Coming up Roses
Yang works with local farmers on her farm The first day Yang Ying arrived in Beijing ahead of the annual session of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature that opened on March 5, she carefully put a bunch of roses into a vase in her room. It was no mere decorative touch. It was a symbol of the enterprise that has made her a successful entrepreneur today, as well as a leader engaged in improving the livelihoods of farmers in the flower industry in south China.
“I have embraced roses as my lifelong cause,” said Yang, a first-time deputy to the NPC, in reference to her flourishing rose farms that have developed into a successful chain of cooperatives, derivative products and a tourist attraction.
Chairperson of Hainan Rose Valley Industrial Development, Yang originally started her floriculture business in east China’s Shanghai. Then in 2006, government officials from Sanya, the city in south China’s Hainan Province famous for its beaches and year-round balmy weather, visited the flower market in Shanghai, and told her that Sanya was a better place for growing roses. That chance encounter took Yang to Sanya where the beautiful environment won her over. In Shanghai, the rose season ends in November but the warm winter in Sanya is perfect to grow the flower all year round.
Helping farmers
On arriving in Sanya, she found that many local villages were impoverished, and some families could not even afford to send their children to school. When her rose farm took off, the benefits began to reach the local farmers as well. In 2009, she leased the use rights of more than 100 hectares of land from local farmers in a village named Bohou, which meant local farmers began to have a steady income from the rent. Her company also began to buy flowers from famers who grew them in cooperatives and sent them to Shanghai for sale. This opened access to a bigger market and created another source of income for the farmers.
In 2014, Yang branched out into a subsidiary industry of rose products, such as rose oil, rose cakes and rose tea, and subsequently, her company added tourism to its list of ventures, opening the farms to visitors. In 2017, the number of visitors exceeded 1.4 million and it continues to grow.
The projects are also generating jobs locally. Villagers account for 70 percent of her company’s 600 staff, working as weeders, flower pickers, and packagers. There are 19 cooperatives under the company umbrella, providing jobs for more than 1,000 farmers. Rose sales have also promoted the local logistics and express delivery business.
Long-term success plan
According to Yang, her next plan is to develop an industrial town in Sanya. Her company is going to develop more products and will bring in relevant industries. Following this model, there will be additional jobs such as making rose wine and offering homestays. The goal is to raise every family’s annual income to 150,000 yuan ($23,628), so that they are lifted to lead a xiaokang or a moderately prosperous life.
She says her goal was inspired by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who, in 2013, visited her Yalongwan International Rose Valley in Sanya. She was deeply impressed by a remark Xi made during the visit that “only when ordinary locals begin to lead a moderately prosperous life, can we call it a real xiaokang society.”
The Central Government has set 2020 as the deadline for completion of building a well-off society in an all-round way. This, as Xi said in his report at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China late last year, will pave the way for China’s transformation into a “great modern socialist country” by mid-21st century.
But it has not all been a bed of roses. Yang admits she encountered difficulties as the farmers initially did not understand how they could benefit from her project. Her company thus had to do a lot of explaining and negotiations. Later, their rising incomes made villagers understand her rose program, and things began to go more smoothly. As Yang sees it, the delicate rose flower can help the development of several sectors. “In the past, I focused on how to produce as many good flowers as possible so that the workers would have higher wages and farmers would see rising incomes,” she said. “After becoming an NPC deputy, I have a heavier responsibility on my shoulders. How to help more farmers on the entire island of Hainan become rich through my rose industry is my responsibility and next target.”
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