Succulent Plants Gold Rush: A Shanghai Post-90s Entrepreneur Earns Over a Million Yuan a Year

Small, exquisite and looking "adorably cute", succulent plants are now increasingly loved by gardening enthusiasts. Succulent prices span a huge range, from a few yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, which means their consumers cover almost every social stratum. Growing demand has also driven the development of the entire industry, with some growers earning up to a million yuan a year.

A Post-95s Entrant Drawn by Interest Ships Nearly 300 Orders a Day

"Look, after basking in the sun, the green leaves gradually take on a red tint." Picking up a pot of White Peony, Huang Jiajie said as he gestured. Once the topic turns to succulents, the shy young man opens up.

Two years after graduating from school, "post-95s" Huang Jiajie, a "third-generation flower grower," began running a succulent growing business. Since he studied computer science, he also opened a Taobao store on top of traditional sales. "Business is pretty good, about 300 parcels a day, shipped all over the country."

At the Tianbufu Succulent Plant Hall run by Huang Jiajie, the reporter saw several greenhouses filled with succulents of every shape and form. A farmer auntie was watering the plants with a sprayer, while another was busy in a corner inserting succulent leaves with growth points into the soil for propagation. The warm greenhouse was somewhat warmer than outside, suitable for succulent growth. In a room beside the greenhouse, the floor was piled with various imported soils, flower pots, succulents, as well as plastic film and cardboard boxes. Staff were busy preparing the day's online orders. "Bare-root the succulents, wrap them in paper towels, then put a layer of the plastic film we usually use on apples over them, and they're packed, won't spoil." Huang Jiajie joked that succulents are "lazy people's plants" - no need to water them every day, no need to plant them immediately, and two days in transit won't do them any harm.

"Since the New Year, I've barely stopped being busy." Huang Jiajie said that spring and autumn each year are the peak seasons for sowing and sales. "The 7 employees all work more than 9 hours a day, and sometimes I myself am busy until midnight. Taking orders, maintenance, leaf cuttings, packing - there's so much to do." Huang Jiajie said that growing succulents looks simple, but actually being a real grower is quite busy. "I've been around succulents since I was a child, and I'm very interested in them. Now I mainly focus on scaled-up flagship products, mainly wholesale." Huang Jiajie said that this year his flagship product is the Mountain Rose, targeting the low-price market of 3-20 yuan. "Can you imagine? The seeds of this plant are smaller than grains of rice."

Today, his nursery has over a million pots of succulents, and this scale is expected to continue expanding in the future.

From Vegetable Farmer to Succulent Grower: Annual Income Can Reach a Million Yuan

Stepping into the growing greenhouse, Yu Quangen was tidying a layer of plastic film on the ground. "In winter, the greenhouse needs an extra layer of film to raise the temperature and fend off the cold." He pointed to the tens of thousands of succulents in the soil and said, "What succulents fear isn't low temperature, but frost. When a cold wave comes, cold air can easily penetrate at least one meter into the greenhouse, so adding film is a must."

Yu Quangen, who speaks fluently about succulent care, was still running greenhouses growing vegetables and fruit with his parents two years ago. "Later, a friend introduced me and I made the switch to growing succulents. Actually, at first I didn't know much about succulents, but since they're also plants, I was fairly familiar with their characteristics, and I had some basic knowledge about disease prevention and so on. Plus, the original greenhouses could all be reused, making the transition easier."

Yu Quangen, born in 1990, told the reporter that he personally works in the field every day, sometimes not even finding time for a bite to eat. "Some of the delicate work I don't feel at ease leaving to workers." Though busy, growing succulents is clearly much easier than growing tomatoes. "With tomatoes, you hit a bottleneck later on, and the yield can't go up anymore. Succulent growing is light-busy work - the workload isn't small but there's no heavy manual labor, and it can even be a hobby. Looking at these succulents every day, my mood improves a lot." Of course, there's another important reason: the relatively high profit margin.

Huang Hongqing, president of the Cactus and Succulent Plant Professional Committee of the Shanghai Flower Association, said that generally one mu of nursery land can hold nearly 80,000 succulent plants, and the annual profit from it can reach over 100,000 yuan. By this calculation, relying on growing more than 10 mu of succulents, "post-90s" entrepreneurs can earn up to a million yuan.

Yu Quangen told the reporter that when he first made the transition, he had a terrible headache over sales channels. "At first I had few resources. Later, through introductions from friends and online exchanges, I gradually built up some stable customers."

"The market can still be further developed. Right now, the varieties everyone grows are not that different, and the varieties are similar. How to combine different plants and make some innovations is also very necessary." The reporter saw that in his Gongtian flagship store on Tmall, a single succulent combination potted plant had monthly sales of over ten thousand units.