One, thinking before buying a farm
In fact, the same time I buy farms, there are a lot of 30, 40-year-old middle-class young people.
Many of them came to Australia to see a flock of cattle and sheep on the endless pastures; on the joined farms, in cherry and orange gardens; and even when they went out for a picnic, they were family members of fish and birds. This is clearly the source of the world. Walking on the road, the mobile phone with a shot, you can have no less professional SLR photos. Not only the scenery is beautiful, the local customs and customs are also very comfortable.
By contrast, the high housing prices, haze weather, traffic jams and invisible pressures in North Shanghai and Guangzhou are abominable. So: they feel that life is short, sell houses and sell cars, and the whole family come to Australia to do farmers!
My situation is more realistic.
The first idea of immigration was about five years ago, on the way back from a business trip, when my wife offered to emigrate. I said: why, we have good conditions in our family, and we don't know anything abroad, and we don't have any friends.
My wife insisted on arguing with me until 4: 00 a. M., until I was completely convinced.
From what we saw at the time, there were at least a few benefits to being a farmer in Australia:
First, from the point of view of life, in line with our future retirement planning. At that time, there were so many people in the country that I was tired of that state. Although some investors from home have stepped on big holes, local Australian farmers are rich and have a sense of life, often driving a RV to the seaside on weekends. All of these are in line with our expectations of retirement status.
Second, from the perspective of investment, Australian land is privately owned and can be handed down from generation to generation. Private farms are growing well around the world, such as many estates in South Africa, which have centuries of history and become regulatory companies, making good and stable profits. To take a step back, companies in Europe, the United States and China continue to invest in Australian agriculture, even if they want to sell it.
Third, my little daughter is in high school, I hope she can go abroad to receive education. Compared with the Europe and America countries, Australia's environment, security is relatively good.
Of course, here I would also like to remind you that if you intend to buy a farm and run it in person, it is not only an investment, but also a lifestyle choice, not just depending on the yearning of pastoral songs.
Just as you choose to marry a person, you should not only look at the strengths of the other person, but also see the shortcomings of the other party, and whether you can accept it or not.
Second, the life of the farme
My wife and I started exploring the project three years ago. The first idea is a kind of Chinese herbal medicine, deep processing to sell to the country. The second idea is a lotus root. The reason why these two ideas are unrealistic is the quarantine of alien species of animals and plants.
After some twists and turns, we began to focus on the dragon fruit and devote all our time and energy to the study. During this period we went back to China twice, to investigate the cultivation of dragon fruit, to the market to see the sales situation. Find this thing to do.
When all this worked out, it took us half a year from deciding to retire to buying the 63-acre farm near Glass house mountain.
For us, because we have not done agriculture, we have encountered a lot of problems all the way down. Before planting, there is a need to study and solve problems such as buying seedlings, applying medicine and so on. Take pesticides, for example, the pesticides used in China can not be imported, I told people the names of those drugs, they have not heard of them, and Australia's pesticides I do not know. Fortunately, the sales here are very professional and standardized, many of them are agricultural college graduates, will first look at the farm, then sell you pesticides.
Plant species to the ground, but also daily changes, and tall, fertilization, pruning, weeding. Let our time and energy go in.
When the farmers are busy, they have to hire help. We usually ask for the help of some students, such as Germany, Japan, working with these young people in different countries every day, very happy.
At the end of a year, the plant was quite good. The first batch of dragon fruit we produce, tested by agricultural experts with sugar tester, is about 15%, moisture and sugar are up to the standard.
In general, farmers do a lot of work: weeding and pruning, trimming the garden, fence maintenance, animal quarantine, deworming, fertilising, fire prevention and waterproofing, road dredging, water conservation, and so on, all of which require manual work.
But after a period of adjustment, I now live a very regular and healthy life, working only three hours in the morning and afternoon.
Third, the experience and thinking of farmers
Farming in Australia is also a livelihood, not only for self-sufficiency, but also for profit.
Australia's agricultural products do not lack domestic sales routes. Business models are mature, trade associations are widespread, and everything produced on farms can be sold. But the downside is that prices are monopolized by the three supermarkets, and the underlying prices are up to them.
Therefore, the biggest business opportunity is still in China. Australia's geographical location and weather is just the opposite of China, and can complement the Chinese market. And I also have some resources and channels. Because of the existence of these conditions, I think this should be able to achieve, can compete.
My own style of doing things and past experience helped me in the process.
1. Judge the situation and grasp the opportunity.
My approach is to be quick. Because in China, understand that the time to get things done, the opportunity is very short, once seized, it is necessary to go all out to fight.
If such a large plot of land were planted for Australians, they would not have grown it until five to eight years. And we were sure that one of them went down and threw it in at all costs, hoping that it would be as soon as possible. For more than a year, 63 acres had been divided into nine plots, eight of which had been planted, and now the last piece of land was left, which was delayed for half a year because the supplier of the seedlings could not supply them.
2. Be patient and do not rush for quick success and quick profit
Investment is never easy, there must be time to accumulate. A hammer to buy and sell, quick money profiteering is speculation, not investment.
Agricultural returns are relatively slow, capital investment is more. Of course, my wife and I were prepared for it, selling everything we needed to sell, raising money for turnover, and putting it on the farm.
3, leave some room for risk, don't be too full of it.
Although a detailed plan for planting dragon fruit has been made. But we still have two or three alternatives, and if the dragon doesn't work, we can plant other crops that the locals like.
In July and August of last year, when a 34-year-old agricultural expert came to visit me, he told me that you were the largest farmer in Queensland to grow dragon fruit. I said no. Even Australia is probably the biggest, he said.
Four, 90 percent of interested people ask questions.
Q1: will living on a farm in Australia feel very cold and unfit?
In fact, Australian farms and modern Chinese countryside, ancient pastoral are very different. The most prominent feature is quiet, even a little lonely. Imagine, the total population here is about 30 million, the area is not much smaller than China's land, the population is not even Beijing and Shanghai resident population together more!
So there are many remote places. Don't say country farms, even on the outskirts of the city 30 km from the city, pedestrians are sparse in the evening, and traffic is dwindling. And the farm is more than 100 kilometers from the city, not to mention no shopping malls, cinemas, even a week can not see a stranger, as for night life, that is not.
In this environment, it is estimated that 90% of the young people who live in China's first-tier cities for a long time are difficult to adapt to. So, if you love the bustle of life more, advise you to give up the idea of a farm.
Q2: a lot of friends also ask me: I bought the land not to grow, OK? Can you open a resort?
Not planting is also possible, but once the surrounding environment is affected, will be ordered to govern. And the land was barren, and the cost of repairing it before it finally sold was higher than the annual maintenance costs combined. So I suggest that you buy the operation of the farm, and then let the original farm continue to operate.
It is absolutely impossible to open a resort. In Australia, land must be used in accordance with goverment planning, divided into planting land can not be used for commercial purposes.
I know a lot of friends want to find a beautiful place to build a place away from the hustle and bustle of the city, or to build luxury villas and gardens like the great and powerful people of Australia for hundreds of years. But this can only be done on leisure farms. Australia's goverment rules that buying leisure farms requires approval from the Foreign Investment Agency.
Q3: can you buy it on the edge of the city and wait for the demolition?
In principle, this is OK, but very slow. As the size of the city spreads, the Australian city of goverment will redefine the nature of agricultural land around the town. But it often takes more than a decade for a piece of agricultural land on the edge of the city to change from application to development into a dense residential area.
Q4: buy a big farm or a small farm, which is more profitable?
In fact, it is a matter of frugality. There is a big difference in the way big farms and small farms are run. As for making money or not, it depends on individuals, but according to a non-new data I have at hand, there were 93300 households in Australia in 2011, and the average net worth of farmers (including assets and liabilities) in 2009 / 10 was A $1.3 million. That's 6.65 million yuan, much higher than the average net worth of other households in Australia.
The best thing about Australia, of course, is its atmosphere, where there are no refugees and no illegal immigrants. White-collar and blue-collar are equal. In the past decade, more and more Chinese have come here through skilled immigrants and investment immigrants, and their economic status has also been very high.
But compared with the trend, more important is the individual choice. Coming to Australia to be a farmer is not necessarily easier than working at home. After all, work in drought and drought, while running a farm is self-financing. As a way of life, it has a very beautiful place, but there is no shortage of hard work, before making a decision, be sure to really think about it and make sure you like it.