On the road to modern agriculture, Tian Fengjiang lends a hand to his fellow villagers
"In our day, jobs were still assigned after graduation, so going out on your own took a lot of courage," Tian Fengjiang said with emotion. Now 43, he is a Hui entrepreneur born in Wangtang Village, Jiatang Township, Haiyuan County. In 1996, Tian Fengjiang graduated from Ningxia University with a degree in international trade from the Department of Economics, giving up the "iron rice bowl" job assigned by the state. Twenty years later, he invested more than 20 million yuan in Yueyahu Township, Xingqing District, to establish the Ningxia Xiyue Flower Science and Technology Demonstration Park, leading his fellow villagers onto the road to prosperity through modern agriculture.
Only by going out is there a way forward
"When you go out, you don't know what risks you'll face or what the future will look like," Tian Fengjiang told reporters. After graduating from university in 1996, he gave up the chance to return to his hometown and take up an "iron rice bowl" job, choosing instead to go out and start a business. He said: "When we graduated, we caught the tide of reform and opening up, and the foreign trade industry was no longer sought after. Bosses from the south quickly took control of import and export channels. We had no channels, no clients, and nobody wanted us at all."
Faced with these blows from reality, Tian Fengjiang did not give up. He made his way to Beijing and found a job selling electronic scales. This job allowed Tian Fengjiang to gradually learn how to deal with people and how to do business, transforming him from a raw university graduate. "People always have to face reality. You have to survive first before you can pursue development. Selling electronic scales has nothing to do with international trade, but it was precisely this job that gave me the foundation to settle down and the opportunity to grow." Recalling his working days, Tian Fengjiang sighed with emotion.
Although the work he did was unrelated to his major, Tian Fengjiang did not give up. Every day he persisted in listening to English radio broadcasts and looked for opportunities to communicate with foreigners to practice his spoken English. It was this persistence that laid the foundation for Tian Fengjiang's future entrepreneurship.
An indissoluble bond with flowers in the Netherlands
At the turn of the century in 1999, Tian Fengjiang gave up his stable job in Beijing and went to a state-owned enterprise in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province. This enterprise had a modern agricultural science and technology demonstration base, which gave Tian Fengjiang the chance to get involved in the flower industry. "Because my English was relatively good, the company sent me to the Netherlands on business. Thanks to this opportunity, I formed an indissoluble bond with flowers," Tian Fengjiang recalled. The Netherlands is a small country by the North Sea with a small population, yet it is a major global flower producer with a very high level of agricultural modernization.
Through his efforts, Tian Fengjiang successfully recruited a Dutch company to establish a joint venture in China, which allowed him to master a range of knowledge from production to market and build a network of contacts in the upstream and downstream markets. "Because I was at a state-owned company at the time, the system was very rigid. We always had good ideas and good concepts that could never be implemented, which planted the seed of wanting to go out on my own." After leaving the company, Tian Fengjiang conducted seed import trade in the Yangtze River Delta in his own name for two years. In 2009, he established Yunnan Xiyue International Trading Company in Kunming, with annual turnover exceeding 100 million yuan and profits reaching seven to eight million yuan.
"Even though I was doing well, I never forgot my hometown. I feel that no matter how impressively or how big you make it outside, you are always just a passerby." Tian Fengjiang always had one thought in his heart, and that was to return to his hometown.
Taking Yinchuan flowers to a bigger market
"When I came back, I had considerations on multiple fronts. On one hand, our Ningxia is the bridgehead of the country's opening to the west and the permanent host venue of the China-Arab States Expo. Conducting economic and trade exchanges with Arab countries is an opportunity and a turning point for us. On the other hand, Yueyahu Township in Xingqing District is a resettlement area, and the government's support for the flower industry and resettlement areas is very strong. The same religious beliefs, the same living habits, and fellow villagers from the same place make me feel very close to them." In 2014, after much consideration, Tian Fengjiang invested more than 20 million yuan to transfer nearly 350 mu of land in Yueyahu Township and built the Ningxia Xiyue Flower Science and Technology Demonstration Park.
It is understood that the park currently has more than 10 flower varieties including lilies, tulips, hydrangeas, and Eustoma (Lisianthus). By the end of this year, it will be able to achieve an annual output of 200,000 stems of fresh cut flowers and 100,000 potted flowers. In addition to compensating farmers whose land was requisitioned with land transfer fees, the park also hires landless farmers to work in the park. Female workers can earn 80 yuan per day, and male workers can earn 120 yuan per day. "Working as a laborer is only the first step. We need to lend them a hand on the road of modern facility agriculture, help them emancipate their minds, and give them the courage to contract greenhouses themselves and bear the risks of business failure and the joy of harvest on their own. Only in this way can they develop," Tian Fengjiang told reporters. This year, three resettled households have already contracted greenhouses in the park. A couple contracts 4 greenhouses, and if they do well, they can earn 80,000 to 100,000 yuan a year.
"Now the flight route from Yinchuan to Dubai has also opened, which opens the door for us to sell fresh flowers to the Middle East," Tian Fengjiang is planning, to take Yinchuan's flowers to a bigger market.