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Four master the art of selling healthy vegetables
By Xu Wenwen |
August 17, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
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A small store selling organic vegetables transported from high-mountain districts opened in Zhengyuan Village in the west of Hangzhou a month ago. The bosses are four young men who used to be artists, and two of them went to university in France.
Zhu Shuqi and Wang Pu both got master's degrees in fine art in France and came back this year. "We got the idea from Biocoop, a popular food market in France," Zhu says. "It started selling organic vegetables and now it's a big organic agriculture cooperative."
The store is named VFour - the four artists designed the logo as a V looking like two green leaves - symbolizing the store name, which used the initial letter of French words "viosin, vert, vitamine and vie," meaning neighbor, green, vitamin and life.
In the 30-square-meter store, the goods are all arranged in bamboo cases on wooden shelves.
Wild dandelion, abelmosk, white sponge gourd, flat cauliflower - some vegetables the store sells have never been seen by most local people, but even the common ones, such as tomato, potato and cabbage, are organically grown.
"Most of our products are transported from agriculture cooperatives in high-mountain districts, such as Xianju (in northern Zhejiang) and Xinchang (in middle of Zhejiang)," Zhu says.
Xia Wei and Shi Jianping, who used to work in an advertising company, say they opened the store not because they dislike their jobs, but because they want to realize their dreams.
"We four want to establish our own business, and we'd thought of a mountain of ideas, like custom-tailor furniture and advertising. Finally, selling vegetables came as the best one," says Zhu.
"We chose this idea because all of us love eating," laughs Xia. "The main reason is that after the melamine event, we think the quality of Chinese food needs to improve."
Today, many families want to include healthy food in their meals, but the urban market is flooded with vegetables grown with pesticide and meat poultry injected with hormones. Although some supermarkets do offer organic food, there is little variety.
People usually have to ask their relatives or friends in rural areas for natural food, or spend big money on an organic meal in some resort hotels. Aware of this, the four young men initiated their new business.
"It is distressing to see crops that grow naturally without any pesticides or hormones rotting in the fields because there is no market for them while urban people make great efforts to find natural foods," says Xia. "We had discovered a gap in the market."
But everything is difficult at the start.
"Some big cooperatives didn't want to cooperate with us at first, because we purchase little and they are used to selling huge amount of goods abroad or to big supermarkets," says Xia. "But it's getting better now, and we have stable sources."
In the first month of business, they earned about 12,000 yuan (US$1,755), making a profit of some 1,000 yuan after paying the rent, utility bills and transport costs.
"We made good progress," says Shi. "In the first week, we discarded goods valued at 1,600 yuan because of improper preserving methods. But now it's much better."
"We even have fans come all the way from Ningbo to learn our business model," says Xia proudly, "and some people take taxis here to buy our food."
At the store, the cashier not only collects the money but also strips off the outer leaves of cabbages before weighing them, making sure that the customers buy the freshest and also reminding them not to choose eggplants with spots because they have been rain damaged.
"I buy vegetables here every day, and I really appreciate their efforts in bringing to us an international lifestyle," says customer Zhang Mingzhu.
"We appreciate the support from customers, and we will add tips of scientific cookery and diet balance techniques soon," says Xia. "Our aim is to become a professional supplier of healthy organic vegetables."
Address: 213 Fengtan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8831-8737
Zhu Shuqi and Wang Pu both got master's degrees in fine art in France and came back this year. "We got the idea from Biocoop, a popular food market in France," Zhu says. "It started selling organic vegetables and now it's a big organic agriculture cooperative."
The store is named VFour - the four artists designed the logo as a V looking like two green leaves - symbolizing the store name, which used the initial letter of French words "viosin, vert, vitamine and vie," meaning neighbor, green, vitamin and life.
In the 30-square-meter store, the goods are all arranged in bamboo cases on wooden shelves.
Wild dandelion, abelmosk, white sponge gourd, flat cauliflower - some vegetables the store sells have never been seen by most local people, but even the common ones, such as tomato, potato and cabbage, are organically grown.
"Most of our products are transported from agriculture cooperatives in high-mountain districts, such as Xianju (in northern Zhejiang) and Xinchang (in middle of Zhejiang)," Zhu says.
Xia Wei and Shi Jianping, who used to work in an advertising company, say they opened the store not because they dislike their jobs, but because they want to realize their dreams.
"We four want to establish our own business, and we'd thought of a mountain of ideas, like custom-tailor furniture and advertising. Finally, selling vegetables came as the best one," says Zhu.
"We chose this idea because all of us love eating," laughs Xia. "The main reason is that after the melamine event, we think the quality of Chinese food needs to improve."
Today, many families want to include healthy food in their meals, but the urban market is flooded with vegetables grown with pesticide and meat poultry injected with hormones. Although some supermarkets do offer organic food, there is little variety.
People usually have to ask their relatives or friends in rural areas for natural food, or spend big money on an organic meal in some resort hotels. Aware of this, the four young men initiated their new business.
"It is distressing to see crops that grow naturally without any pesticides or hormones rotting in the fields because there is no market for them while urban people make great efforts to find natural foods," says Xia. "We had discovered a gap in the market."
But everything is difficult at the start.
"Some big cooperatives didn't want to cooperate with us at first, because we purchase little and they are used to selling huge amount of goods abroad or to big supermarkets," says Xia. "But it's getting better now, and we have stable sources."
In the first month of business, they earned about 12,000 yuan (US$1,755), making a profit of some 1,000 yuan after paying the rent, utility bills and transport costs.
"We made good progress," says Shi. "In the first week, we discarded goods valued at 1,600 yuan because of improper preserving methods. But now it's much better."
"We even have fans come all the way from Ningbo to learn our business model," says Xia proudly, "and some people take taxis here to buy our food."
At the store, the cashier not only collects the money but also strips off the outer leaves of cabbages before weighing them, making sure that the customers buy the freshest and also reminding them not to choose eggplants with spots because they have been rain damaged.
"I buy vegetables here every day, and I really appreciate their efforts in bringing to us an international lifestyle," says customer Zhang Mingzhu.
"We appreciate the support from customers, and we will add tips of scientific cookery and diet balance techniques soon," says Xia. "Our aim is to become a professional supplier of healthy organic vegetables."
Address: 213 Fengtan Rd
Tel: (0571) 8831-8737
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