To promote rural revitalization with characteristic industries, Ma Hua Zhuang, Minquan County, Henan Province——
Small twists make a big industry to get rich (first-line research)
Our reporter Bi Jingjin's "People's Daily" (page 04, April 24, 2022)
Rural revitalization and industrial prosperity are the key points.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that we must continue to support the development of characteristic industries in poverty alleviation areas.
It is necessary to encourage and support farmers to develop characteristic agriculture, rural tourism, and garden economy based on local resources, and increase farmers' income through multiple channels.
In Mahuazhuang Village, Minquan County, Henan Province, as an intangible cultural heritage of Henan Province, golden twisted mahua is not only a special food favored by villagers, but also developed into a characteristic industry that promotes local poverty alleviation and prosperity.
How does the little twist can carry the villagers' vision of getting rich?
How can a small workshop become a big industry to get rid of poverty and become rich?
Recently, the reporter walked into Mahuazhuang Village to explore the great changes brought about by the local leading the villagers to develop characteristic industries.
--editor
A light rain in the morning, fresh air.
Xu Meili, a poverty-stricken household in the Twist Village, went out early in the morning and came to the Ruiwei Twist Factory in the east of the village to start a day of “rubbing twist”.
Seven or eight workers, a frying pan, is a production line of the twist factory.
"The oil is on fire, start work!" The foreman gave an order, Xu Meili skillfully picked up a cut section of hair noodles, pressed, rubbed, and rolled, and instantly a "twist" took shape.
Then the "twist" was put on the conveyor belt and poured into the oil pan. After a while, the finished twist with beautiful color and fragrance was out of the pan.
Mahuazhuang Village is located in Minquan County, Henan Province. Fried Mahua has a history of nearly 300 years.
The twist in the village is crispy, fragrant and crisp, and the local twist making process is also an intangible cultural heritage in Henan Province.
The golden twist was once the main means of increasing income for the people of Twist Village.
In the 1970s and 1980s, when many people had not yet had enough food and clothing, the craftsmen of the twist were the first to eat white noodles in the village, and among them, the earliest local households with ten thousand yuan were born.
These have attracted dozens of families in Twist Village to fry the twist.
But in the following decades, the twists in the village have always stopped at family workshops.
And Mahuazhuang is just an obscure and impoverished village.
Changes began with the arrival of the village work team.
Clear your mind-
Have skills and foundation, find out the problem and find the way
Mahuazhuang, formerly known as Wulihe, is flat and fertile, but the village was once very poor.
"There are 1,812 people in the village, and there are only 1,871 mu of arable land, which is a little more than one mu per person. The soil is barely enough to eat, and if the family spends a little more money, they will fall into poverty. At that time in 2017, the whole There are 252 poor households in the village, and the poverty incidence rate is as high as 13.9%. Going out to work is almost the only way out, and those who can’t go out can’t make money.” Recalling the situation when he first came to the village, he went from the Henan Provincial Department of Justice to Wuli. Yang Yongfeng, the first secretary of poverty alleviation in Hezhai Village, said, "There are not many resources in the plain area, and even mountain goods cannot be sold. Developing industries is the best way to get rid of poverty."
What industries can be developed?
"There is no industry in the village, and there is no collective economy," said the old party secretary.
"Anything special?"
The old party secretary didn't answer, and brought Yang Yongfeng to buy some twists from several workshops in the village, "Try it, the twists in my village are almost 300 years old, and the taste is okay!"
Yang Yongfeng took a bite, it was crispy, full of color, flavor, and taste, "This twist is not bad!"
Twist is really good!
Yang Yongfeng took the old party secretary to Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and other places, went to supermarkets, enterprises, construction sites, schools, restaurants, and found acquaintances to sell.
Everyone who has eaten it said it was good.
"With such a good industry, why not grow and develop?" Yang Yongfeng asked.
"Who said there is no development? There are several twist factories and workshops in the village!" said the old party secretary.
Following the old party secretary to the factory and workshop, Yang Yongfeng was very happy.
The so-called workshop is a pot of oil in a room, and the so-called factory is actually a workshop, but there are a few more pots and a few people.
"At that time, I traveled all over the cannabis factories and workshops in the whole village, and there were basically problems of mess, many safety hazards, inconsistent product standards, simple packaging, and no brand." Yang Yongfeng recalled.
According to the "Minquan County Chronicle", the twist of Wulihe Village has a history of nearly 300 years. The craftsmanship has been passed down from generation to generation by the Zhang family in this village. It has been passed down to the tenth generation so far. taste.
"It doesn't matter if the surname is Zhang or not in the village. When they see that they can make money, they all put up oil pans and fry them. There are some who do it well and some who do it badly, but so far, they have not done much." The old secretary said.
It's not big, Yang Yongfeng feels that this is the problem, but he can't figure out the reason for a while.
A twist auction in the village gave him a clue.
Just after the Spring Festival in 2018, a large supermarket came to the village to buy twists.
As soon as the buyer entered the village, people from the twist factory and workshop in the village gathered around them, and each family scrambled to lower the price in order to sell more.
In the end, the supermarket bought a cart of twists at a super low price.
When the villagers settle their accounts, some don't make much money, and some even lose money.
After some research, Yang Yongfeng figured out the crux of the failure of the Wulihe twist industry to develop.
"The taste of the twist in the village is very different. There is no brand, and the packaging is not good. You can only compare the price. As a result, no one can make money. Without accumulation, no one can do much." Yang Yongfeng said, not only sales, labor, There are also problems with the materials used. "It can be said that vicious competition such as price wars is the main reason why the twist industry in the village cannot develop."
Precise strategy -
Village committees take the lead in joint efforts
In March 2018, when it was warm and cold, an "Industrial Development Conference" related to the development of Wulihe Twist was held in Wulihe Village Department. Words and people gather together.
"The people of our village can no longer destroy each other and compete viciously. The folks in the village also inherit the old Zhang family's twist-making skills, why can't they unite?" Yang Yongfeng is open and honest.
"How to unite?"
"Why unite?"
"What's the benefit of union?"
All kinds of doubts arose.
"Why do we want to unite? Our village's twists are delicious, and the reason why we can't sell them at a high price is because of our separate policies and vicious competition. If we unite, unify prices, unify brands, unify specifications, and unify sales, then the profits will go up. Everyone can make money!" Yang Yongfeng said.
Villager Li Xianren stood up: "The price has gone up, it's good to make money; but if it can't be sold, what will be done?"
Villager Zhang Guodong also stood up: "The quality of the twist in our factory is good, so don't pay them the same price!"
The villager Zhang Guoqiang said, "I just want to earn some money to support my family. How big can the little twist be? Don't just want to make it big."
…………
Seven, seven, eighty-eight, everyone who spoke to me raised a bunch of opinions.
To sum up, I am afraid that I will not be able to sell it after unifying the price, and I am also afraid that I will suffer a loss after unification.
Yang Yongfeng said: "As long as we work together to improve the quality, the twist industry in our village will definitely expand. If I'm afraid it won't sell, I'll underwrite 30,000 boxes first; if I'm afraid of losing money, think about it, I can do it with my own scale. What happened? Who hasn't been angry when selling twist! If we unite and have a scale, we will have bargaining power!"
After several meetings and discussions, the speakers finally agreed to join forces.
The village twist quality supervision committee was established immediately.
Villager Zhang Ruicun is in his 70s and has fried twist for more than 40 years. He has his own twist factory and is one of the few people in the village who supported the United from the beginning. No, it’s even worse to demolish each other!” Because of their rich experience in this industry, he and 6 other people were elected to the Twist Quality Supervision Committee.
Every week, Zhang Ruicun and other committee members go to various twist factories and workshops for spot checks. Those who do not meet the hygiene and quality standards require rectification on the spot, otherwise the unified order in the village will not be allocated.
In less than two months, the sanitary condition of the whole village's twist production has been greatly improved, and all of them have obtained the food production hygiene license.
The working team in the village and the two village committees organized order acceptance and unified sales, and set the wholesale price at 28 yuan per box, or 12.5 yuan per pound. The price doubled compared with the past, and the profit increased a lot.
The effect is immediate.
From the completion of the "Industrial Development Conference" to the Spring Festival of 2019, the sales of Wulihe twist reached more than 7 million yuan, and the net profit was more than 1 million yuan. Most of the twist factories and workshops had doubled the profits, and the village collective also received 20% of the income. more than ten thousand yuan.
Xu Meimei experienced all of this firsthand: "My family has only two acres of land. Before, the child's father worked hard outside the home, and the money he earned was not enough for the children to study, so my family became a poor household. In 2017, I arrived Zhang Ruiwei's family worked in the twist factory. But at that time, it was not good. The factory opened and stopped, and it could not work for a few days a month. By the end of 2018, it will be very different. 80 yuan. Now, Zhang Ruiwei has opened a new factory, I can earn 20,000 yuan a year just working here, plus the child’s father’s part-time work and various subsidies, my family can get rid of poverty steadily!”
Bigger and stronger--
Brand bright signs, village enterprises and farmers seek a win-win situation
In March 2018, the "Industrial Development Conference" of Twist was held, and in April, the two committees were changed in the village.
The party members in the village elected Zhang Yongtao, who had fried twist, transported, and traveled around the country for more than ten years, as the village party secretary, and also elected 3 branch members and village committee members under the age of 45. The two village committees are younger, for the development of the twist industry. Organizational guarantees are provided.
The price and sales of twisted dough in the village were initially unified, and the economic benefits continued to rise.
Yang Yongfeng and the new village committees immediately decided to push the "unification" further.
Unified brand.
"Zhang Guodong's father, Zhang Peiren, started to fry the twist in the 1980s. The quality of the fried twist has become famous. He even went to Beijing to participate in the exhibition and won the prize. , requiring each family to put up this brand when taking orders from the village, and to ensure the quality. Of course, in order to let a hundred flowers bloom, we also allow them to keep their own small brands." Yang Yongfeng said.
Uniform specification.
The unification of specifications is gradually formed through constant exploration and encountering obstacles.
"We took the twist to the supermarket in Zhengzhou for promotion and tasting. The supermarket and consumers thought the twist was too big and it was inconvenient to eat. When we came back, we asked everyone to only make small twists 12 cm long and the thickness of one finger; we When it was sold in a movie theater, people reported that a pack of 8 pieces was not wasteful, so we adjusted it to no more than 4 pieces per pack." Yang Yongfeng said.
After five or six feedbacks and improvements, they finally determined the production and packaging specifications of twisted twist in a pack of 4, each 12 cm long and one finger thick.
Unified sales.
In March 2019, with the approval of the Minquan County Party Committee and the county government, Wulihe Village was officially renamed Mahuazhuang Village.
Immediately, Minquan County Mahuazhuang Village Food Co., Ltd. was formally established, adopting the "company + farmer" model, integrating 8 cannabis factories and 5 workshops in the village, and the village unified procurement of raw materials, unified quality control, and unified external sales.
The original manufacturers are the production workshops of the village collective enterprises, and the production tasks are assigned by the village.
The produced twist is sold to the outside world by the village collective enterprises.
50% of the profits generated are owned by the manufacturer, and 50% by the village collective.
Part of the village's collective economic income is used for research and development of new twist products, market development, and expansion of reproduction; part is used for village construction.
The effect of "unification" is remarkable.
In 2019, Mahuazhuang Village achieved an annual sales income of 10 million yuan of twists and a village collective income of 500,000 yuan, which directly led to the employment of more than 300 surplus laborers.
The village collective used the income from the sale of twists to set up 28 public welfare posts.
In 2019, the twist museum was built in Twist Village.
Be careful-
Power e-commerce research and development, diversify and expand the market
As the twist industry is on the right track, how to be more refined and diversified has become a question that Song Ming, the first secretary of the new village sent by the Henan Provincial Department of Justice, often thinks about.
"Just a bag for packaging has been designed several times." Song Ming said.
The village twist was originally packed in a simple way, which is not conducive to promoting it to supermarkets or e-commerce sales.
Song Ming and the others wanted to design a beautiful and fashionable package, but they wanted to save design fees, so they decided to design it themselves, but they tried a lot and failed.
Finally, after hearing that it was a poverty alleviation product, a cultural industry company took the initiative to come to the door and designed the current packaging for them with a design fee of 5,000 yuan, which is beautiful in appearance and outstanding in features.
"One time, a businessman from Zhejiang asked, can we produce some sweet twists? This gave us new inspiration." Song Ming said.
In June 2021, Zhang Yabo, a young postgraduate who returned to the village after graduating from university, and Zhang Hongzhi, a party activist from the village, will be sent to the Henan Academy of Agricultural Sciences by the village work team and the village committees. Under the guidance of food experts, they will use the professional instruments of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences. , carried out more than 10 experiments and improvements, and developed seven or eight flavors such as sweet, purple potato, spicy, spicy, seaweed, and vegetables on the basis of the original twist.
"Later, after collective discussion and experimentation in the village, three main flavors, original flavor, purple potato and spicy, were selected. We sold a variety of flavors in combination to meet the needs of different groups of people." Song Ming said.
Young people are motivated and thoughtful, so Song Ming worked hard to train Zhang Yabo and his younger brother Zhang Yachuang to be e-commerce anchors in the village.
"We have successively opened Mahua online stores with no operating fees on multiple e-commerce platforms. In addition to inviting Internet celebrities to join us, we also cultivate our own anchors, especially the young generation in the village." Song Ming said.
Open their online store and you will find a wide variety of twists in a variety of prices, flavors, and combinations.
Relying on online sales, the Zhang Yabo brothers achieved sales of more than 2 million yuan last year and a net profit of 300,000 yuan.
"Now we have built two new factories, and we are going to lease them to the village's twist workshop to expand production. The town is in the front line of service and coordinated with the relevant departments to install high-power transformers in our village. From then on, the whole village uses electric oil pans for frying twist. It is not only environmentally friendly, but also can control the oil temperature more accurately." Talking about future plans, Song Ming said that they are preparing to build a twist industrial park in the village, "to expand production and expand sales, we will further expand the sales scope of twist. Small Little Twist is about to go to the world!"
Coordinator of this issue: Chen Yanan