Author丨Gu Jian
Producer丨 Yan Xi
In the past two years, the progress of agricultural science and technology should not be underestimated. The intelligent greenhouse that can independently adjust the indoor temperature and light, the energy-saving and labor-saving plant protection drone, and the insect monitoring station equipped with AI recognition technology have all let the public see the possibility of "farmers reducing their burden and generating income".
However, China's 200 million smallholder farmers are at the end of the industrial chain, and they are still constrained by problems such as small scale of operation and weak market discourse, and are trapped in a cycle of "cheap grain hurting farmers". Not long ago, the National Agricultural Science and Technology Work Conference also mentioned that it is necessary to promote the transformation and implementation of agricultural scientific and technological achievements, and open up the "last mile" of scientific and technological innovation achievements to be implemented in the field.
In other words, the immediate task of agricultural modernization is to provide smallholder families with sustainable development expectations and see the possibility of becoming bigger and stronger.
Hengzhou City, Guangxi, known as the "Jasmine Capital of the World", has played an exemplary role. Some jasmine fields have taken the lead in using intelligent management and control equipment such as high-definition AI cameras, with the help of image recognition technology, yield calculation models, and digital platforms for industrial planning.
The confidence to continuously increase industrial investment lies in the fact that with the help of new consumption tracks such as sugar-free tea, the jasmine industry has a stable growth expectation, and the monthly income of some farmers has been as high as 2-30,000 yuan. Nongfu Spring is one of the important promoters of the "Jasmine Dividend".
On October 7, the CCTV Agriculture and Rural Channel documentary program "Gongfu Jing" focused on the story of Nongfu Spring driving local flower farmers to increase their income and get rich in the Guangxi Jasmine Special Topic.
From the report on Nongfu Spring in Gannan and Xinjiang to help farmers in July, the interview with Zhong Sui, chairman of Nongfu Spring in August, to the "Common Wealth Classic" in October, Nongfu Spring has repeatedly gained the attention of the central media with its outstanding performance in the field of agricultural assistance.
The story of common prosperity in transforming the smallholder economy through business innovation has unfolded since then.
1. Healthy new tea drink, rich field people
The industrial upgrade of Hengzhou jasmine tea can be traced back to a product that was first launched 13 years ago - Oriental Leaves. At that time, "Happy Fat House Water" was still popular, and this healthy tea drink created by Nongfu Spring failed to achieve the expected results because the concept was too advanced.
With the trend of healthy drinks represented by 0 sugar, 0 calories, and 0 fat, the public was surprised to find that many years ago they missed a treasure tea drink that was impeccable in terms of tea soup quality, extraction process, and ingredient list. Then he began to "generate electricity with love".
Nielsen data shows that the compound growth rate of sales revenue of Oriental Leaf in the past three years has exceeded 90%. Not long ago, 618, Oriental Leaf broke its own sales record and continued to win the sales championship of the sugar-free tea track, and the popular products were sold out as soon as they went on sale.
Under the wave of oriental leaves, Nongfu Spring's jasmine purchases in Hengzhou have also increased rapidly. In the three years from 2020 to 2023, its jasmine flower purchases in Hengzhou surged by as much as 10 times. According to sources close to the jasmine industry in Hengzhou, Nongfu Spring's annual purchase volume in Hengzhou has exceeded one-tenth of the total annual output of the local area.
This made Zhong Sui, chairman of Nongfu Spring, who was born as a farmer, pay more attention to Hengzhou. In the water drinking track, Zhong Sui has always been a well-known "ingredient party". When making bottled water, he spent 28 years looking for high-quality water sources because of his "water source obsession". To make oriental leaves, he still maintains the habit of "seeing is believing", and will go to Hengzhou Jasmine Field in July 2023 to investigate.
△ In July 2023, Nongfu Spring's Chairman Zhong Sui (right) and Lin Yongjian, Chairman of Guangxi Hengxian Zhang Yiyuan Beverage Co., Ltd., inspected the jasmine flower trading market
This made him find a problem: it turned out that the purchase price of local jasmine flowers was low, only about 17 yuan per catty (or 34 yuan per kilogram), and the entire industry was also in a relatively early stage.
Zhong has been a farmer for 17 years, and he is familiar with and understands farmers. This empathy taught him that the farmer brothers could not keep up with the growth rate of emerging markets and achieve maximum economic benefits by relying on hardships and hard work alone. They lack accurate market orientation and professional technical guidance, coupled with information asymmetry, and can only passively follow the ups and downs of the business world.
To fundamentally break this cycle, it is not enough to increase the volume of purchases. For Nongfu Spring itself, in the process of rapid product iteration, it also needs a more high-quality and reliable supply of raw materials.
A far-reaching industrial revolution is about to emerge.
Soon, Nongfu Spring began the in-depth layout of agricultural assistance in Hengzhou.
On the one hand, it is to promote vitality by quantity and generate income for farmers.
In the past, the short shelf life of jasmine tea dictated that local farmers had to ship it quickly. Under this way of delivery, people's awareness of quality control is relatively weak, and product prices are greatly affected by the off-peak season.
The arrival of Nongfu Spring has given Hengzhou's jasmine flowers a large and stable market demand, which has promoted the rapid increase in the market price of jasmine flowers. In just two months that year, the market price of jasmine flowers in Hengzhou reached a record high of 40 yuan per catty for the first time. In September this year, the market purchase price reached a maximum of 84 yuan/kg, which fully mobilized the enthusiasm of farmers for development.
On the other hand, it is to accelerate the integration of production and research by means of investment, cooperation, and R&D team entry.
In order to control and improve the quality of raw materials from the source, Nongfu Spring set up a technical team in Hengzhou very early to participate in the deep processing of jasmine and study the technology of jasmine flowers; And join hands with Zhang Yiyuan, a well-known local enterprise, to jointly promote the acquisition and kilning process of high-quality jasmine flowers, and do a good job in the key links of upstream production.
With the deepening of cooperation, Nongfu Spring has further established a quality supervision system in the local area, and plans to invest in technical research in the blending and processing of jasmine tea to promote the quality of tea beverages and the upgrading of Hengzhou's jasmine industry. In addition, Nongfu Spring plans to establish a processing base for jasmine tea dried products in Hengzhou. We provide training and quality control for each process of flower purchase and dry tea blending.
The drastic local investment has given local farmers the motivation to expand their production and learn advanced agricultural knowledge. It has also laid a good industrial foundation for subsequent equipment upgrading and talent attraction.
The "new east wind" of sugar-free tea drinks is the real meaning of blowing into Hengzhou.
2. A new sample of revitalizing agriculture stimulates the "internal drive" of farmers
Large-scale purchases can allow farmers to have a fertile year. Stable industry expectations and incentives can change their fate.
Nongfu Spring chose the latter, the path was correct but difficult. Fortunately, Nongfu Spring has precipitated some fruitful thinking in the long-term practice of helping farmers.
For example, through price traction, we can help farmers upgrade their thinking.
Smallholder farmers on the mainland, who account for 90 percent of all agricultural workers, have long been unable to escape the fate of relying on heaven and earth and relying on luck.
According to Maslow's Principle of Needs, only after the basic physiological and safety needs are satisfied, can people develop higher-level needs such as innovation and realizing the value of life. Nongfu Spring is well versed in the needs and desires of the farmer brothers, and understands that if the income of the farmer cannot be stabilized and increased, all development will be empty talk.
To this end, in 2007, Nongfu Spring launched an innovative practice in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, purchasing navel oranges from local fruit farmers with high quality and low price. In just a few years, the general purchase price of Gannan navel oranges has risen from the initial few cents to more than two now. In this process, Nongfu Spring also took the initiative to sign contracts with cooperative farmers, promising to purchase fruits at a price higher than the market average to ensure sales. This allows farmers to dare to increase production capacity, buy equipment, and throw off their arms to do business.
A similar strategy will continue in Hengzhou. Nongfu Spring continued to promote supply-side reform based on the procurement principle of "high quality and high price", and significantly improved the planting scale and supply level of jasmine. Local flower farmers also have a long-term and stable income channel, which has injected strong impetus into the quality upgrading of the jasmine industry and the steady growth of economic benefits.
Another example is to boost the upward movement of the industry with high quality and high prices, and strengthen the market competitiveness of agricultural products.
The peculiarity of agriculture lies in the fact that it follows the inherent rhythm and timing of nature, and does not allow for the slightest impatience. Similarly, for the support and help of agriculture, we also need to uphold long-termism and be a friend of time in order to be a comrade-in-arms of farmers.
When the scale of agricultural product sales increases significantly, Nongfu Spring will take the lead in establishing an upstream processing base, so that there will be an industrial cluster effect in the local area, starting from the quality control of each process and each link, so as to enhance market competitiveness. At the same time, this move can also lead more young people to "reverse the north" and return to their hometowns to participate in agricultural innovation.
When there is a pest problem in agricultural products, Nongfu Spring will help farmers tide over the difficulties by subsidizing stop losses, engineering research and development, and introducing innovative insect control mechanisms.
One example is the cooperation with Gannan navel oranges, which have a pain point that has existed for decades: huanglongbing. This disease is highly contagious, and if not treated in time, it can lead to the loss of grain harvest in the entire production area.
Nongfu Spring did not hesitate to issue large subsidies to farmers, allowing them to cut down the affected fruit trees in time to stop the loss, and sent engineers to overseas to find ways to cure diseases, installed insect nets in orchards at their own expense, introduced scientific research forces from universities to jointly prevent disasters, and also carried out a series of cutting-edge scientific and technological research to cultivate better fruit seedlings.
In the fields of southern Gansu, Nongfu Spring's expert team was active in the front line of business as early as early spring, listening carefully to the voices of every farmer. In the jasmine production base in Hengzhou, Nongfu Spring will also continue to write a chapter in helping farmers in southern Jiangxi and other places, and promote the upgrading of every chain in the process of agricultural modernization
This is the real help to farmers: to become a community of interests with farmers, to support them for a long time on the road of exploring agriculture, to share the fruits of growth, but also to share the wind and rain of the market and nature, and to implement precise policies to help them break through the bottleneck of development. This model of helping farmers, based on the concept of win-win, is significantly stimulating the internal motivation of farmers to be the masters of their own destiny.
3. Cultivate the hearts of farmers and revitalize the dream of the field
In CCTV's "Dialogue" column, Zhong once revealed his unknown side.
He looks forward to Musk's life as a scholar, and he can continue to make earth-shattering "big things" in entrepreneurship. But the completely different life trajectory left Zhong Sui in the "ground". His journey of employment and entrepreneurship has been related to agriculture in almost every turn. As a result, Musk pays more attention to the future, but Zhong Sui puts his life's work on the "present".
His greatest hope is to turn more university papers into products, lay a solid foundation for China's agriculture, and let farmers live a good life. On the basis of ensuring the interests of farmers, let tea and other "Chinese business cards" spread to the world again.
This old farmer does what he says, he leads Nongfu Spring to invest real money in agriculture, effectively improve farmers' income, and drive industrial upgrading to feed the enterprise itself. While Nongfu Spring continues to enrich its product territory, it has also contributed to a number of regional characteristic agricultural products represented by Xinjiang golden apples, Gannan Zhifu oranges, and Hengzhou income-generating flowers, opening up an innovative road for rural revitalization.
As Han Jun, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said, enterprises are not only the "questioners" of agricultural science and technology innovation, but also the "answerers" of agricultural innovation, and at the same time they are also the "markers".
The leading enterprises have the advantage of being close to the industry and facing the market, and can point out the direction for the scientific and technological innovation of agriculture. If enterprises can increase R&D investment and take the lead in carrying out technological research, they will be able to promote the evolution of scientific and technological achievements from samples to products, from products to industries, and share the achievements of scientific and technological innovation with farmers.
"Farmers are rich, China is strong" is the six big characters written at the gate of Nongfu Spring Xinfeng Factory, and it is also the ideal and belief of Nongfu Spring. Under the guidance of these six words, Nongfu Spring's story of helping farmers became more and more climactic, and the smiles on the faces of farmers became brighter.