Cen： Banana King after 80s.

In the beautiful Xishuangbanna Prefecture of Yunnan, there is a young Chongqing native who manages a large banana plantation with an area of more than 3,000 mu alone. He is Cen, the general manager of Dongting Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, and the famous "banana king" born in 1980s.

Carrying 500 yuan into the world

"The world is so big, don’t walk around and see more, how do you know what career is best for you?" Cen was born in Hechuan rural area. After finishing high school there in 2006, he went to Foshan, Guangdong, alone with the only cash from 500 yuan, and started a dream-seeking journey.

In a small electrical appliance factory in Foshan, he found a job in product quality control, with a monthly salary less than that of 1000 yuan. Because of his hard work, Cen was promoted to department head one year later, and his monthly salary rose to 3,000 yuan. Working part-time is not easy, and overtime is a common occurrence, especially in the peak sales season, when Cen works more than 15 hours a day. With the passage of time, the idea of "starting your own business" became stronger and stronger in his heart. At the end of 2007, Cen resigned and returned to Chongqing.

2008 is a turning point for Cen. This year, he came to Xishuangbanna, Yunnan with his family to develop banana planting. "The land here is relatively wide, and bananas are suitable for planting here." Cen said that his relatives also planted bananas in Xishuangbanna at that time.

The barren hills turned into banana forests.

When he first arrived in Xishuangbanna, Cen did all kinds of odd jobs in his own 200-acre banana garden, weeding and fertilizing himself, and sunburn and sprained feet never happened less. A year later, watching the original barren hillside turn into a banana forest, and calculating that every input from 1 yuan will turn into the output from 2.5 yuan, Cen felt that all the previous efforts were worthwhile.

Cen attaches great importance to adopting the latest planting techniques, and at the same time, she is particularly hard-working, and she has to drill into the banana forest for inspection almost every day. It takes at least half a day to patrol the 200-acre banana garden. Slowly, Cen developed a pair of "critical eyes" and could see all kinds of pests and diseases at a glance. "Like heartworms, thistles, filariasis, etc., once they appear, they must be dealt with in time." Cen said.

At the beginning of 2010, Guangxi, Hainan and other major banana producing areas had bumper harvests, which made Yunnan bananas, which had not been sold in previous years, encounter the dilemma of "nobody cares". Looking at the bananas that had already hung in the ground, Cen was puzzled. "At that time, my head was big. Later, I remembered that a friend at home wholesaled bananas in Panxi Market in Chongqing, so I called him."

"You can take bananas to Panxi and sell them yourself." Cen was moved by a friend’s suggestion. He immediately rented a truck and personally transported more than 20 tons of bananas to Chongqing Panxi Fruit Wholesale Market, which was sold out in less than one day. Through this sale, Cen has also established contact with many merchants, and the products have opened up a market.

Get rich and never forget your hometown

Young Cen also has a strong interest in e-commerce platform. He is trying to make good use of the Internet, a brand-new sales channel, to be a "banana e-commerce" in the new era, and at the same time to build his own official website to fully promote his banana garden.

Cen said that when he was in a foreign land, he often missed home and all kinds of delicious food in his hometown: "Peach slices, meat slices and spicy hot pot in Hechuan always make his mouth water. Every time my family comes to Yunnan, I always want them to bring as many Chongqing specialties as possible … "

Today, enterprises in Cen are among the best in Xishuangbanna, with a planting area of more than 3,000 mu and an annual income of more than 30 million yuan. In April this year, Cen built a restaurant in the center of Hechuan District, his hometown, which can accommodate 180 guests at the same time. This restaurant has nearly 100 employees, more than 90% of whom are Hechuan locals. "I have been homesick for so many years, which is also a little contribution to Hechuan." Cen said.