Introducing red pears brought wealth in just two years: a 28-year-old woman's secret to success

After a spin around the city, she chose to return to the orchard

Shao Weidi was born in 1987 in Shaoxing, Zhejiang, where her parents made a living growing fruit trees.

In Shao Weidi's childhood memories, it was all scenes of her parents in the orchard turning soil, fertilizing, pruning, and picking fruit. This was not the life she wanted; she did not want to face the loess with her back to the sky like her parents.

In July 2008, after graduating from Shaoxing Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages, Shao Weidi decided to go out and make her way in the world. She worked as a clerk, in sales, and other jobs, earning a few thousand yuan a month, which made her feel that life outside was not as wonderful as she had imagined.

Looking back at her parents, they relied on 10 mu of pear orchard, not only living a leisurely and carefree life, but also earning over a hundred thousand yuan a year, far better than working for others. "If I grow some new varieties that aren't on the market, wouldn't the economic returns be even better?" She shared the idea with her parents, and the family all agreed.

Shao Weidi began searching for information online. It happened that a friend had just returned from a business trip to Shandong and told her that Shandong was holding a new product promotion event for agricultural fruit tree seedlings, and suggested she go take a look.

It was at this event that a latest fruit variety introduced from Finland by an agricultural research institute and optimized domestically - the red pear - caught her attention. This pear resembles an apple in shape, and when ripe its color is pink. Cut it open and taste it: the flesh is snow-white and delicate, crisp, juicy, with a small core, full of pear flavor, and with a hint of lychee flavor. "It stores well, can be stored naturally for over 5 months, has good adaptability, can be planted in both north and south, bears fruit in 2-3 years, and the full bearing period can last over 50 years." After hearing the expert's introduction, Shao Weidi was moved.

What was unexpected was that this research institute had only 20 seedlings for propagation, and the price was 10,000 yuan per tree, while an ordinary pear sapling cost only a few yuan.

Introducing the new red pear variety, her planting base expanded across the country

After returning home, Shao Weidi tossed and turned: was a seedling worth 10,000 yuan per tree? The market would have to decide.

She deliberately went to supermarkets to investigate, and found that ordinary green-skinned and yellow-skinned pears sold for just a few yuan per jin, while domestic red-skinned pears sold for over 10 yuan each. "Fruit is a necessity; if pears at over 10 yuan each have buyers, then my pears should not worry about finding a market." Because her parents did not support her taking the risk and she had no money to buy fruit seedlings, she borrowed 200,000 yuan from friends. Just like that, she signed a contract with this Shandong agricultural research institute: the other party would provide technology and full follow-up guidance, while Shao Weidi would be responsible for planting and promotion.

In April 2013, Shao Weidi transplanted the 20 fruit seedlings into her parents' pear orchard. The next year, they bloomed and bore fruit. Watching the small trees covered with apple-shaped red pears, Shao Weidi was overjoyed.

A single red pear weighs 360 grams to 400 grams, with the largest nearly 800 grams.

The moment of market testing arrived. She hauled the fruit to the farmers' market to sell. Other pears were 5 yuan per jin, while Shao Weidi's red pears were 10 yuan per jin. At first, people thought they were expensive and few bought them, so Shao Weidi cut the red pears into small pieces and let people taste them for free. As a result, because they tasted so good, the red pears sold out in a flash.

Later, she went to wholesale markets to sell in bulk, and gradually local people all knew about the novel fruit she sold. Supermarkets also came knocking, asking to stock them in bulk. She gave the red pear a very elegant name: Junlai Red Pear.

Seeing the market growing larger, she decided to cultivate small seedlings and expand the planting area.

In 2014, using 20 introduced seedlings, she cultivated about a thousand Junlai Red Pear seedlings. Some fruit companies were eyeing this new variety covetously, wanting to buy out her technology and all the seedlings, but she refused.

At this point Shao Weidi was even more confident: "Professionals want to buy out the variety, which proves it has prospects!" This year, seeing that the pears she sold had good market demand, nearby farmers all switched to growing this fruit. 20,000 Junlai Red Pear seedlings were snapped up at 150 yuan each. After deducting 3 years of investment, she made a net profit of over 2 million yuan!

Local customers came in an endless stream, and even customers from Guangdong, Beijing, and Shaanxi came attracted by her reputation.

Despite having a planting base of several hundred mu, the orders from the national market were so huge that she began thinking of mobilizing surrounding farmers with land to jointly engage in seedling cultivation and planting. They would cultivate the fruit seedlings, and Shao Weidi would buy them back in a unified way. This brought in higher income than selling pears alone.

This year, she developed planting bases across the country, rationally using idle labor and abandoned land for cooperative planting and seedling cultivation. Recently, her planting bases have expanded to places like Chibi, Hubei.

"By the end of this year, earnings of several million yuan are certain," Shao Weidi said happily.