HANDE L EN AFZ E T A large part of the Chinese potato acreage is cultivated by small growers. Liang Xisen, owner and CEO of Xisen Potato Industry Group, is a businessman through and through. With a good nose for business and gaps in the market, he discovered the enormous growth potential of the potato sector about ten years ago. He is a man who, years ago, had already built up the necessary capital in the property market of Beijing, the third town of China. Xisen grew up in a poor family in rural China. A family too poor to provide sufficient food for all its members. As a small, ten-year-old boy, Xisen was sent out onto the street to beg for food and money. At the age of 13, he got his first job, which was learning to forge iron and he did this until he was 17. He then returned to his village to fulfil his dream, which was to start a business and become his own boss. He rented 6.6 hectares of land to grow vegetables. This The two following rooms, also enormous, hold 40 million jars with the growing meristemes. was the start of what was to become his present business empire. After crop farming, he successively ran a corn mill, a metal factory, a butcher’s shop and a construction firm to finally become the owner of a luxurious residential area in Beijing in 2000. At the end of the year 2005, he changed over from real estate to potato farming. In order to pay for all these grand plans – Xisen already had 200 million in his pocket – he entered into a partnership with the Citic Group Company and with Huiyuan, a juice manufacturer from Beijing. These companies each hold 20 percent of the shares in the Xisen Potato Industry Group. The other 60 percent are in the hands of Liang Xisen. The slogan with which Xisen targets the market is painted in big Chinese characters on the store which stocks a total of 50,000 tons of potatoes: ‘High standards, high technology and high quality make big business from small potatoes.’ Aiming for 4 0,000 hec tares of seed potatoes That Xisen’s plans are ambitious becomes clear the moment the businessman starts talking about them. Xisen, who is already growing 7,000 hectares of potatoes this year, says that he wants to increase this yield by 7,000 hectares every year until he has reached a total of no less than 40,000 hectares. In addition, the company wants to reach a storage capacity of over 400,000 tons of potatoes. It becomes clear that these are no empty words, but words that are being put into action, when the Chinese entrepreneur starts telling us about his activities and investment plans. Xisen shows us that The Xisen Potato Industry Group business premises have an imperial allure from the outside and give you the idea that you have entered the domain of an old dynasty. 18 Potato World 2009 • number 3 Pagina 17
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