Wang Shuofeng's entrepreneurial story: jumping back to the "farm gate" to build a manor

One day in 2012, on his way home, Wang Shuofeng had been too busy to bring vegetables home from his own vegetable base, so he planned to buy some at the vegetable market.

At the market, Wang Shuofeng recognized the vegetables grown at his own base at a glance. When he asked the price, he was stunned: it was a full 4 times higher than the wholesale price.

That evening, when the dishes were cooked and brought to the table, Wang Shuofeng took just one bite and fell into deep thought - because there were too many intermediate wholesale links, the vegetables not only reached the market at a high price, but also spent too long in transport, so by the time they reached residents' hands they were no longer fresh.

Was there a business opportunity in this?

After a night of hard thinking, Wang Shuofeng decided to reduce the intermediate links between the vegetable base and the dining table. In Chenzhou City, Hunan, he opened 6 low-price direct-sales vegetable supermarkets in one go.

This was the second big step in his return to his hometown to start a business - low-price direct-sales supermarkets. They not only lowered vegetable prices, but also shortened the time for vegetables to reach the shelves and ensured freshness. They quickly won the favor of local residents, and the direct-sales model of farm-supermarket linkage was also borrowed by other places.

Wang Shuofeng, now 42 years old, came from generations of farmers. He did not study much, and since childhood he had been determined to jump out of the "farm gate" and go live in a big city. After graduating from high school, Wang Shuofeng followed the wave of people heading south to work and went to Guangzhou. After two years as a "migrant worker," he saved some money by living frugally, and the "business hormone" in Wang Shuofeng began to stir.

Guangzhou had a great many migrant workers, and gatherings were frequent. On holidays, restaurant business was extremely booming, so Wang Shuofeng decided to open a restaurant. From a small restaurant with 8 tables at first, it expanded into a large restaurant building of three floors. Wang Shuofeng earned his first bucket of gold and gained a firm foothold in the big city of Guangzhou.

Life became warm and comfortable, but conflicts also began to appear: his parents were getting older and were unwilling to leave their native land to live in Guangzhou. Wang Shuofeng hesitated for a long time, and finally transferred the restaurant and returned to Chenzhou.

In the first few years after returning to Chenzhou, Wang Shuofeng worked as a labor contractor and ran a wholesale department. In 2009, a friend invited him to partner in contracting farmland to grow vegetables. Wang Shuofeng felt that farming was "following in his father's footsteps" and that he should be able to do it, so he agreed readily. However, the reality was that this year Wang Shuofeng suffered a disastrous defeat, losing over a million yuan, and his partner also withdrew.

"Food is the first necessity of the people. A person can go a day without drinking or smoking, but cannot go a day without eating vegetables." Wang Shuofeng firmly believed that agriculture was absolutely the right direction, and that as long as he found the reason, he could definitely "make a comeback." To that end, he spent two years preparing. He consulted agricultural planting experts, conducted market surveys, and built sales channels. After completing sufficient preparation, in 2011 Wang Shuofeng staked his entire fortune and doubled the area of his vegetable planting base.

This time, Wang Shuofeng bet right, and the vegetable base began to profit that same year.

In 2012, Wang Shuofeng also invested in founding Sanhe Qiaolong Ecological Agriculture Co., Ltd., building a 2000-mu vegetable demonstration base and a 400-mu high-mountain organic vegetable base, with products sold to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, China, Macao, China and other places.

Having tasted the sweetness of growing vegetables, Wang Shuofeng, while happy, also decided to go out, take a look around, and learn from others' good experience and practices. In Shouguang, Shandong, known as the "hometown of vegetables nationwide," Wang Shuofeng's eyes were opened. "The scallions were taller than a person, the celery was thicker than a thumb, and the loofah was several meters long." Wang Shuofeng said that seeing these "monsters" that often appeared on the dining table but that he had never seen before, he was shocked. A bold idea appeared in his mind: introduce the most advanced planting technology and build a vegetable leisure and sightseeing manor in Chenzhou.

Wang Shuofeng speaks gently and slowly, but acts with vigor and decisiveness.

A year later, with an investment of 12 million yuan and covering 1000 mu, the green sightseeing park "Aishang Sanhe Vegetable Green Manor," integrating tourism and vacation, dining and accommodation, and green planting and breeding, officially opened to guests. In 2014, the company achieved sales revenue of more than 50 million yuan, directly provided 385 jobs, drove the development of 38 farmhouse restaurants and farmhouse inns in Sanhe Village, and led villagers to increase their annual income by 15,000 yuan per household.

From being determined to jump out of the farm gate to returning to the land again, Wang Shuofeng believes that only this is truly "jumping out" of the farm gate.