A few days before Chinese lunar calendar New Year, BPO received a letter with zestful enthusiasm and gratitude from Ms. Jin Lebi the manager of Pengzhou Jin Lu Mountain Vegetables Company. In the letter, she said:” we were perplexed for an answer at the

time when the project initiated in Pengzhou. Until we participated in the week-long supply chain management training conducted by SFAGM project at Zhejiang University, the fire of our hope burned up, the door of our heart opened, we started developing the market bravely……”. From this letter, we can truly feel that Ms. Jin is no longer the helpless and perplexed manager in front of the changing Agri-food market two years ago, she is much more self-confident now.

Since the beginning of the pilot project in Pengzhou, Ms. Jin and her fellows, both managers and technicians have taken part in a number of topic specific Agri-business training programs. When talking about those training, Ms. Jin said excitedly in her letter: “in the past, we used to process vegetable (Shaulu) for a trade company which exports the products to Japan. With sole type of product and marketing channel, our company greatly suffers from the changing market, even the slightest change will affect us a lot, and sometimes we are even on the edge of bankrupt.

I am extremely puzzled that time, not sure whether to expand our production scale or to

develop new products for the niche market? Luckily, I was able to participate in the project training, which helps opening our mind. On the other hand, we developed our business strategy with assistance of the experts from China Academy of Agriculture Science, Ministry of Agriculture and China Agriculture University who are contracted by the project to design Pengzhou vegetable supply chain. In the second half of 2006, we signed a long-term cooperation

agreement with the Food College of Sichuan University, and successively developed 7 edible fungus products. At present, some dealers from Beijing and Shanghai have started to inquire and order. ”

As an old Chinese saying said “Nothing succeeds like success”. When Japanese dealers visited Ms. Jin’s company, they were extremely satisfied with the improved management and feel more confident on the quality of the Shaulu production. As a result, Ms. Jin gets an increased order. In addition, contracted farmers also benefit from the increased market, the price of Shaulu rise to 0.8Yuan/kg, increased by 0.18Yuan/Kg compared to last year; the total increased value reaches 2.925 million Yuan from the 6,500 Mu in the whole municipality.

At the end of her letter, Ms. Jin tells us:” due to the success of business with supports from the CIDA project, I received a few social distinctions, such as Top Ten Female Leader of Dragon Head Enterprise within Chengdu, Member of the Pengzhou Branch of Political Consultative Committee, the Deputy to the Pengzhou Branch of National People’ Congress, the standing member of Pengzhou Chamber of Commerce. With