Zhou Xinping, Chairman of Dasanxiang Tea Oil, was previously the China-region General Manager of a world’s top 100 company with an annual salary of several million Yuan. In 2008, he firmly resigned from the company and started his new career in his hometown - planting tea-oil trees (Camellia oleifera Abel). Dasanxiang shared its resources with farmers and lifted 40,000 farmers out of poverty through its leading role in agricultural industrialization.

Zhou Xinping, Chairman of Dasanxiang Tea Oil, is also assuming titles from many public institutions such as a member of Zhisland in Hunan the Vice President of Hunan Island and Vice Chairman of Alashan SEE Hunan Center. Prior to this, he was the China-region General Manager of a world’s top 100 company with an annual salary of several million Yuan.

Giving up an annual salary of several million Yuan and going home to plant trees?

Zhou Xinping was previously the China-region General Manager of Hercules, an ICIS Top 100 Chemical Company in Shanghai, with an annual income of several million Yuan. However, Zhou Xinping, who was not satisfied with such a superior life in his middle ages, had always been looking for the opportunity to do something more meaningful.

Zhou Xinping finally found out his way because of the tragedy of an unattended old lady who committed suicide due to poverty in his hometown. In our interview, Mr. Zhou shared the story with us:

One year when I was in my hometown for the Spring Festival, my mother told me that our neighbor, an old lady, committed suicide by drowning herself in a lake. She had even tried twice for the suicide. She was rescued for the first time, but she did again and eventually died. What had made her so determined to end her life? With nobody taking care of her, she did not have any income, and sometimes even hot water was a luxury for her. Living lonely and helpless for a long time, she lost confidence in life. This incident shocked me. I enjoyed a good life in Shanghai, but my fellow villagers lived a totally different life. Why was the gap between rural and urban areas so big? After so many years of reform and opening up, life in the cities had been improved a lot, while the environment in rural areas was getting worse. Green mountains and clean waters disappeared, which might be one of the reasons why food safety problems in China were becoming more and more serious. At that time, I was thinking that if I could do something for my hometown and for food safety in China, it would be very meaningful and valuable.In 2008, Zhou Xinping resigned resolutely and returned to his hometown to start his new career - planting tea-oil trees.

Tea oil, an industry worth 100 billion Yuan with triple benefits.

It was not by accident that Zhou Xinping chose to promote the development of his hometown through planting tea-oil trees. After four to five months of research and investigation, Zhou Xinping found that the tea-oil industry was still in the early stage of development with a small scale. However, based on data, the prospect of tea-oil industry development is promising, as forecast showed that the industry would generate a profit of over 100 billion Yuan.

In the meanwhile, the tea-oil industry does very well in combining ecological, social and economic benefits. Tea-oil trees are also evergreen firebreak. With considerable economic benefits, it can make farmers rich.

Behind the membership system: a simple principle of "no fake products"

The current business model of Dasanxiang Tea Oil is the membership system. There were some twists and turns in this story. At first, Zhou Xinping wanted to recruit dealers through traditional channels, but the sales were not satisfying. As fake products were rampant, the price of faked tea oil was even lower than the production cost of Dasanxiang’s. As a result, “bad money drives out good one”.

Facing the crisis, Zhou Xinping did not abandon his bottom line and principles. Removing all middle stages, he chose the model of direct sales to continuously deliver clients with tea oil of good quality. Dasanxiang also combined online and offline sales for big data marketing and provide tea-mountain experience for customers. Members could visit tea-oil farms to become their “owners”. They could also enjoy direct contact with farmers and engage with environmental protection projects.

Lifting 40,000 farmers out of poverty, Dasanxiang has more far-reaching social impact.

Sharing its resources with farmers, Dasanxiang lifted 40,000 farmers out of poverty through its leading role in agricultural industrialization, and got a strong policy support from the government. Besides, Dasanxiang had also won many honors. Dasanxiang won the second prize of National Science and Technology Progress Award for its product technology, which was the only award-winning technology in the industry. Not long ago, the product of Dasanxiang also won an innovation award issued by provincial Governor and Party Secretary. Dasanxiang Company itself has also been rated as a social benefit enterprise by Hengyang City.

The advertisement of Dasanxiang Tea Oil could also be found on top of the Nasdaq Building in Times Square, New York, USA. It is leading Chinese tea oil to go global.

Will sales revenue grow rapidly in the future? The key is the financial model of the industry chain.

Dasanxiang is vigorously promoting the model of industry chain finance, which encourages growers to cooperate with farmers, while farmers can make money from collecting tea oil fruits and fruits processing with nothing to worry about. There is a high possibility for this model to succeed, as Dasanxiang has the ability to integrate the industry and boasts leading technologies in the industry.

At present, half of Dasanxiang’s sales revenue comes from its members, and the other half comes from the sales agency of one of its shareholders. With the development of the company and the growing number of deep processing products of Dasanxiang in the industry chain, the proportion of revenue from its members will also increase. After a successful implementation of the industry chain financial model, the revenue of Dasanxiang will grow rapidly, probably reaching one billion in the next three years.

Will the technical barriers be removed? He said "a single flower does not represent Spring".

Like many other companies, Dasanxiang has set the goal of building a century-old enterprise. With this objective in mind, the company keeps on innovating and focusing on technology. Dasanxiang spends much more on R&D than other companies every year, and has won more than 30 patents as of now. However, Zhou Xinping said that the technical barriers set by Dasanxiang will be removed for other peers in the industry some time.

Zhou Xinping believes that a single flower does not represent Spring. Enriching farmers from tea oils can benefit both the country and the people. Since doing alone can only benefit a limited number of farmers, Dasanxiang should share advanced technologies and models with the whole industry and contribute to food safety in China. He believes that such a healthy competition will benefit more farmers and can provide consumers with more desirable products.