"Post-80s" Chen Zhenguo and his team took root in the beach to commit to the industrialization of sandworms and lead the villagers to get rich

Digging sandworms on the seashore is not only farmers, but also "princes"——

In Caotan Town, Suixi County, where sandworms originate, Chen Zhenguo, a young man after the 80s, and his team of "Sandworm Prince" returned from the bustling city to a remote fishing village and guarded the beach in front of the door, artificially raising sandworms, mechanically digging sandworms, and selling sandworms online, playing new tricks and breaking out of the new world. Their wish is to develop the sandworm industry chain and share this popular cuisine that best represents the characteristics of their hometown to the world.

Pioneered the artificial breeding of sandworm seedlings

In Nanhong Village, Caotan Town, Suixi County, a seemingly ordinary beach is buried with a delicacy on the tip of the tongue - sandworms. In the past, sandworms have always been natural growth, and artificial hatching and cultivation of sandworm seedlings was once an insurmountable technical difficulty, which restricted the industrialization of sandworm breeding.

But this situation was changed in 2009 by a hairy boy who had just entered the industry - Chen Zhenguo, a college student who had just graduated from aquaculture, gave up his job opportunity in the metropolis, returned to his hometown fishing village, soaked in a simple farm by the sea every day, and used wild broodstock to hatch insect seedlings.

That year, Chen Zhenguo, who was in his early 20s, tasted the sweetness of science and technology, and his "square star worm (sandworm) soil pond seedling production technology project won the first prize of Zhanjiang City's 2010 annual scientific and technological progress, and the expert appraisal project results reached the leading level of similar research in China, and CCTV and other media reported on his patented technology and entrepreneurial road.

Under the fame, it is still a difficult entrepreneurial journey. Chen Zhenguo took the start-up funds supported by his parents and borrowed from relatives and friends and began to start his own business. Because of the lack of manpower, from the physical work of feeding, changing water, and clearing ponds, to monitoring, recording, seedling selection and other technical work, he personally did everything himself.

Later, Chen Zhenguo invited his college classmates to be helpers, and with his own team, sandworm seedlings gradually achieved mass production. Due to the good quality of Chen Zhenguo's sandworm seed and the survival rate of up to 90%, it is favored by farmers, and the farm begins to gradually become profitable. Today, Chen Zhenguo's Zhanjiang Bihai Bay Aquatic Science and Technology Company has become the first choice for sandworm farmers to buy seedlings.

At present, the company has 50 acres of sandworm soil pond nursery, which can breed 20 million seedlings per year, which is in short supply, and the annual output value of sandworm seedlings alone reaches 1.5 million yuan

Research and development of "insect picking artifact"

Sandworms are recognized as difficult to dig. All along, digging sandworms is almost purely manual, and generally skilled hands can dig 2 pounds an hour. At present, the purchase price of 1 kilogram of fresh sandworms is about 40 yuan, including 10 yuan of mining costs. In order to achieve industrialization, large-scale production and cost reduction are obstacles that cannot be bypassed.

In order to overcome the technical difficulties of harvesting, Chen Zhenguo and his technical team soaked on the beach every day to do experiments. R & D investment has exceeded 200,000 yuan, there are currently R & D results, has applied for patents. As it is still in the process of technological perfection, the machine has not yet been publicly unveiled. A Guangxi boss contacted him after learning the news from his peers and was willing to buy out the patent for 2 million, but he was rejected. "We want to have our own core technology, which is also our core competitiveness in this industry field in the future." Chen Wenqing, sales director of Bihaiwan Company, said that from the perspective of the use of the company's farms, 100 kilograms of sand worms can be harvested in one hour, which shows the high efficiency compared with the artificial harvest of 2 kilograms per hour.

Want to do sandworm dried industry standard

For a long time, the production of dried sandworms has been mainly self-made by rural retail households, and there are often dried insects that are still unwashed, and the insect body or color is not beautiful enough. Chen Zhenguo saw the shortcomings from here, and also saw the business opportunities.

The reporter saw at the bihai bay company's processing plant located on the seashore in Nanhong Village, Caotan Town, that a basket of fresh and tender sandworms was sent here, and more than 20 peasant women from the surrounding rural areas were wearing work uniforms and were skillfully washing the sandworms. Subsequently, after preliminary inspection, the sandworms are placed on the drying rack with steel wire at the bottom and enter the drying room for mechanical drying, generally 10 to 12 kilograms of sandworms can bake 1 kilogram of dried sandworms.

"Compared to traditional natural sun drying, mechanical drying takes less time, sandworms are fresher, nutrients are lost less, and they are more hygienic and more controllable." Chen Wenqing told reporters.

Chen Wenqing introduced that compared with traditional skills, their technology solves the problems of sand content, appearance and packaging and storage of dried sandworms, and even for how to preserve dried sandworms, they have repeatedly tested, "The dried sandworms bought home can be stored in the refrigerator and refrigerator for more than half a year." ”

"We want to create the industry standard for dried sandworms." Chen Zhenguo said that although the current production and supply of sandworms has not yet formed a scale effect, they are moving towards the path of industrialization, scale and specialization, the cleaning standards of sandworms, the drying time, the shape, color, moisture content and other technical parameters of the dried sandworms, packaging and storage standards have corresponding quantitative standards, for which they have also specially registered the trademark and brand of "Sandworm Prince", developed a beautifully packaged high-end gift package, aimed at the fiery high-end health products food market, and has been in short supply since it was introduced to the market.

The Internet sells sandworms

Chen Zhenguo's team, which once focused on technology, has now begun to get involved in the field of sales, and has also played a new trick.

Chen Zhenguo's team specially registered a "Sandworm Prince" WeChat public account, not only introducing the professional knowledge of sandworms, but also sharing a variety of sandworm cuisine, corporate dynamics, and sometimes offering beautiful pictures and poems of coastal scenery, both playing with feelings and grounding, and "circled" many "fans" as soon as it was launched. In addition, team members "sunbathe worms" from time to time in their respective circles of friends, and some dried sandworms are sold through micro-business channels.

On June 27, the launching ceremony of Zhanjiang's "Internet + Credit Three Rural" crowdfunding project was held in Suixi, and the sandworm crowdfunding project of Zhanjiang Bihaiwan Aquatic Products Technology Co., Ltd. became the first project, raising funds through China's largest agricultural product crowdfunding platform - Dianfu.com to expand the scale of production. Sold out in just 3 minutes, nearly 200 people experienced and subscribed to 200,000 yuan of sandworm products online.

In addition to making efforts online, Chen Zhenguo's team also values offline sales channels. In recent years, on the one hand, they have opened up the core city markets such as the Pearl River Delta, and entered the hotel and health product stores for brand promotion with gifts, on the other hand, they have actively explored Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and other markets, fresh sandworms can be used as sashimi, sandworm seedlings can be used as bait, and the market prospect is broad.

Industrial poverty alleviation helps villagers get rich

Born in Si grew up in Si, it is this sea that has achieved his own career, after the career gradually entered the fast lane, Chen Zhenguo took giving back to his hometown as a matter of duty, set up a cooperative to lead the villagers to get rich together, built a processing farm to solve the villagers' employment, and was very busy.

As early as November 2011, Chen Zhenguo's team established the Suixi County Bangzhong Sandworm Farming Professional Cooperative, which provides insect seedlings and is responsible for mining, purchasing, processing and sales. Compared with other marine aquaculture, sandworm farming has strong disaster resistance and small breeding risks, which has led to the prosperity of a group of farmers in Caotan and Donghai Island.

Zhang Ximei, who is in her 50s, comes to BihaiWan Company's sandworm dry processing plant in Nanhong Village every morning on time to wash fresh sandworms, earning about 3,000 yuan a month. "It's not very hard, and it's not as much as you can work in the city." She is satisfied with the job opportunities at her doorstep.

Like her, there are more than 30 people employed by Bihai Bay Company, mainly engaged in sandworm acquisition and processing. They are all from Nanhong Village. This seaside fishing village, which is not rich, has been included in the scope of a new round of targeted poverty alleviation. Chen Zhenguo hopes to do something practical for his hometown to get rid of poverty with his own practical actions.

Sales director Chen Wenqing said that in the next step, their team plans to initiate the establishment of a poverty alleviation fund, from the company's profits to take a certain proportion of public welfare purposes, to support the local rural five insurance households, widows and the elderly, poor and sick families.