An unexpected business opportunity overheard over tea

Program highlights: These fish look pitch-black, but underwater they look completely different. They swim extremely fast and compete fiercely for food. These are grouper. Yang Guobin once made more than 20 million yuan in five months and quickly lost it all, and he once suffered from illness and rested for several years. Over decades of entrepreneurship, he has had wins and losses and gone through all kinds of hardships, but in the end he was drawn to this kind of grouper, even moving far from home. See how Yang Guobin of Zhangzhou, Fujian, built tens of millions in wealth with grouper.

Employee: The umbrella will fall down.

The storm before the typhoon made landfall poured down in buckets. When the rain weakened a little, Yang Guobin began organizing people to pull the net. The treasure he wanted to see was in this fish raft.

These fish, averaging 1 meter long and about 80 jin in weight, are called giant grouper, the largest species among groupers. Raising one to 80 jin takes at least 4 years.

This kind of giant grouper has a powerful tail swipe that can even injure a person.

Yang Guobin: We need to cooperate. We need to (buy) fish eggs.

Yang Guobin went to the fish raft to order giant grouper broodstock. Before he had finished looking, the rain suddenly intensified again. Afraid of being trapped by the typhoon, Yang Guobin quickly placed the order and left the fish raft.

Yang Guobin: I hope to make several million a year.

Reporter Li Chen: Just from this alone?

Yang Guobin: Just from these fish eggs. If you breed them yourself, the cost is relatively low.

Yang Guobin has two farms this large in Zhangpu County, Fujian Province, with a total area of 60 mu. He began farming grouper in 2011, and in just three years he gained a firm foothold in Fujian's aquaculture industry, earning ten million a year. Local grouper farmers all praise him as capable and daring.

Farmer Yang Sezhao: I praise him. First, he is quite pioneering. With anything new, he dares to take the lead.

Aquatic product dealer Chen Dingping: He does quite well in this industry. In recent years his farming scale has been relatively large, and he has expanded toward Hainan. We have always worked together.

Yang Guobin now makes money farming grouper, but in the eyes of local people, what they love to talk about is not the wealth he is making now, but his roller-coaster life experience.

To tell his story, we have to start with this plant.

Yang Guobin: This is roselle.

Reporter: This is it? You relied on this back then?

Yang Guobin: Yes. I made my fortune with this before.

In 1996, when he was 30 years old, Yang Guobin made more than 20 million yuan in just five months with this roselle. At that time, Zhangzhou was rich in roselle. The most valuable part of the whole plant is these flower buds. They can be used not only for tea and red wine, but also have medicinal effects in traditional Chinese medicine.

Yang Guobin: I was quite impressive back then. Because at that time few people made a lot of money.

Having made a lot of money, Yang Guobin began to live a life of leisure and wealth. He soon discovered a business opportunity in canned food exports, so he invested tens of millions in savings. Unexpectedly, because he misjudged the market, in just a few months all that money was gone. Then came another bolt from the blue. The young Yang Guobin was diagnosed with a tumor in his lungs and needed surgery immediately.

Yang Guobin: At that time they opened up the bones. Opening it up has a huge impact on the body, like a car, a major machine overhaul.

The physical pain made Yang Guobin mature quickly. During the 6 years from 2005 to 2011, Yang Guobin accumulated nearly 20 million yuan through the red wine import business. Seeing that the business had just stabilized, he could not sit still again.

This is the place where Yang Guobin grew up. In 2011, many of his friends had already started farming grouper here. Seeing his friends' large farming scale and high profits, Yang Guobin was tempted.

Yang Guobin: Because at that time I saw the profits there were so high, while our wine business had very thin profits. Farming had 50 to 60 percent profit.

But Yang Guobin did not expect that this seemingly simple grouper farming would bring him an even bigger problem in life.

This was shot underwater with a waterproof camera. This kind of grouper is called tiger grouper. After one year of farming, they can grow to an average of 40 cm, with brown round spots all over their bodies. Most of the time they swim around quietly, but once they hear a sound, they move swiftly like tigers.

The speed when swimming is also extremely fast.

When competing for food, they yield to each other even less.

In 2011, Yang Guobin built a factory in Zhangzhou and began farming this fierce grouper. But as a layman, he knew nothing about fish farming, not even how to feed the fish.

Yang Guobin: I am not very good with that boat. In a moment I will call the master over to handle it.

Reporter: What are you afraid of?

Yang Guobin: Afraid of falling in.

Yang Guobin has a reason to be afraid of falling in. For farming grouper, he uses this kind of basket for feeding. The entire pond is covered with netting. On one hand this provides convenience, and on the other it also makes ordinary feeding more difficult.

Because the netting is so dense, the whole feeding process feels like playing some kind of obstacle course game. Yang Guobin's ponds are large and densely stocked, and this method can also achieve an even feeding effect.

Employee Chen Hongzai: I will pull it up like this so you can take a look, film it, film it like this.

Reporter: Finished eating this fast?

Employee: A few days ago they were just over seven liang, now they have grown to about one jin. Let me tell you, you do not know.

Reporter: This fish can really eat?

Employee: It can really eat. When the weather is hot now, that is when they like to eat most. If the weather is cool, they do not eat feed.

Grouper eat quickly and eat a lot. To control their diet, if they have not finished eating, you can lift the basket up like this.

When the factory was first built, Yang Guobin knew nothing about these things. He could only redouble his efforts in consulting and learning from employees. Ten months passed, and it looked like the first batch of grouper would soon be ready for sale. But in September 2011, Yang Guobin ran into big trouble.

During the interview, Yang Guobin saw two dead fish in the pond and immediately scooped them out with a fishing net. He said that occasionally having one or two dead fish is normal. But this kind of situation easily reminded him of something that happened in 2011.

One morning in September 2011, Yang Guobin had just arrived at the farm when someone pulled him to the edge of the pond. He saw a scene that broke his heart.

Yang Guobin: Eighty to ninety percent died. Not many were left. Almost all were about to die.

At that time Yang Guobin was still in the trial farming stage. He had not yet put many ponds into use, but the density was high. There were nearly 50,000 grouper in several ponds. This die-off caused a direct loss of 2.1 million.