chunsen was stuck in Chengdu, his father Wang Zhiyong in his hometown was full of drive and eager to open up a new world. Different from an ordinary farmer, Wang Zhiyong had a shrewdness and capability on his face. In 1999, Wang Zhiyong went to Japan for training, and what he did was agriculture.
"If a melon seedling grew crooked, it would be pulled out and replanted." Japan's modern agriculture, with its emphasis on quality and safety and its refined management, left a deep impression on Wang Zhiyong. It was also during this training that he learned advanced growing techniques. After that, Wang Zhiyong visited many countries, always doing agriculture-related work. His experience traveling north and south allowed Wang Zhiyong to accumulate wealth and also gain knowledge.
In early 2013, Wang Zhiyong, who had struggled away from home for many years, returned to his hometown. With poor transportation and barren land, people were drawn to the cities, leaving behind only the elderly and the vulnerable. Seeing this pained Wang Zhiyong deeply, and he made up his mind: return home to start a business and rediscover this land.
Father and son team up, former wasteland becomes an orchard
From the moment the idea of starting a business took shape, Wang Zhiyong decided to "pull" his son back from Chengdu. When he told Wang Chunsen about the idea, he had expected his son to refuse, but unexpectedly the father and son hit it off immediately.
During university, Wang Chunsen had gained some understanding of e-commerce. With the current popularity of "Internet Plus" platforms, relying on e-commerce to make agricultural products go farther is no longer a dream. During his time working in Chengdu, Wang Chunsen worked in sales. He said: "It was precisely this experience that gave me more confidence in starting my own business."
They acted as soon as they decided. In 2014, the father and son returned to their hometown of Lianshan Village and transferred nearly 30 mu of land for growing blueberries.
As the "king of fruits," blueberry sales have been rising in recent years, and the growing area has continued to expand. Before deciding to grow them, the two visited blueberry orchards in surrounding areas. Successful demonstrations and good market response further strengthened their confidence in growing blueberries. After several months of effort, on land once overgrown with weeds, blueberry seedlings swayed with graceful postures.
On one side, Wang Zhiyong was busy in the mountains. On the other, Wang Chunsen was busy building a sales platform for the blueberries. "The seedlings we planted will bear fruit in 3 years. Before that, we'll build the e-commerce platform well and first sell other agricultural products to gather popularity, so that when the blueberries hit the market we won't have to worry about sales." In 2015, Wang Chunsen's sales platform on Taobao went live officially. At the same time, on-site and off-site promotional activities were also carried out in an orderly manner. Online sales take mountain blueberries across the country
2016 was a year of harvest. This year, the Wang family's blueberry orchard achieved its first fruiting. Relying on Wang Chunsen's online store, the blueberries, even before hitting the market, were early reserved by netizens from all over the country for 100 jin. This situation delighted Wang Zhiyong. "In the past, doing business required face-to-face dealings. I never expected that now business could be done directly online."
There was more than one happy thing. The Dashi Town Post Office, sensing the blueberry business opportunity, took the initiative to seek cooperation. On May 20, 100 jin of fresh blueberries were sent across the country by postal vehicles. "The daily shipment volume is around 80 jin, and there are orders from Beijing and Shanghai. This year's income is expected to reach more than 100,000 yuan." Wang Chunsen said that because this was the first fruiting, this year's blueberry output was not high, estimated at only 2,600 jin. By next year, after entering the full-production period, blueberry output will reach tens of thousands of jin.
The reporter saw that, in order to ensure the quality of the blueberries, all packing and transportation were carried out in a shed beside the orchard, maximizing the freshness of the fruit. Before the Wang family built the blueberry orchard, Lianshan Village had successively brought in several farming and breeding operators, but all of them could not be retained because of inconvenient transportation. The blueberry orchard not only solved the problem of abandoned land, but also attracted a lot of surplus labor. Zhou Surong, 60 years old this year, is one of them. By working in the blueberry orchard, Zhou Surong earned a wage of 50 yuan/day, which made her, who had never worked away from home, very satisfied.
Blueberry sales have a certain cyclical nature. As for how the e-commerce platform will operate after that, Wang Chunsen had long since thought of the answer. "Our platform not only sells blueberries, but also many local specialty products. The villagers' agricultural products can be sold through our e-commerce platform. Our ultimate goal is, after laying a solid foundation, to develop rural tourism and lead the villagers to prosper together."
When leaving Lianshan Village, rumbling excavators were hard at work. In the near future, this road passing by the blueberry orchard will become the villagers' "road to prosperity," promoting local economic development.