The Story Of "Lentil King"

Wang Honggang, 42, was born in a rural family in Nanhui mud town of Shanghai suburb, and graduated from junior middle school at 16.

In the spring of 1993, Wang Honggang went to work on a construction site in Pudong New Area. At that time, he thought, "do I have to work all my life?"

I have to be a boss if I have the chance.

One day, Wang Honggang passed through a market, and saw that the stalls were full of vegetables. He asked the price casually. This question surprised Wang Honggang. Those vegetables that were exactly the same as their home were sold for 2~3 yuan a Jin.

At that time, he could not believe that these dishes were not needed in the countryside for 5 cents a kilogram. If they could not eat, they would be fed to pigs and cattle, or they would be thrown into the river.

An idea in Wang Honggang's mind flashed: I worked hard every day to earn ten yuan. If I planted ten kilograms of vegetables, I could earn the wages of this day.

Why don't I go home and sell vegetables?

Friends are very supportive of his ideas.

But what kind of food is good?

Friends told him that in Qingpu, there was a kind of green lentils among the farmers there. They were soft, glutinous, tender and slippery. They could bloom continuously from April to December and save time and effort.

Wang Honggang quit the construction site on the same day, spent 200 yuan to buy a pound of lentil seeds, home to broadcast on his 3 acres of land, every day in his field.

In the village, people in the village looked at him with lentils. Some said he was stupid. He put up ten yuan of work every day at the construction site, but he had to come back to plant vegetables.

For the villagers' discussion, Wang Honggang didn't put his heart in mind. He thought, can he make money?

When the lentils began to blossom, Wang Honggang picked up dozens of pounds of lentils to sell in the vegetable market. Because the locals did not know this green lentil, no one asked for it after a day.

Wang Honggang was not discouraged. On the second day, he went to the vegetable market to sell. This time he boldly shouted, and when someone came to ask, he told him how to make this lentil eat.

In this way, some people began to buy them back, and the customers who had eaten slowly returned to Wang Hung Gang's booth for the second time.

They all said that the lentils were tender, refreshing and tasty.

Through the publicity of customers, Wang Honggang's green lentils were accepted by customers in the vegetable market. Every day, dozens of pounds of lentils were robbed and sold out early.

After a year, Wang Honggang counted the bills. He didn't expect that he planted 3 mu of lentils and earned more than 6000 yuan. Wang Honggang was more energetic. In the second years, the area of lentils increased by two times.

When Wang Honggang saw that lentil made money, relatives and friends and villagers began to follow him to plant lentils, and even his foolish neighbours followed with lentils.

Under the leadership of Wang Honggang, the planting area and output of lentils rose straight-line, and the consequent selling problems were placed in front of every farmer. Where did the lentils sell for thousands of pounds?

Wang Honggang looked at this opportunity and bought tens of thousands of yuan to buy an agricultural vehicle. He gave the farmer's lentils his own farm car to sell and charge 5 cents for each catty, so that the farmers were very happy.

As the lentils are tight, the price is high, and the farmers of lentils are more.

When he sold lentils, Wang Honggang met many large customers and established a good supply and marketing relationship. So he simply shifted his energy to sales, bought the farmers' lentils, and sold them to the market again, earning 1 cents per kilogram.

In 1996, the planting scale of lentil in Wang Honggang's town reached 1000 mu, and its output was dozens of tons per day. The sales market of Nanhui and surrounding Pudong New Area had reached saturation and it was difficult to sell a good price.

At this point, Wang Honggang thought about how to pull lentils to the downtown area to sell.

After investigation and planning, Wang Honggang installed a cart of lentils and came to the largest vegetable wholesale market in Shanghai, Jiangqiao.

However, the market surprised Wang Honggang. The lentils sold for 3 days.

Wang Honggang could not sit still. If he could not sell it for another two days, the lentils would be old, and no one would want to be cheap at that time.

Wang Honggang stopped a stall customer and asked if he wanted to buy lentils. The customer looked at the lentils and said, "this kind of lentils has never been seen before. This red look does not know whether it tastes good or not."

The customer's remark reminded Wang Honggang that the lentils could not sell without knowing or eating.

Wang Honggang came up with a way to fry the lentils and put toothpicks on the stalls and ask the customers to taste them. The trick is really effective. After a few customers ate, they bought some on the spot and tried to sell them.

In order to expand the influence of lentils, Wang Honggang also sent several pounds to several large dealers.

On the fifth day, the lentils, which had been overloaded for four days in the wholesale market, were finally sold out and empty, and finally a stone fell on Wang Honggang's heart.

In this way, Wang Honggang lentils broke into the Shanghai market, so that many people tasted the crisp green lentils, and more and more customers.

At that time, Wang Honggang took up his mind. He used the principle of price leverage to regulate the market price of lentils. In this way, Wang Honggang's lentils occupied 98% of the market in Shanghai, and became a barometer of the whole lentil market.

Because of the benefit of planting lentils, the planting area of lentils rose to more than 5000 mu in a short time. So many lentils were sold in Shanghai, and the price dropped from the highest of 7~8 yuan per kilogram to about 1 yuan.

In order to ensure the income of farmers, Wang Honggang decided to open sales to neighboring provinces.

Since 1999, Wang Honggang has successfully introduced the green lentils into the vegetable market in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui and Shandong provinces, and the market share is over 70%.

In order to increase the competitiveness of lentils, Wang Honggang set up Honggang agricultural and sideline products Co., Ltd., and upgraded the green lentils, and built 100 mu of standardized green lentils production base. Through the way of "company + base + farmer + market", the company increased its scientific content, continuously improved varieties of green lentils, reduced the number of pesticides used, and helped farmers further improve their product quality and output.

With the help of Wang Honggang, more than 10 thousand farmers in Nanhui District of Shanghai have planted nearly 20 thousand mu of green lentils, and more than 50 thousand tons of green lentils each year, which has generated hundreds of millions of yuan of income for more than 10 thousand farmers.

In December 2004, Wang Honggang began to implement the strategy of going out. He planted more than 2000 mu of green lentils in Hainan and Anhui, and set up a new lentil co OP to make farmers and companies more closely linked.

The company hired high tech experts to guide farmers to grow lentils to ensure the quality and yield of lentils. The company also set up its own cold storage, and set up a higher value vegetable distribution, and sold the lentils to the northeast and northwest markets.

Now, the small lentils have brought hundreds of millions of yuan worth to Wang Honggang's company.

Xu Qiyun, editor in chief: