Li Guohua develops standardized lemon industrial park, leading surrounding people to common prosperity
Bumper lemon harvest
Fresh lemon processing
"I just want to take one step at a time, leading the people of the cooperative union to develop the lemon orchard well and achieve common prosperity together." Li Guohua, chairman of Ziyang City Anyue County Yuhua Breeding and Cultivation Development Co., Ltd. and chairman of the Anyue County Golden Lemon Capital Lemon Professional Cooperative Union, said this recently in an interview with reporters.
More than ten years of wandering outside, never forgetting his hometown
In the late 1980s, the young Li Guohua left home to seek his fortune. Over more than ten years, Li Guohua traveled north and south, starting small and gradually carving out his own world. During his time away, through his own personal experience, Li Guohua witnessed the hardships of agricultural industrial restructuring across the country and the bitterness of migrant workers leaving home to work. "More than ten years away, I tasted all the sweet and bitter, and the longer I stayed away, the more I missed my hometown and wanted to return to build my own career there," Li Guohua said.
In 1999, Li Guohua returned to his hometown with nearly 300,000 yuan in funds to start a business. After some investigation, Li Guohua decided to build the first standardized lemon demonstration orchard in his hometown and lead the surrounding people to prosperity together. "Having been away for so many years, I have heard, seen and learned many things, so I felt that building a distinctive lemon orchard would certainly have great potential, and so I made up my mind to begin building the lemon orchard," Li Guohua said. In March of that year, after raising 500,000 yuan in funds, Li Guohua signed a 190-mu land transfer contract with Qianhua Village in Pianyan Township and built his first lemon orchard. To save money, he persisted in studying theory, technology and management, and with hard work and wisdom brought in a bumper harvest from the lemon orchard.
After tasting success, Li Guohua founded his first company - Anyue County Yuhua Breeding and Cultivation Development Co., Ltd. Through the company's operations, the industrial park expanded rapidly. In just a few short years, Li Guohua went from a layman to the owner of the largest lemon industrial park in the country. His experience quickly spread across Ziyang and surrounding counties and cities, and the restructuring of Anyue's agricultural industry developed rapidly under his leadership.
Persistent effort brings rewards, products sell well at home and abroad
"Lemon orchards require large investment and yield results slowly, so investors need patience and perseverance to stick with it. In developing lemons all these years, I have always persisted, holding on through my own efforts," Li Guohua said. In May 2008, the "Ninghai" brand lemon founded by Li Guohua gained recognition and approval from customs, entry-exit inspection and quarantine authorities and other departments, opening a new chapter in China's lemon foreign trade. At the end of that year, the head of Dole, headquartered in California, USA, visited his industrial park, and after collecting farm records and fresh lemon samples, determined that the lemons he produced were superior in quality to famous international brands such as those from California, USA and Sicily, Italy, and listed Yuhua Company as a partner.
Yuhua Company's honest business practices and production have received broad recognition and praise. Its products won the Consumer Favorite Product and Best-Selling Product awards at the 10th International Agricultural Products Expo, and on behalf of Anyue lemons won the gold award at that expo; it has successively been commended by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions as an "Advanced Unit in Collective Wage Negotiation in the Lemon Industry," jointly commended by the China Association for Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance under the "Plan for Popularizing Science and Benefiting Farmers and Revitalizing Villages," rated by the provincial Administration for Industry and Commerce as a "Provincial-Level Contract- and Credit-Respecting Enterprise," and rated by the provincial Poverty Alleviation and Migration Bureau as a "Provincial-Level Leading Poverty Alleviation Enterprise," among others.
In the following years, lemon planting cooperatives in Anyue sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain. Li Guohua said that only by everyone pulling together and concentrating advantageous resources can they grasp more initiative. In 2011, under Li Guohua's leadership, the Anyue County Golden Lemon Capital Lemon Professional Cooperative Union was established, radiating out to drive farmers in surrounding villages and communities to prosperity. Li Guohua became a well-deserved "Lemon King."
After the founding of the cooperative union, Li Guohua emphasized standardization. A technical service team was established within the union, now with more than 30 technicians, including 11 national first- and second-grade agronomists. Midsummer is the critical period for spraying and fertilizing lemons, and the fleet shuttles through the fields every day while technical experts conduct roving training and inspections, all to ensure uniform lemon quality. In recent years, the union has also extended its lemon bases to Neijiang, Chongqing, Suining, Nanchong and other places. "The new planting bases are all built to unified standards, contributing our strength to helping Anyue lemons 'go global.'" Today, Anyue lemons and lemon products are exported to more than 10 countries and regions including Singapore, Russia and Hong Kong, China.
First to establish a trade union, safeguarding workers' interests
For an enterprise to maintain vigorous vitality over the long term, it must have a strong sense of social responsibility. After the cooperative union was established, facing a situation of large planting scale, booming marketing, many driving entities and complex employment conditions, Li Guohua began to consider a series of issues involving migrant workers' rights, including building harmonious labor relations, safeguarding workers' lawful rights and interests, and managing labor employment in accordance with the law.
Under the guidance of the provincial, municipal and county federations of trade unions, Li Guohua held several shareholders' meetings to unify thinking and research and arrange collective wage negotiation work. In April 2012, after two rounds of informal consultation and two rounds of formal negotiation between labor and management, the cooperative union's trade union was formally established. Yuhua Company and the Golden Lemon Capital Lemon Professional Cooperative Union set minimum wage standards, overtime pay, benefits and other terms for 5 major categories and 12 types of work in all links of lemon planting, processing and marketing. Migrant worker friends said: "Working at Yuhua Company, we have dignity, we are treated with respect, and there is a future in it."
Li Guohua explained, "Last year there was high temperature, and a worker in our cooperative union died in an accident. Safety in production is very important." Last year, after this accident occurred, because of the compensation issue, the family members and the cooperative owner were once at daggers drawn. Li Guohua led union officers to work on it for more than 20 days, and ultimately coordinated a result satisfactory to both sides. Last year, the cooperative union's trade union coordinated 4 serious-accident labor disputes, all of which were well resolved.
After years of development, the people of the cooperative union have all tasted the sweetness brought by developing lemons, and each household's life has improved greatly. The cooperative union is expanding outward at a pace of building one lemon orchard elsewhere each year, leading more people to prosperity. Li Guohua said: "Being rich alone is not true wealth. Only when everyone achieves common prosperity together and lives a happy life together is that our goal."