Li Changyan was born in 1982 in a village in Houji Township, Zhenping County, Nanyang City, Henan Province. He moved to Beijing from the north-central Chinese village after he graduated from high school and worked in the construction industry for four years. In 2002, he returned to his hometown and invested all of the savings that he had built up – a sum somewhere between RMB20,000 to RMB30,000 – in ornamental fish farming, an industry that began to take root in Houji in the early 1980s and gradually became its dominant industry.

In 2005, Houji's ornamental fish industry began to expand as a result of government support, land leasing schemes, the introduction of high-quality varieties from abroad, and the development of local characteristic hybrid fish, and Li began pursuing e-commerce to help expand sales. Many of the township's farmers did not understand how the internet works at that time, but the entrepreneurial man believed that selling ornamental fish online could help seize the market.

E-commerce and broadband internet were not very developed in those years, however; and most people tended to shop offline. Determined to succeed, Li experienced various difficulties but persisted. Improvements to farming efficiency were made, his ornamental fish farm expanded to around 50-60 mu in 2008, and its operating scale began increasing by more than 100 mu per year thereafter.

Houji Township, Zhenping County, Nanyang City, Henan Province, entrepreneur Li Changyan (left) provides free e-commerce training to local villagers so that they can sell their ornamental fish on online platforms.

Ornamental fish farming has not always been easy in the Houji area. Some farmers began experimenting with varieties that came from the city of Guangzhou, which is located in southeast China, in 2008, but the fish all died as a result of the climate differences that exist between north and south China. Other fish were introduced in 2009, but they tended to develop incurable blisters on their bodies as a result of the unrefined farming techniques that Li's team had been using, resulting in heavy losses. The pisciculturist, therefore, began putting vigorous emphasis on research and development, pursuing greener and more-sustainable operations, and adding traditional Chinese herbs into his feed mixture.

Li established a company that engages in ornamental fish farming as well as sales and marketing in 2013, and it began engaging in large-scale e-commerce in 2018.

"There used to be an off-season associated with ornamental fish sales, but the internet has made it possible to sell the animals 365 days a year," Li noted in 2021.

His company achieved a total of RMB15 million of ornamental fish e-commerce revenue in 2018, over RMB16 million in 2019, and more than RMB18 million in 2020. It has farmed fish in a stable area of around 1,000 mu's worth of ponds since 2018, and the COVID-19 pandemic did not have a significant impact on its business performance. The company has also formed a close cooperative relationship with research institutes and has a consistent ornamental fish research and development team.

Around 2,000 mu of fish ponds existed and more than 2,300 people were engaged in the fish farming industry in the village where the company is located in 2021, and Li has signed 20-year land-use contracts with local farmers that enable them to earn RMB500 per mu per annum. His company engages in the research and development of new fish species, provides young fish to farmers for free, and helps them sell their mature fish, which has made it possible for some people to earn up to RMB50,000 to RMB100,000 per year collaborating with it.

The company also provides free fish farming and disease prevention and control training to local farmers and teaches e-commerce management to those who are interested. Dividends totalling RMB3,000 to RMB3,500 per annum have been distributed to households that were impoverished as well, and direct employment opportunities have also been created. The company has over 60 long-term employees, including five or six undergraduate students, with salaries ranging from RMB3,000 to RMB10,000 a month. Some young people who are from Houji but had been living in other areas have even been returning in order to launch online stores based in the township, which has greatly stimulated employment in the area.

The company was generating around RMB80 million of net profit per year as of  mid-2021, with online sales accounting for about 10% of total sales and offline sales accounting for nearly 90%. More than 20 people each generate around RMB1,000 to RMB2,000 of revenue per day engaging in live commerce. Costs associated with online sales are relatively high, but the fish can also be sold for higher prices than they would command offline due to the enhanced reach that the method offers. Most of the fish that the company sells online are sold from a few RMB to tens of thousands of RMB, with the most expensive selling for RMB1,008,000.

The company also engages in experiential sales in addition to e-commerce and traditional offline wholesale. For example, in the summer of 2020, a campaign was launched to encourage adults to bring their children to its fish farming ponds and catch fish that they could take home.

Building a strong and consistent e-commerce team and cultivating an incubation base with a unique online sales and logistics model have been integral to the success that Li's business has achieved with e-commerce, contributing to total sales exceeding RMB30 million in 2021.

The company has been focused on two main issues with regard to its future development – operational risks, such as the impact of pests and diseases on the quality of its ornamental fish, and product development, which requires significant investment of time and money – and has been developing high-quality ornamental fish, establishing a fish appreciation museum, and enabling customers to stream video of fish and engage in interactive farming experiences on mobile apps in addition to promoting ornamental fish on various e-commerce platforms.

Source:

AliResearch

Administration and Management Institute (AMI) of China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA)