To Liu Yongxing, president of the 20-year-old Hope Group, the plant
is his millennium hope -- and the hope of Chinese farmers.
"It makes me the richest man in China, and makes money for
farmers," the farmer's son said in an interview with Xinhua.
Worth US$1 billion, the plant, which mainly produces feedstuff, is
China's most powerful private company. For several years, one of
Liu's jobs had been to paint advertisements along every major
highway in the countryside: "Use Hope's feedstuff, and your pigs
will grow stronger and fatter."
By
2000, the 54-year-old self-made tycoon had established 100
feedstuff-processing factories throughout China. Forbes, of the US, ranked Liu as
the richest man on the Chinese mainland in 2001.
However, 20 years ago, when he and his brothers established their
first company, a quail-raising farm, Liu's wealth only came to
1,000 yuan (US$120).
"We had to sell our watches and bicycles to acquire our first
investment to buy the lovely birds," Liu said.
But things soon changed after that, when the gifted Lius recognized
the significance of bio-ecology in an agriculture-dominated
country.
"We began to use quail's droppings to feed the pig, and to use the
pig's feces to feed the fish, and the fish's feces to feed the
quail. In this way, we built our own bio-chain," he said.
The difference between a natural biological chain and the Liu model
is that Liu used a computer to control the whole process.
That was unusual in the countryside. But Chinese farmers were smart
enough to understand the effectiveness of Liu's method, and they
enthusiastically asked Liu for help. At that moment, Liu realized
that he could sell his invention for money.
Based on the "quail dropping discovery" Liu developed his Hope
feedstuff, which eventually became a well-known brand throughout
the country, easily beating all import feedstuff products. The
recipe is still a well-kept secret.
Liu and his brothers have said farewell to bicycles, and they now
ride in luxury sedans, fly to developed countries to give lectures,
and air their views at China's parliamentary meetings.
And farmers are the biggest beneficiaries. They have purchased
Liu's feedstuff and built their own super pigpens.
"It is not a business miracle, but a political result," Liu said. "
Deng Xiaoping 's reform and opening up policy was like a hammer
shattering a big stone that lay on us. The Hope Group is like a
seed under the broken stones which grows with the help of fresh
rain water."
Liu recalled that in the 1970s families were not allowed to raise
quails because the business was considered "a way of corrupt
capitalist economy".
He
said that his business developed even faster after 1992 when Deng
Xiaoping made a tour to the southern part of China where he called
for a faster economic growth rate. Liu is proud to be a native of
Sichuan
Province, that is, from the same province as Deng.
Liu also attributes his success to science. Unlike most farmers
laboring in the fields, Liu was a college graduate who majored in
mathematics. "I know more about what the knowledge economy is than
my fellow villagers," he said.
Liu was once given the title: "China's best private entrepreneur
using science and technology" by the then State Commission of
Science and Technology.
Liu said his greatest hope is to make all Chinese farmers rich and
to fill the gap between cities and the countryside.
To
reach his ambitious goal, Liu is not satisfied with just being the
"King of Feedstuff" in China. In 2001, his group took the first
step towards a global strategy by building two feedstuff factories
in Vietnam.
"We have already entered the WTO. Why not try it on the
international arena? One day you will see Hope on the New York
Stock Exchange," said the farmer's speaker.
(rednet.com.cn January
24, 2002)