The price of men's domesticated turtles has increased a hundredfold: an annual income of 20 million reveals that turtles become rich.

△ Asian giant tortoise egg

Sales of turtle seedlings have risen, and Chen Mingqiu has his eye on rare turtles again. The black-necked turtle that others don't like, Chen Mingqiu keeps it at home as a baby.

As early as 2010, he noticed that the black-necked turtle market was promising, so he began to breed seedlings. By 2011, the price of black-necked turtles had risen to more than 3,000 yuan per jin, and the seedlings could be sold for thousands of yuan each. The value of the black-necked turtle increased a hundredfold, and everyone rushed to buy the black-necked turtle, and many people came to his door to buy young turtles, which made Chen Mingqiu worry about the risk of the market.

△ Chen Mingqiu

Chen Mingqiu of Tunchang, Hainan, is a famous local turtle lover. All kinds of turtles can be seen everywhere in his home. All turtles he has never seen will be bought no matter how much they cost. In Chen Mingqiu's farm, there are more than 100 kinds of turtles and more than 100,000 turtles, from which he became rich. Today, Chen Mingqiu's tortoise can bring him an income of 20 million a year.

Earn the first bucket of gold by raising money turtles

Chen Mingqiu was not in good health when he was young. Someone gave him a tortoise to eat, and his body gradually became strong. From then on, he became interested in turtles. When Chen Mingqiu heard that money turtles had aura and nutrition, he began to raise money turtles specially. Since the 1990s, money turtles have been hot, and prices have risen sharply, bringing Chen Mingqiu the first bucket of gold in his life. At its peak, his money turtles accounted for 1/3 of the total number of money turtles in Hainan Island.

△ money tortoise

Not satisfied with the status quo, do big and strong turtle business.

Just when everyone thought that Chen Mingqiu would concentrate on managing money turtles, he focused on collecting all kinds of turtles, regardless of whether they had economic value or not, he had to buy them for breeding. Around 2000, Chen Mingqiu became the person with the largest number of turtles in Hainan. There are more than 100 kinds of turtles, more than a hundred thousand of them. The cheap ones cost more than ten yuan and the expensive ones cost more than three million yuan each.

Around 2010, Chen Mingqiu has formed two types of turtles raised ecologically. In addition to rare and famous turtles such as money turtles, he has also bred a large number of edible and medicinal turtles, which has become an important part of his turtle wealth. The turtles are sold to hundreds of regular customers he has accumulated over the decades, mostly hotels and pharmaceutical factories.

It's hard to sell turtles. He started the upstream business of turtles again.

Just when Chen Mingqiu's business was on the rise, in 2010, he encountered an unprecedented crisis. Due to the long growth time and high cost of ecological turtles, customers say the turtles are delicious, but the price is not acceptable. Chen Mingqiu's turtles were unsalable in large numbers, and their business was affected unprecedentedly. That year, their production was reduced by seven to eight million, equivalent to 1/3 of their wealth lost. Seeing that his carefully cultivated turtles could not be sold at a high price, Chen Mingqiu did not say anything, but he was worried. What should he do next?

△ small turtle seedling

He transformed decisively and found new business opportunities. Chen Mingqiu found that there is indeed a big market for eating turtles. And turtle farmers need turtle seedlings, the cultivation of seedlings requires a lot of money and technology, not everyone has such conditions. So, can I be the upstream market for turtles and sell seedlings to the increasing number of turtle farmers year by year?

Chen Mingqiu decided to start with the Asian giant turtles with large sales. Asian giant turtles are mainly sold to hotels. The market in Haikou City can reach several thousand jin a day, and the profit is also high, with each turtle seedling costing NT $600 to NT $700. If 50 Asian giant turtle seedlings can be hatched in a bucket of eggs, and one seedling is worth 600 yuan, then the value of this bucket of eggs is 30,000 yuan.

In order to avoid market risk, Chen Mingqiu visited everywhere. During the visit, the bright-eyed Chen Mingqiu made a new discovery: among all kinds of black-necked turtles, the number of Hainan black-necked turtles is very small, the appearance is unique, and has great market potential! So as long as there is a Hainan black-necked turtle on the market, he will spend a lot of money to buy it, and he has invested more than 10 million in two years.

In 2013, sure enough, the prices of various species of black-necked turtles began to distinguish, and Hainan black-necked turtles favored by Chen Mingqiu increased the most! By 2015, the seedlings of Hainan black-necked turtles have risen from a few thousand yuan to more than 100,000 yuan each, a 40-fold increase.

Bring the poor families to get rich together

In Hainan, Chinese flower turtles are the most in demand for food turtles in the market. Haikou City needs about 4 tons of Chinese flower turtles every day. Hainan hotels generally have recipes for this kind of turtle. In addition, the Chinese tortoise is strong in vitality and easy to feed, so it has been selected as a poverty alleviation project by the Tunchang county government since 2014. The Tunchang county government found Chen Mingqiu, asked him to provide help to farmers, and ordered turtle seedlings from him.

Today, Chen Mingqiu's tortoise can bring him an annual income of 20 million yuan. In 2015, he has trained more than 300 poor families free of charge, and he hopes to realize his dream of raising turtles to become rich together with more people.