My Next Door Neighbor Farms in Germany

I talked with Zhao Li on a late April Day. Zhao, a next door girl in her 20s, was on a visit back home from Germany. To my huge surprise, Zhao is now a farmer with assets running to 10 million yuan and the organic vegetables from her farm sell well in Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg. I was so curious about the changes in her life that I asked how she quit her white-collar job in Shanghai and became a farmer in a country so far away from China?

Zhao Li is from a family of intellectuals in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province. After her graduation from Shanghai-based Fudan University in 2003, she became a white-collar employee in a big company which sold medical apparatuses. She soon got tired of the monotonous and dead-end job. For a long while, she wanted some change in her life.

The seed of change came in the form of the photographs she received one day through email from her cousin studying in Germany. The photographs showed the cousin working part time on a farm. Zhao Li was surprised to see how lyrical and romantic a farmer’s life could be in Europe. All the photos showed a postcard landscape. Zhao Li made up her mind to go to Germany and work as a farmer.

With the help of her uncle, a businessman in Europe, Zhao Li came to Germany in 2004. The first eye-opening experience she acquired was a visit to a farm in a remote area. She was warmly welcomed. Zhao had never seen any farm back in China: It was spectacular. There were four large buildings on the farm, each very large. The first was a silo where wheat and beans were stored for future sale. The second building was a large workshop equipped with all kinds of machines and tools for fixing automobiles and tractors. The third was a garage large enough to house two trucks, two tractors and other farming machines. The fourth was the house where the couple lived. The rural residence had more than 20 rooms, equipped with all modern house facilities such as air-conditioning, hot water, internet hookup. It also had an office and a fitness center.

Her previous knowledge of Germany was that the European country was a highly industrialized and great at making machines. She was surprised to learn that the Germans were good at farming. The couple handled almost all the things on the farm all the year round. They would hire a few helpers only when things got busy. The farm, about 2,000 acres large, was highly mechanized.

Zhao Li began to work on the farm. She learned a lot of interesting things about farming. The farmer would drive to each land before planting seeds. The truck was equipped with GPS and a computer. He would get soil samples and have them analyzed at a special soil lab. The feedback would be fed into his computer and he would know what crops for which lands, what fertilizers for which lands, and what soil improvement materials for which lands. After harvest, transactions were made through online business websites. In Germany, some large exporters release market information online and farmers watch changes in prices and decide when to sell. The concept and practice of farming in Germany are totally different from that in China.

After a year on the farm, Zhao Li went to Vostp, a small family farm where she worked for Tony and his wife. Tony used to be a soldier. After the army service, he got married and bought the 100-acre farm. It was his childhood dream to run a farm or operate a passenger liner.

It was a dairy farm with more than 200 purebred milk cows. Zhao Li learned how to milk. More over, she learned to enjoy farming. Many innovative farming methods used there opened her eyes.

Two years working and learning enabled Zhao Li to have her own ideas about farming. Organic vegetables are highly welcome in European countries. They are tasty and they bring very good profit, but not so many farmers take interest in vegetables, for growing vegetables is a painstaking business. They prefer cereal and grapes. Zhao Li saw her opportunity.

In the spring of 2006, she rented 200 acres of vegetable land from a friend. With a low-interest bank loan and her own 30,000 Euros, she started her agricultural business. She hired five workers from Romania, who are best known for their efficiency. She worked the fields with the helpers. Without knowledge of any agricultural things while back home in China, Zhao Li now worked like a real farmer. She could drive a small tractor. She knew how to take care of seedlings in a greenhouse. She did all kinds of work on the farm. Her hard work paid off. The vegetables from her farm passed the strict inspection of the agricultural authorities. They were qualified for sales in supermarkets in Bonn, the capital of Germany.

Zhao Li made a net profit of 180,000 euro in the first year. For some, the amount probably means nothing, but it was a huge success for Zhao, the first year farmer. In 2007, she rented more fields and expanded her variety of vegetables. Her vegetables sold very well.

In 2008, Zhao Li bought two farms on the verge of bankruptcy and founded her own organic vegetable company. Today she runs a 2,000-acre production base.

Looking back, Zhao Li believes that more precious than one million in profit she has made out of farming in Germany is the deep change in her ideology and her attitude toward life. She says that some farmers in Germany are city-bred college graduates who are tired of urban life and now enjoy farming. She notes this interesting difference between China and Germany: many westerners go to countryside and love to be farmers whereas most Chinese college graduates vie to find jobs in cities and hate the idea and practice of farming.