Zheng Yongjian (right) and Xu Xiaoli are checking the flowering of dragon fruit
When I arrived at the base of Xu Xiaoli in the East, Zheng Yongjian came with a manuscript he had just written. The title of the book is "Dragon Fruit System Cultivation Management", and it is indeed written very systematically, from the biological basis, garden construction model, planting management, pest control, all the way to the variety analysis of bird's nest fruit that I focused on this trip. The whole book is 674 pages, printed on coated paper, so heavy that Xu Xiaoli can't hold the book in one hand.
He has been in my WeChat circle of friends for a long time, but rarely communicates, leaving me with the impression that he is a young man engaged in citrus technology in Guangxi, and he did not expect to make dragon fruit in Hainan. His current identity is the technical director of Hainan Fruit Island Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.
"I came here in 2018." Zheng Yongjian introduced himself: "In 2009, after graduating from South China University of Tropical Agriculture (now Hainan University), I returned to Guangxi and have been doing technical work in agricultural enterprises. When I added you WeChat, I was doing 'Wo Mandarin' in Guangxi, and I put the land in order, and the result was that the boss had no money to invest, and just when Fruit Island contacted me, I went to this side. ”
Dragon orchard on Fruit Island
"How many agricultural enterprises have you stayed in?" I asked curiously. According to the employment direction of our graduates of agricultural universities at that time, they were generally in the agricultural technology promotion department, or turned to administration, and rarely went to agricultural enterprises. In my hometown, there are very few agricultural companies that recruit college students.
"5." Zheng Yongjian listed several companies he has worked for, the first of which is a Sino-foreign joint venture in organic agriculture.
"How many are there left to survive?" I asked a very sad question. Zheng Yongjian smiled bitterly and replied, "There are only two left in this one now." ”
This answer is even more bleak than I expected, showing how risky the plantation is.
"What do you think of the industry?" I want to know his professional feelings for more than ten years.
Gao Weiguo, chairman of Guangxi Nanning Markham Agriculture, who transformed from the banana industry to the orange industry (left)
"Agriculture or..." Zheng Yongjian did not know how to answer my question for a moment, pondered for a moment, and then said: "You have to constantly find new products to survive." For example, the bosses who originally planted bananas, if they don't go to Southeast Asia to change to a new planting area, they have to change to citrus or dragon fruit, so that he can survive. ”
I remembered that in Guangxi, I contacted several big guys who planted "wo citrus", they were originally started by growing bananas, the influx of capital and the outbreak of blight made the banana industry that was once very profitable into trouble, and the losses in 2015-2017 for three consecutive years almost hollowed out the accumulation of funds in all the banana dividend period, and triggered a new round of "wo citrus" and "dragon fruit" planting waves.
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"Compared to other fruit industries, what characteristics do you think are in the dragon fruit industry?" I asked.
"Two characteristics, one is the high upfront investment cost, and the other is that there is output every month." Zheng Yongjian first introduced the investment cost of dragon fruit: "In 2018, we budgeted according to the construction cost of 50,000 yuan per mu of land, of which the land rent was 1,000 yuan, the structure was 5,000 yuan, the seedlings were 10,000 yuan (2,000 plants×5 yuan / plant), the artificial (from land preparation to planting) 4,000 to 5,000 yuan, the organic fertilizer and bark 5,000 yuan (4 to 5 tons of organic fertilizer + 20 square bark), plus irrigation systems, light filling systems and warehouses and other equipment. ”
The transformer and lighting system necessary for Hainan Huolong Orchard
"How much is a pound in daily production costs?" I asked again.
"Regardless of the upfront investment, it is also 1.8 to 2 yuan." But dragon fruit in Hainan can do 15 batches of fruit a year, every month there are fruits, unlike other fruits only a batch of fruit, so its daily management funds can be invested on a rolling basis. This is the second characteristic of the dragon fruit industry. ”
The year zheng Yongjian came to Hainan was the year when Hainan dragon fruit entered a frenzy period, and a large amount of capital aggressively "killed" into this high-input and high-output agricultural industry. In just a few years, the planting area of dragon fruit in Hainan has expanded to 170,000 mu, accounting for 18.9% of the total area of dragon fruit in the country, second only to Guangxi.
"A lot of people come in blindly, just like the banana industry in those days, they will fall into a vicious circle, and everyone will be finished when the market does not work." Relatively speaking, dragon fruit has a capital threshold, you must have money to enter this industry, at that time we chose dragon fruit is also looking at it, but now we find that capital can not protect us, because there are too many rich people, and it is more than one rich ..."
Zheng Yongjian (left) introduces Xu Xiaoli to the dragon fruit cultivation model of Fruit Island
"It's about to enter the shuffle phase." In just two or three days of visits, I have already felt the breath of the mountain rain coming and the wind, and any industry cannot bear the "swarming" of capital.
"In fact, the shuffle began last year, and as soon as the epidemic last year was affected, many people who had already taken the land did not dare to move." Zheng Yongjian said.
"Do you think dragon fruit still has investment value after the shuffle?" I asked again. Zheng Yongjian smiled and mysteriously mentioned that I have heard more than once a major feature of Hainan's agricultural investment - "money laundering", my understanding is "ulterior motives", Zheng Yongjian's interpretation is "not many pure agriculture", which is his biggest difference compared to Guangxi agriculture.
The advantage of Hainan dragon fruit is the light fruit from March to May
Compared with the dragon fruit industry in Guangxi, Hainan's advantage lies in the light fruit from March to May. "In these three months, there has been no dragon fruit in the whole of China." Zheng Yongjian said.
"Isn't it easier to standardize than other fruits?" I look for reasons for the "swarm" of capital.
The reason why agriculture is still a "blue ocean" is because it is difficult to standardize like industry, but in the past two days, I have repeatedly seen Xu Xiaoli counting branches to judge yield, and then thinking about this row planting model, I have reason to find a rational component for the "blindness" of capital.
Xu Xiaoli calculates the yield of the next batch of fruits in the field
"It turned out that dragon fruit was a system that no one had to do standardization, and after young people like Xiao Lime came in in the past few years, everyone slowly sorted out this standardized production system." But after sorting it out, there is a contradiction, that is, do I put this technical system in the company, or promote it to the entire industry? Zheng Yongjian pointed to the manuscript that has not yet been officially published.
In the manuscript of this book, there is a very detailed hainan dragon fruit planning plan and production process, and it is full of pictures and texts. It seems to me that the reader only needs to draw the cat and the tiger, and basically can achieve the level of eight or nine.
Zheng Yongjian shook his head, and then said: "The biggest problem now is that the quality of the boss is very high, but the quality of the managers below is generally very low, basically the relatives who work in the hometown and may not have graduated from junior high school come to take charge of management." Due to the communication barriers, there will be many problems in the implementation of the implementation plan. ”
Target production at the dragon fruit base
Fruit Island has 5,000 acres of dragon orchards, and the management model adopted is to apply the banana contract system. A pair of contracted households manage 20 to 30 acres, 7,000 to 8,000 yuan per month in wages, plus production commission (6 or more commodity fruits, 0.10 yuan / jin in the main season, 0.15 to 0.20 yuan / jin in the counter-quarter); the superior of the contracted household is the captain and the field chief, a field leader is in charge of 1000 mu, a captain is in charge of 200 ~ 300 mu; the superior of the field leader is the decision-making level including Zheng Yongjian and his boss.
"In your opinion, how much can the execution rate of your company reach in the end?" This is exactly the big base management issue that I will focus on in 2020.
"That's 50 percent." Zheng Yongjian replied, "What we are most distressed about now is this problem. At the scale of our company, the biggest problem is not technology, but management. ”
Contractors work in the fields
"Is there a way to solve this problem now?" I asked tentatively.
"The owner added money. After a listed company like Nopuxin comes in, it raises the cost of personnel in this industry, and we suffer. Zheng Yongjian said a solution that is not a solution.
In the context of fierce competition, bosses have also begun to pay attention to technical talents and management talents, and increased the investment in orchards. Emphasis is placed on soil improvement and the application of high-end water-soluble fertilizers to improve fruit yield and quality; add cold chain systems to extend the sales period. But this further increases the cost of production.
The next day, when we rushed to the dragon fruit base of Fruit Island in Ling Village, Sanjia Town, Dongfang City, this batch of flowers just happened to bloom. The contractor pushes the wheelbarrow, carries the bark into the ground, covers it on the tree tray, and waits for the harvest of the new season. Mountains of organic materials, extensive cement pavement, standardized and orderly planting patterns, steel structure support systems and newly purchased spray cooling systems all demonstrate the strength and ability of capital.
Zheng Yongjian inspects the development of dragon fruit young fruits
During the stroll, I suddenly asked Zheng Yongjian, "Have you ever thought about building a garden yourself?" ”
"There is still this kind of thinking, and it is up to you to run it yourself." Zheng Yongjian said realistically.
"You think there's still a chance." The original intention of my question was to see if there was still room in the industry, so I immediately asked the specific method: "What will you do?" ”
"I will choose a small category, not a big category, and I will definitely not be able to do it with a big category." Zheng Yongjian smiled and said, "You may choose bird's nest fruit." For others, there will be technical barriers to bird's nest fruit, but it does not exist for us, which is relatively controllable; in addition, the consumer group we are positioning will be more high-end, and we can also find the corresponding market through the network resources accumulated over the years. ”
The blossoming of flowers is a metaphor for the rise and fall of an industry
"How big is the scale?" I continued to ask.
"100 to 300 acres." Zheng Yongjian said: "The scale is too large, and the personnel management cannot be controlled. ”
This is a hard wound to the big base.
January 4, 2021
About the Author
Qing Yang, graduated from the Department of Horticulture of Zhejiang (Agriculture) University in 1991, master's degree of Nanjing Agricultural University, senior agronomist, columnist of "China Fruit Industry Information", founded the WeChat public account of "Flowers and Fruits" in December 2014, settled in "Today's Headlines" in November 2017, and won the title of "2018 Top Ten Three Farmers Toutiao" in November 2018.