Prince Lily: from planting Flowers to developing sightseeing Agriculture

From "waiting to collect money before the seeds have been planted" to "going door to door to find florist sales" to "carrying out picking and other activities to develop sightseeing agriculture," Cai Rongtian, the person in charge of Fujian's largest lily planting base, in the past two years, experienced a "roller coaster" challenge of transformation and development.

As early as April 2008, Cai Rongtian was introduced from Nanping to Zhuyuan Village in Sha County and signed a 140-mu land transfer agreement with the village. "it was the most glorious period of lilies, and you could count the money every day." Cai Rongtian said that before the lilies were planted, they were already fully booked by customers. at their peak, more than 10,000 lilies were sold a day. "the local florist wants to make a reservation, but it's all out of stock."

Cai Rongtian continued to invest to expand the scale. by 2013, the output of lilies in his base had reached more than 2 million, with an output value of more than 10 million yuan, making it the largest lily planting base in the province. More than 90% of the lilies are sold to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other places. As a result, Cai Rongtian was once called the "Prince of Lily" by the locals.

"but in 2014, the production of lilies increased in other parts of the country, the flower market was not booming, and my sales of lilies in Shanghai, Guangzhou and other places shrank significantly." Tsai Jung-tien says that orders from many long-term customers have been reduced or even cancelled, and hundreds of thousands of lilies in the greenhouse are almost on the market. "at a loss, I haven't slept well for a long time."

'The signal from the market is already clear, 'Mr. Tsai said.' it's over if we don't make the transition, 'Mr. Cai said. Since 2014, he has taken the initiative to sell to every local florist in Sanming and cooperate with these florists to expand the local market. "in the process of working with local florists, we found that the demand for lilies is limited, but many consumers are interested in organic vegetables." So he changed the two seasons of fresh cut lilies planted in previous years into a single season, and freed 30 mu of land transferred to grow organic vegetables.

Walking into the base of this holy agricultural technology co., Ltd., the neat greenhouse is full of flowers, fruits and vegetables, and all kinds of online shopping malls can be seen everywhere along the road. Different from other vegetable bases, Cai Rongtian's vegetables do not go through farmers' markets, supermarkets and other sales channels, mainly in the member mode, where customers place orders on the Internet, and finally directly distribute them through express logistics. "but it's hard to do it." Tsai Jung-tien said frankly that in the first more than a year, he had only accumulated more than 200 members.

"Let customers play and learn and participate in the planting process." Since February 2015, Cai Rongtian has tried to open the base for the first time to carry out picking activities such as lilies, strawberries and organic vegetables. Cai Rongtian told reporters that offline picking activities made the whole base "alive". For several days in a row, the base was full of tourists, and the parking space near the parking lot was full of cars.

Today, through online sales and offline picking activities, Cai Rongtian's lilies no longer need to be exported to Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other places, and the market around Sanming alone is in short supply. Cai Rongtian calculated an account and said that in the past year, it has recovered to an annual output value of more than 10 million yuan.

From the popularity of offline picking activities, Tsai Jung-tien sees new opportunities. He said that many customers like to take a family, young and old, directly to the base to play while purchasing agricultural products. In the exhibition room of the glass house on the base, some hyacinths, succulent plants, and other small potted plants suitable for children and families are deeply loved by customers. "they want to DIY different styles of potted plants and take them home after they are done."

"now that customers have new needs, we should change them. Relying solely on the cultivation and sales of lilies in the past may be forced to be eliminated at any time and should take the initiative to develop into sightseeing agriculture. " Cai Rongtian said that this is his current efforts and future dream, especially after the opening of Shaxian airport in Sanming, Shaxian has three-dimensional convenient transportation such as airplanes, bullet trains, highways, and so on. "more people come to Shaxian. This creates opportunities for leisure agricultural tourism with the lily base as the core."

Tsai Rongtian already has some plans. He said that he plans to install light music on the passageway of the base, plant flowers of different flowering periods in the greenhouse of the base, and promote popular science knowledge on different crops. "I want to combine tourism resources such as Shaxian Taoshan Scenic spot, as well as Shaxian snack culture and history and culture, so that tourists can play and take pictures in the base all the year round, learn the knowledge of growing flowers, and become a good place for agricultural eco-tourism."

At present, Cai Rongtian is busy learning from unique and popular eco-tourism attractions inside and outside the province.