Behind the massive buying of sea cucumbers lies a gamble
Every year during sea cucumber harvest season, he appears in these waters. New to the sea cucumber business, in just two months he assembled over a hundred aquatic product dealers from across the country. Knowing full well the market was sluggish, he still kept buying in large quantities. What others saw as risk, he saw as opportunity. See how Guo Tianzhu of Hongmei Town, Fujian Province, rapidly spread a nationwide sales network, and in 5 years opened up the entire chain from farming, buying, processing to sales, carving out a place for himself in the sea cucumber market.
This is Xiapu County, Fujian Province. At first light, the fishermen had already arrived at the dock early, ready and waiting to follow Guo Tianzhu to buy a valuable seafood product. Our reporter went along too.
March is sea cucumber harvest season in Fujian Province. At this time, these waters are always bustling, and sea cucumber farmers are all busy beyond words.
For more than five years, every year in this season, Guo Tianzhu's figure always appears on the water. He is even busier than the sea cucumber farmers. As soon as he arrived at the farm, Guo Tianzhu and the fishermen got busy.
Guo Tianzhu: Pick out the smaller ones like these separately.
Reporter: You still have to sort them?
Guo Tianzhu: Right, they all have to be picked out, the small ones all have to be picked out.
Reporter: How do you usually sort sea cucumbers?
Guo Tianzhu: Look at the length of the spines, and the size, they all have to be separated, and also whether there's a lot of water in the belly. Like today the water content is still acceptable. Size all has to be sorted, anything under one liang has to be picked out. This fish raft has over a hundred thousand jin, today I'm only buying 20,000 jin from him as a test. If it's good, next time I'll buy up this whole area.
In Guo Tianzhu's eyes, sea cucumbers that are large, thick-fleshed and sharp-spined are the ones he prioritizes buying.
Guo Tianzhu: The sea cucumber is in very good condition, there's still a fair amount of water inside, but the skin is very thick, no problem with quality, it's just that the water content is high, but the quality of the sea cucumber is very good. This sea cucumber itself is soft and limp; touch it, and if stimulated, the spines will harden. The feet underneath the sea cucumber are numerous. If you put it in here, it will slowly, slowly go soft. Sea cucumbers also have very high requirements for the environment of the farming area. With flowing-water farming, the skin is thick, the flesh is firm, and there definitely won't be any excessive residues in it. This is the kind of sea cucumber we want to buy.
In just one morning, Guo Tianzhu bought over 20,000 jin of sea cucumbers. He had originally ordered only 300,000 jin from the farmers here, but now, after buying on these waters for over half a month, he has exceeded his planned purchase volume. Seeing Guo Tianzhu buying sea cucumbers, the farmers finally let go of the heavy stone in their hearts, because this year's sea cucumber market was not good, and Guo Tianzhu knew this himself.
Guo Tianzhu: I planned to buy around 300,000 jin, but these past two days many friends are anxious to sell. If they're selling, I'll just buy another hundred-thousand-plus jin.
Reporter: Adding what you farm yourself, has it already exceeded the amount now?
Guo Tianzhu: Right, it's exceeded my plan, now it's over by more than a hundred thousand jin.
During the interview, the reporter saw that as soon as the sea cucumbers were all loaded onto the boat, Guo Tianzhu would immediately transfer the money to the farmers, never in arrears. This means that once these sea cucumbers are bought back, Guo Tianzhu has no way out. If he can't sell them, they will all be stuck in his own hands. The more he buys, the greater the risk. Facing all this, Guo Tianzhu says he has his own plans. Relying on being cautious in his dealings, in 5 years Guo Tianzhu went from a small aquatic product dealer to rapidly becoming Fujian Province's largest sea cucumber source wholesaler integrating farming, buying, processing and sales.
Farmer: This boss Guo Tianzhu is the biggest boss around here. The biggest in our Fujian, because the place where you can farm sea cucumbers is right here in our Guanjingyang. This area farms the most, other places don't have this much, and he buys relatively more too.
Farmer: He comes to buy every year, and the volume he buys is bigger than the Shandong people's. In our part of Fujian, in sea cucumbers, we all count as big players, not small ones. Every year he buys several hundred thousand jin here, and he farms 600,000 jin himself.
Now, facing a sluggish sales market, what others see as risk, Guo Tianzhu says is him playing a big game of chess. So why is he taking the risk of buying so many sea cucumbers?
Guo Tianzhu has two siblings, and he is the eldest in the family. After graduating from junior high school, he helped his father, who was in the aquatic products business, find sources of goods. In 1996, Guo Tianzhu often went to Beijing to handle logistics transfer matters. Years of hard work made him very familiar with Beijing's aquatic products market, and gradually he had an idea.
Guo Tianzhu: I felt Beijing's market was good, and I had sources of goods on the outside, so I wanted to try opening a store in Beijing. At first I just wanted to settle down in Beijing. Just to survive, to gain a foothold.
In 2002, Guo Tianzhu set up his own aquatic product sales center in Beijing's aquatic products market. Although the store wasn't big at the time, relying on his style of always thinking of others, no matter what product he sold, he had more supply sources than others.
Guo Tianzhu: At that time, as long as you had a supply source, it wasn't very hard. Supply sources were the key. In those years, as long as you had a good supply source, you could sell it all.
No one expected that Guo Tianzhu, who just wanted to gain a foothold in Beijing, would gradually carve out his own place in this big market.
In 2010, Guo Tianzhu's business was going smoothly, and he had already accumulated nearly ten million yuan. At this time, he suddenly took his years of savings and started farming sea cucumbers and abalone in Fujian Province. It was this 10-million-yuan investment that brought a huge change to his life.
Guo Tianzhu: At first I thought it was very profitable. People said 1 million could earn 500,000. If I invested 10 million, I could earn 5 million. That wouldn't be fast, it's just that I was moving too fast.
That year, for ease of management, Guo Tianzhu farmed sea cucumbers and abalone in the same stretch of water. By December 2010, the season for rapid sea cucumber growth was about to pass, when the worker helping Guo Tianzhu farm sea cucumbers suddenly said he was quitting.
Guo Tianzhu: The worker ran off halfway through the farming. I asked him why he ran, and he said how can you farm sea cucumbers in this place? A place for farming abalone can't farm sea cucumbers. How did you think of farming sea cucumbers here?
Other people's sea cucumbers were slowly growing, but Guo Tianzhu's sea cucumbers hadn't grown even one liang. After asking around, he suddenly realized the seriousness of the problem, but the investment in the fish rafts and hanging cages was too great, and it was too late to make changes.
Three months later, when the sea cucumber season for market arrived, other people's sea cucumbers had grown to about 6 liang, while his sea cucumbers were still just one liang, not changed at all. Where exactly was the problem?
During the interview, Guo Tianzhu found a different kind of sea cucumber to show the reporter.
On site: This is a sea cucumber that has expelled its guts, this is one that hasn't. When a sea cucumber encounters danger, it will expel its guts to protect itself. It expels its guts when subjected to external stimulation. Sea cucumbers have a repair function; after a month or two, the sea cucumber's guts will grow back. If the water flow is strong, the sea cucumber will harden, stop eating, and expel its guts more.