Roses bring riches to flower innovator
A man in Southwest China is learning that a rose by any other name perhaps smells sweeter after all.
After three decades in the flower trade, Yang Yuyong’s business is blossoming, and he was even given the right to name a variety of Chinese rose — bingqing, or “icy clear”.
Yang, 63, now calls Yunnan province home — where the mild climate has allowed the cultivation of a booming floral market.
The province has 200,000 flower growers, creating 800,000 sector-related jobs. Commercial flower plantations cover over 100,000 hectares. Last year, the market in Yunnan was worth about 50 billion yuan ($8 billion). “Spring is the busiest season as that’s when we experiment with new varieties of hydrangea and roses, including domestic varieties,” Yang said.
He learned flower growing in his native Northeast China from his father, and was the first to register a trademark for a Chinese rose.
To expand his business after initial success, Yang relocated to Yunnan in 1998, aiming for a broader overseas market. Now he watches over 80 hectares of flowers in Yuxi.
“When I came to Yunnan, most flowers on the market were ordinary at best, not good enough for export,” he said.
He started to work for French company Meilland International in 1999. “Until 2008, we exported over 20 million yuan in flowers each year, but our business shrank during the global financial crisis,” he said.
Farmers like Yang now concentrate on developing new varieties. He holds 39 patents for rose varieties, and nine for hydrangeas.
“It takes a great deal of investment and manpower to come up with new strains, but the government has helped me,” he said.
Yang is exempt from 600,000 yuan in taxes each year as support for innovation. But these new varieties of flowers are too expensive to cultivate for most growers who are required to pay royalties on registered varieties.
“Most think they are too expensive and the stakes are too high,” said Zhang Li, head of an international floral auction center in Kunming, capital of Yunnan.
Beginning in 2006, the center has waived patent fees on seeds, only charging royalties to flower growers when their products are sold.
“Only five farmers grew the patented types in the beginning. Now more are growing them because they are disease-resistant and command higher selling prices,” Zhang said.
Last year, close to 4,000 farmers planted patented roses, paying 8.5 million yuan in fees through the center. Yang himself collected 200,000 yuan in royalties last year.
“Intellectual property rights are ultimately productive forces. Patented products will eventually be accepted by more people,” he said.
China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of flowers, with 13,300 square kilometers of flower fields. Sales stood at 139 billion yuan in 2016.