Raising Foxes Set Bai Zhanguo on the Road to Prosperity

Amid the sound of firecrackers, a year has passed; the spring breeze carries warmth into the Tusu wine. At the Jinhan Arctic Fox Breeding Base of the Jinhe Forestry Industry Company under the Inner Mongolia Forestry Industry Group, every household has hung up bright red lanterns and pasted festive Spring Festival couplets on their doors. The festive atmosphere was still strong when, early in the morning on February 17, the farming couple Bai Zhanguo and Hu Liyan began a busy day.

Bai Zhanguo had worked as a logger on the front lines of the mountain operations for more than 20 years. In 1997, he took early retirement from the Fire Prevention Office of the Jinsen Company. His wife, Hu Liyan, was an employee of the Jinsen Company's collective enterprise. At that time, they had 2 children in school, and life was stressful and the burden heavy. In 2001, the Jinsen Company, drawing on its "cold" resource advantage, encouraged employees to develop specialty breeding with the Arctic fox as the flagship. So Bai Zhanguo and his wife began trying to raise foxes. From 8 breeding foxes to several hundred breeding and pelt foxes, 14 years of hard work in fox farming earned them titles including "Top Ten Civilized Households," "Family Economic Expert," "Reemployment Leader," and "National Green Well-off Household."

"Raising foxes set me on the road out of poverty to prosperity. Now our forest area is in a critical period of comprehensively deepening reform, which has also brought new vitality and vigor to the Arctic fox industry and strengthened our confidence in the future," said Bai Zhanguo.

Bai Zhanguo's wife, Hu Liyan, roughly did the accounts for the reporter: in 2002, they had 12 breeding foxes, and because they had no experience at first, they basically made no money; in 2003, breeding foxes reached 25, with 165 animals on hand; in 2004, breeding foxes reached 43, with 360 on hand; in 2005, breeding foxes reached 55, with 420 on hand... Up to now, they have sold 2,800 fox pelts and more than 600 breeding foxes. Fox pelts have reached as high as 2,000 yuan each, and breeding foxes as high as 3,200 yuan each. They have now achieved a net profit of more than 1.6 million yuan.

One family getting rich is not truly rich; only when everyone is rich is it real wealth. Over the years, Bai Zhanguo and his wife have helped 3 poor households escape poverty and become prosperous. They not only provided help and support with breeding foxes, but also guaranteed loans in their own names for feed, cages, and vaccines, while also giving strong support in breeding technology.

In Bai Zhanguo's yard, rows of iron breeding cages are raised high on both sides of a straight path. The furry foxes vary in size and color; some make repeated calls, some walk around in their cages, and some squint as they enjoy the warm sun.

Walking into the workroom, special fox feed is neatly stacked in the corner, and next to it is a feeding cart that Bai Zhanguo converted himself from a large oil drum. On the stove, a huge iron pot holds the meat and dried fish that the foxes love most, and in the inner room hang fox pelts waiting to be sold. According to Hu Liyan, Jinhe Town has low temperatures and the foxes raised there are of good breed. The fox pelts from this base are large, with long guard hairs and thick leather, making them a high-quality material for clothing decoration and down jacket fur collars, and they are deeply loved by customers. Because the fur market is unstable, fox pelt prices were poor this year, and nearly 400 pelts were not sold in a hurry.

Hu Liyan said: "At present, more than 200 households in Jinhe Town are engaged in fox farming. To ease the continuous decline in market prices, some farmers here have set up a WeChat group and adopted various methods to continuously expand sales channels."