Returnee enjoys the fruits of his labor

Once, Lyu Wei was a migrant worker who assembled iPhones at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen in the southern province of Guangdong. Now, he sells homegrown fruit and vegetables nationwide from his startup in Shiyan, his hometown in rural Hubei province, Central China.

"I was born in 1987, and worked for my family's fish business after graduating from junior high school. I started work at Foxconn in 2006," he said.

The 31-year-old vividly remembers working hard at the enormous factory. Initially, he worked on the production line for first-generation iPhones.

"Wearing earplugs and a mask, I worked in a very noisy environment and repeated the same actions for more than 10 hours every day," he said.

He worked alongside 50,000 colleagues in the precision machinery department. More than 700,000 employees lived and worked at the huge factory. As the factory recruited more workers to produce newer iPhones, Lyu was appointed as a team leader in 2007.

"I was much busier than before. A team leader is responsible for everything, and I once worked 36 hours without sleep. However, I only earned 2,000 yuan ($290) a month in 2006 and 5,000 yuan when I left in 2012, which was not satisfactory," he said.

"I just wondered whether I could earn more if I found something else to do, working for myself."

His idea became a reality after he quit his job. He returned to his hometown, got married in 2013 and returned to the family fish business for the next two years.

"We made money by producing dried fish and selling them to local residents. Sales were very poor, though, so I thought about how I could sell the fish outside our city," he said.

He posted photos of his products on WeChat, and sent packets of fish to friends and relatives across the country.

Many people praised the taste, and eventually Lyu began receiving orders from people on WeChat. He opened an online shop on Taobao to expand sales.
During the winter of 2015, he sold 1,000 kilograms of fish and earned 100,000 yuan.

"I thought it was a good way to get rich, but things changed suddenly in early 2016 when Danjiangkou Reservoir near my home was expanded and fishing was banned in the area to protect the environment," he said.

Lyu had no choice but to start over. He discovered that local farmers were growing specialty fruits, including mandarin oranges, and other produce such as acacia and honey, which he thought had great potential.

He started buying agricultural produce and selling it via his online shop, which he named Xianyu Ecological Orchard.

Last winter, some of his oranges were damaged as a result of being poorly stored in subzero temperatures. In addition, some consumers returned inedible sweet potatoes they had bought. The setbacks resulted in a loss of 60,000 yuan.

"I was inexperienced, so I thought that was acceptable," Lyu said. "Having learned a lesson, I decided to expand our sales volume by dropping the price this year."

From January to Dec 1, he received orders for more than 25,000 kg of oranges, compared with 15,000 in the same period last year.

"Though it was quite dull and hard work at the Foxconn factory, the training I experienced there really taught me a lot about management and operations," he said.

"I am confident that my business volume can reach 1 million yuan this year, up from last year's 600,000."