Passionate produce grower discovers risks, hardships of earning a living from the soil
April 28, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
WHEN Ge Ying, 27, decided to set up her own fresh fruit and vegetable production company in Shanghai, she didn't dare to tell her parents in the Sichuan Province capital of Chengdu. Their lifelong dream was for her to work as a civil servant.
Even today, almost three years after Ge founded July Clouds Agriculture Science & Technology Co, her mother thinks she made the wrong decision.
Ge begs to differ. Her start-up business has weathered its share of ups and downs, but she is determined to plow ahead and succeed.
The company, registered in Minhang, has achieved annual revenue of 1.5 million yuan (US$241,935) by supplying produce like greens to frozen food supplier Wanchai Ferry and strawberries to Haagen-Dazs in Shanghai.
Ge cultivates about 26,680 square meters of green vegetables and 6,670 square meters of strawberries in Datuan Town, Pudong New Area. She employs more than 10 staff.
A graduate of Sichuan Agricultural University in southwestern China, Ge worked as a farmhand in Shanghai after graduation. Although her major is international economics and trade, she became obsessed with agriculture and gained valuable experience while doing a variety of jobs at the farm.
"My passion was to set up my own business in the field," she said. "I never doubted that is what I wanted to do."
July Clouds was set up in 2009 by Ge, her husband and a friend. Their initial investment was about 20,000 yuan.
Short of funds initially to rent land and buy seeds and other equipment, the company began by selling organic vegetables from farms in the Minhang area to middle-income households concerned about food safety.
Ge discovered that the start of any business is a hard row to plow. But she is made of tough stuff and persevered.
To promote her products, she distributed pamphlets in Metro stations with a large passenger flows into Minhang. She was taken to a police station by security guards for distributing material without a license.
She said she felt angry and helpless at that moment, but then she saw people standing outside the police station cold and hungry and felt empowered to keep going.
The company was finally able to rent some land at the same agricultural park where Ge once worked. She even got a discount on the lease.
The company then began growing and selling its own products.
Once, when Ge and her team members were selling their fruits and vegetables and promoting their company near the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a group of urban management officials rushed to the scene and confiscated all their products - even a desk and chair they had set up there.
By running after the official vehicle and finally getting it to stop, Ge managed to save some important documents. She stood there with tears in her eyes as the vehicle sped away again.
It was fits and starts for the company. When it was on the verge of bankruptcy, Ge and her team managed to borrow money from friends to tide them over.
The company eventually opened an online store to sell organic vegetables, fruit and rice. That didn't prove very successful and the site was eventually shut down.
"The prices of organic products are sometimes three times that of common vegetables, and the market is highly disorganized," Ge grumbled. "It was hard for us to control quality because sometimes the products we sold came from other farms. Prices fluctuated a lot."
The team switched gears and adopted a new business strategy by seeking to supply fresh produce to corporate customers.
Ge said she has learned a lot about cultivation from other farmers, and hires farmers to do a lot of the everyday work on the company's plots. She and her husband visit the farms almost every day to check on crops.
"We don't know enough yet to plant for ourselves, but we will learn and improve," she said.
"We do not certify our products as organic," she added, "because it normally takes three years to get land up to par for growing organic vegetables and it involves a lot of money. We try to ensure the quality of our fruits and vegetables by minimizing use of chemical fertilizers and avoiding the use of pesticides."
It was not easy to win contracts from big companies. Using substandard products to replace good ones is a common practice among suppliers. That gave Ge the opportunity to go after companies placing a premium on quality products. She was meticulous in showing corporate buyers every step of cultivation and offered competitive prices.
"Big food companies have strict standards, and if we fail to meet their criteria even once, they can refuse to buy any more of our products," Ge said.
Based on orders, the company now plants only greens and strawberry. Contracts are signed on a yearly basis. The company delivers dozens of tons of greens every year at prices set by careful calculation of costs.
Of course, agriculture is always subject to the vagaries of weather. During adverse times, the company is forced to purchase quality vegetables at market prices from other places to meet orders.
"It can mean the loss of tens of thousands of yuan every time we have to dispatch a truck to transport greens from other areas," Ge said. "But the agricultural business is full of risks."
Ge said she is gratified to have found friends to support her.
"It's been a long, hard road, but I don't regret it," she said. "You need patience and perseverance to survive because returns come slowly and are often small."
Even today, almost three years after Ge founded July Clouds Agriculture Science & Technology Co, her mother thinks she made the wrong decision.
Ge begs to differ. Her start-up business has weathered its share of ups and downs, but she is determined to plow ahead and succeed.
The company, registered in Minhang, has achieved annual revenue of 1.5 million yuan (US$241,935) by supplying produce like greens to frozen food supplier Wanchai Ferry and strawberries to Haagen-Dazs in Shanghai.
Ge cultivates about 26,680 square meters of green vegetables and 6,670 square meters of strawberries in Datuan Town, Pudong New Area. She employs more than 10 staff.
A graduate of Sichuan Agricultural University in southwestern China, Ge worked as a farmhand in Shanghai after graduation. Although her major is international economics and trade, she became obsessed with agriculture and gained valuable experience while doing a variety of jobs at the farm.
"My passion was to set up my own business in the field," she said. "I never doubted that is what I wanted to do."
July Clouds was set up in 2009 by Ge, her husband and a friend. Their initial investment was about 20,000 yuan.
Short of funds initially to rent land and buy seeds and other equipment, the company began by selling organic vegetables from farms in the Minhang area to middle-income households concerned about food safety.
Ge discovered that the start of any business is a hard row to plow. But she is made of tough stuff and persevered.
To promote her products, she distributed pamphlets in Metro stations with a large passenger flows into Minhang. She was taken to a police station by security guards for distributing material without a license.
She said she felt angry and helpless at that moment, but then she saw people standing outside the police station cold and hungry and felt empowered to keep going.
The company was finally able to rent some land at the same agricultural park where Ge once worked. She even got a discount on the lease.
The company then began growing and selling its own products.
Once, when Ge and her team members were selling their fruits and vegetables and promoting their company near the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a group of urban management officials rushed to the scene and confiscated all their products - even a desk and chair they had set up there.
By running after the official vehicle and finally getting it to stop, Ge managed to save some important documents. She stood there with tears in her eyes as the vehicle sped away again.
It was fits and starts for the company. When it was on the verge of bankruptcy, Ge and her team managed to borrow money from friends to tide them over.
The company eventually opened an online store to sell organic vegetables, fruit and rice. That didn't prove very successful and the site was eventually shut down.
"The prices of organic products are sometimes three times that of common vegetables, and the market is highly disorganized," Ge grumbled. "It was hard for us to control quality because sometimes the products we sold came from other farms. Prices fluctuated a lot."
The team switched gears and adopted a new business strategy by seeking to supply fresh produce to corporate customers.
Ge said she has learned a lot about cultivation from other farmers, and hires farmers to do a lot of the everyday work on the company's plots. She and her husband visit the farms almost every day to check on crops.
"We don't know enough yet to plant for ourselves, but we will learn and improve," she said.
"We do not certify our products as organic," she added, "because it normally takes three years to get land up to par for growing organic vegetables and it involves a lot of money. We try to ensure the quality of our fruits and vegetables by minimizing use of chemical fertilizers and avoiding the use of pesticides."
It was not easy to win contracts from big companies. Using substandard products to replace good ones is a common practice among suppliers. That gave Ge the opportunity to go after companies placing a premium on quality products. She was meticulous in showing corporate buyers every step of cultivation and offered competitive prices.
"Big food companies have strict standards, and if we fail to meet their criteria even once, they can refuse to buy any more of our products," Ge said.
Based on orders, the company now plants only greens and strawberry. Contracts are signed on a yearly basis. The company delivers dozens of tons of greens every year at prices set by careful calculation of costs.
Of course, agriculture is always subject to the vagaries of weather. During adverse times, the company is forced to purchase quality vegetables at market prices from other places to meet orders.
"It can mean the loss of tens of thousands of yuan every time we have to dispatch a truck to transport greens from other areas," Ge said. "But the agricultural business is full of risks."
Ge said she is gratified to have found friends to support her.
"It's been a long, hard road, but I don't regret it," she said. "You need patience and perseverance to survive because returns come slowly and are often small."
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