The "pea power" of a professional cooperative in production and marketing

On August 20, the rebate meeting of Beijing Rongtao Pea production and Marketing Professional Cooperative was crowded, with hundreds of pairs of expectant eyes staring at President Zhang Tao. When the female leader announced that the council had decided to return 60 cents per jin according to pea production, thunderous applause broke out at the scene, members slapped hard, and some simply stood up.

In the more than six years since the establishment of the Rongtao Cooperative, it has only done a good job in peas, standardized development to maximize the interests of its members, and has driven more than 4000 farmers around it, and the 150000 mu planting base has radiated a 500km area centering on Pinggu, with total assets of more than 30 million yuan. The cooperative funded the establishment of a food company, Little Pea realized the docking with the big industry, and Zhang Tao's "Pea Dream" became more and more clear.

Pea love--

The family farmer came out of the small mountain village.

Zhang Tao is a native. She was born with a bitter background, her father died early, her mother was ill all the year round, and Zhang Tao's grandmother took up all the burden of the family after her grandmother died at the age of 11. In order to make a living, Zhang Tao sold New year cards and ice creams. After getting married, they "poured" agricultural products with their husbands on tricycles that they borrowed money from relatives to buy. From then on, their lives were tied to peas.

"Peas are tighter and more profitable than other agricultural products, and there is a local tradition of growing melons and beans in front of the house and behind the house." Zhang Tao said. As the business grew bigger and bigger, they had to go to Gansu and other places to transfer goods. In the process, they found that they could beat 500 to 600 jin of peas per mu, which was twice as much as Pinggu.

They made inquiries and learned that they had used a new variety from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Under the coordination of district and town leaders, Zhang Tao finally met pea expert Sun Yunyue. In 2001, under the guidance of experts, 27-year-old Zhang Tao contracted 80 mu of land in Taipingzhuang Village to try to grow peas. "I want to see if I can do it in the end. I can only be persuasive to others when I plant it myself." She said.

Usually they mainly rely on the work of husband and wife, and they simply hire workers when they are busy. In this way, Zhang Tao and his wife became "family farmers" more than a decade ago. In the first year, the corn planter used large and small ridges to sow seeds, and the yield per mu was more than 600 jin. In the second year, the wheat planter used "pair ridges", and the yield per mu reached 700 jin. This output was unimaginable in the surrounding areas at that time.

With practice, since 2003, Zhang Tao has mobilized the villagers around him to grow it together. At first, people did not believe this little girl, who was only in her twenties. Mei Shubao, an "old trendy" in her 50s, interrupted Zhang Tao as soon as he heard the yield, but Zhang Tao told him that the yield per mu could be doubled with only the new variety, coupled with a set of field management skills. The harvest must be guaranteed. "it's up to you if you make a profit and mine if you lose." Zhang Tao said to his fellow villagers. Sure enough, everyone "bulged their pockets" after the summer harvest.

Pea Road--

The cooperative strung together the dream of a thousand families to become rich

A new question followed, and everyone asked whether the increase in output could guarantee a full acquisition. In order to allay concerns, Zhang Tao launched the initial cooperation with the villagers-- signing a purchase and sales contract to guarantee the purchase of peas at a minimum of 1 yuan per jin of peas, which is relatively high in the market.

At the end of the year, Zhang Tao earned 0.46 yuan per jin of peas. She left what she expected to earn 10 cents per jin, and returned the remaining 0.36 yuan to the growers. "at that time, the people who wanted to make money depended on the big guys, and it was enough to meet their own expectations." Asked about his thoughts at that time, Zhang Tao said frankly. Some farmers got the pie that fell from the sky and burst into tears with excitement. Since then, the pea planting area around farmers around her has soared from 1,000 to 2,000 mu in 2005 to 20,000 to 30,000 mu the following year, and contracted farmers have reached 2,000 to 3,000. Mei Shubao has planted nearly 200 mu of land at most.

In 2008, Beijing Rongtao Pea production and Marketing Professional Cooperative became the first batch of formally registered cooperatives in China, with 527 members, with a registered capital of 2.68 million yuan per share at 1000 yuan.

Relying on scientific research resources and cooperating with Professor Sun for variety breeding, the cooperative has successively named Rongtao No. 9 and Rongtao No. 10, which are exported to Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei and other places. Members enjoy the benefits of technical services, seed cost prices and wholesale prices of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and the use of agricultural machinery only needs to pay the wages of the machine operators, registers the trademark of "Rongtao" to the outside, and takes the route of brand development.

After having the organization, Zhang Tao also signed a minimum protection price acquisition contract with members in accordance with the usual practice, and it is more scientific, supporting the bottom according to the protection price when the market price is low, and buying at the "protection price + market floating price" when the market price is high. In strict accordance with the cooperative law, 10 per cent of the surplus is set aside as business risk money, and the remaining 90 per cent is returned to members in the proportion of 4 ∶ 6 of the share capital and trading volume.

Last year, the cooperative sold more than 8000 tons of seeds, raw materials and food, with an output value of 65 million yuan and a rebate of 5.6 million yuan. This year is another bumper harvest year, and the cooperative's base has been extended to Shangdu, Chifeng, and other places in Inner Mongolia. 6400 tons of dried peas were recovered, of which the members reached 100% recovery rate, and 7.08 million yuan was returned according to the transaction volume for the first time.

Pea dream--

Leading enterprises promote the development of industry

With the growing cooperative, Zhang Tao has a longer-term idea. "members enjoy more of the income from planting, but the profits from production, processing and sales are all taken up by other enterprises." Therefore, with the support of the local government, Rongtao Food Co., Ltd. was established in 2010 funded by the cooperative. Zhang Tao, as the general manager, defended the rights and interests of the investors in the enterprise on behalf of the cooperative.

Wang Hongyan, deputy district mayor in charge, said that leading enterprises are often leading cooperatives, and Rong Tao has realized the feat of small cooperatives running large enterprises. At this point, Zhang Tao's trinity development model of "leading (leading enterprise) + dragon body (cooperative) + dragon claw (peasant household)" has been basically formed, and the whole industry chain based on scientific research, seed production, promotion, planting, processing, and sales has been opened.

60% of the company's profits will be returned to the cooperative, and the dividend will be included in the year-end surplus and distributed according to regulations. The remaining 40% will be used as enterprise operating funds. Enterprise managers, including Zhang Tao, will be hired by the cooperative at the decision of the cooperative and receive a monthly salary of 5000 yuan.

At present, the company is the only local agricultural product processing enterprise in Pinggu Xinggu Development Zone, and has built a standardized factory building of 10,000 square meters. It has purchased two pea deep-frying production lines, one pea baking production line, 30 automatic measuring cup packaging machines and one automatic metering packaging machine to produce pea products of two major categories and 15 small varieties. Last year, sales revenue reached 50 million yuan, of which more than 2 million yuan was returned to the cooperative.

"Rongtao Company has really achieved the goal that 'enterprises are cooperatives'." Zhang Tao said. The raw materials and products of the enterprise belong to cooperatives, and the employees are members or relatives of members in addition to most of the management. "there is a strange phenomenon in the company. There is no special loading team, and the employees take charge of the enterprise. If they have a job, they will work together." Hou Yanjun, the company's deputy general manager in charge of sales, said.

This year, the company plans to develop a new project to invest in pea protein and starch extraction lines, which can process 30, 000 tons of peas and produce 4500 tons of pea protein powder and 13500 tons of starch. Zhang Tao said that pea protein is a non-allergic protein, does not contain anti-nutritional factors, contains all essential amino acids for the human body, and has better nutritional value than other legume plant proteins and animal proteins. After it is put into production, it will fill the gap in the production of protein powder, especially pea protein powder in Beijing and even North China.

Rongtao Cooperative has been rated as a national demonstration club, and Rongtao Company has been rated as a leading enterprise in Beijing. on the wall of the new workshop, the reporter saw two eye-catching banners-- looking back on the six years of struggle, the dream of peas has become more and more successful; looking forward to the future, the road of cooperation is getting wider and wider.