Dong Anning: the arduous course from a medicine vendor to a winter flower merchant

Dong Anning, an ordinary farmer in Guanzi Town, Qinzhou District, Tianshui City, was born in poverty and dropped out of school because of illness in junior high school. He took up the burden of life before he was 20 years old. In order to acquire Chinese herbal medicines, I have walked dozens of kilometers and traveled across mountains and rivers every day, and have experienced many failures. By accident, he suddenly came up with the idea of "wild winter flowers" and began to guide villagers to plant winter flowers on a large scale. over the past decade, the cultivation of traditional Chinese medicine based on winter flowers has become one of the pillar industries in Guanzi town. many farmers have taken the road of characteristic planting and getting rich, and Dong Anning has finally let the winter flowers of Guanzi Town out of Gansu and into the whole country after years of continuous exploration. +

The bitterness and joys of starting

Recently, the reporter went to Guanzi Town to cover the harvest and market situation of winter flowers last year. When the town government staff took us to an old grain station not far away, large boxes were placed neatly in the storeroom. after opening a box of winter flowers ready to be loaded, the reporter saw that the budding flowers were bright in color and in good condition.

In this temporary factory building, Dong Anning took the reporter along the way and said, "Winter flowers should be purchased while they are wet, they should be picked first, and then dried and baked." The color will be darker every day, and you must grasp the heat when baking, otherwise the product will not sell at a good price. " As a man who has been engaged in the processing of traditional Chinese medicine for 30 years, he speaks wisely.

However, when it comes to the difficult process of starting a business at that time, although decades have passed, he is still choked up in his words and filled with emotion. When he was young, Dong Anning's family was poor, so he summed up his experience in one failure after another. "at that time, he often walked dozens of miles to collect medicinal materials. He didn't even have a bicycle. He had to carry the collected medicinal materials back on his two legs. He was numb at the end of the day, but he had to run like that every other day in order to survive. Even if it rains, I can't bear to take a bus without money. " Recalling the hardships at that time, Dong Anning said that it was only by relying on that perseverance and the spirit of enduring hardships that he persisted.

The winter flower is beginning to form a bond.

Speaking of the bond with winter flowers, Dong Anning told reporters that in fact, there were wild winter flowers in Guanzi town a long time ago, and he can often buy the ones collected by farmers, but the quantity is very small, and the processing is rough, which can not sell at a price. "one year, an older generation of medicine vendors in the town pulled a truckload of winter flowers from outside, and the price was very high at that time. This gives me a kind of inspiration. Since others can plant it, we can also plant it, and then I will mobilize everyone to plant it on their own. At first, the planting area is small, but after the trial planting in Liujiagou Village, the planting scale has become larger and larger. "

According to reports, in the past, the main producing areas of winter flowers were Hebei and Hubei, but because the climate and soil of Guanzi Town are more suitable, the color of winter flowers is better, and the content of medicine ingredients is also higher than that of other places. therefore, in recent years, the winter flower in Guanzi Town has developed its own brand, and vendors from different provinces will come to buy it during the peak trading season.

Open up new directions

At first, he was worried about not being able to receive medicinal materials, but when the business was on a small scale, Dong Anning began to think about how to sell it.

"in the past, I used to be in Guanzi Town, and I bought and sold mainly real estate. Several people who collected medicine often went to Guangzhou, and I also supplied them. Once I asked one of them on the phone if he could take me when he went to Guangzhou. As a result, he just hung up the phone. " There was no way. Dong Anning had to go to Guangzhou by himself and went to a lot of trouble to find the Qingping traditional Chinese medicine market in Guangzhou. then he went to Yulin, Guangxi. after inspecting the market, he decided to let his wife go to Guangzhou. "it was quite difficult at the beginning. The market competition is big, and it is often run. But we have our own advantages, that is, at the grass-roots level, we can receive good goods and process them ourselves, so the appearance and chromaticity are better than those of other suppliers. A year later, our medicinal materials based on winter flowers in Guanzi Town have finally opened a market in Guangzhou. "

Subsequently, in addition to Qingping in Guangzhou, Dong Anning also opened up the sales channels of traditional Chinese medicine in Yulin, Guangxi and Bozhou, Anhui. "at present, most of our medicinal materials are sent to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other places, where customers have higher requirements for the appearance of the products. The general price of the same medicine is 60 yuan per jin, but we can sell it for 100 yuan after processing. As long as the quality is guaranteed, the price will naturally go up, and the market will be more secure."

In recent years, with the change of winter flower planting area and the fluctuation of the overall market of traditional Chinese medicine, the price of winter flower is sometimes high and sometimes low, the highest time is nearly 20 yuan per jin, and when it is low, it is only 6-7 yuan, but no matter what the market is, Dong Anning always operates in good faith, so he has accumulated a lot of old customers.

"as a native of Guanzi Town, I also hope that the villagers can have a good life. In the next step, I will continue to work hard to make the winter flowers in Guanzi Town move towards a larger market, so that more people can get benefits. " He said confidently.