This Chinese billionaire started as a quail farmer but now owns huge agribusiness New Hope Group – who is China’s 19th-richest man Liu Yonghao?

Oct 14 , 2020

From quail farmer to billionaire: Liu Yonghao. Photo: Simon Song

A shoeless ‘sent-down youth’ of the Cultural Revolution tasked with carrying buckets of fertiliser in the fields, Liu Yonghao remains humble to this day, farming his own food at homes in Beijing and Chengdu

Dressed modestly, preferring T-shirts over suits, and without a hint of bling, Liu Yonghao doesn’t fit the mould of your typical Chinese billionaire entrepreneur. He speaks humbly, always goes to the same hairdressers, drove a modest Volkswagen Santana for years before being convinced to upgrade to a Mercedes, and travels in economy class making sure he gets any discounts going.

Liu also proudly owns vegetable patches at both his homes in Beijing and Chengdu, where he grows his own chilli peppers and cucumbers. His familiarity with tending the land and the fact he is often called “China’s richest chicken farmer” reveal his meek beginnings.

I grew rice and vegetables, and carried buckets of human feces. I did all the work that a peasant was expected to do

Liu Yonghao

Today though, Liu is founder and chairman of New Hope Group, an agribusiness company founded in 1982, and the vice-chair of China Minsheng Bank. With around 70,000 employees and 600 subsidiaries in 30 countries around the world, including a stake in Lansing Trade Group in the US, New Hope Group is a force to reckon with. All this gives him a net worth of more than US$10 billion, ranking him 19th on Forbes’ 2019 “China’s Rich List”.

But it wasn’t always like this. Liu Yonghao and his three brothers went through hardships like few others. He was a “sent-down youth”, which meant that he was living a relatively comfortable urban life when he was sent to live as a peasant in the countryside during the Cultural Revolution.

Liu Yonghao, president of New Hope Group, in his Chongqing animal feed factory in October 1995. Photo: SCMP archive

He described his life on the farm in an interview with The Financial Times, “During my four years and nine months as a sent-down youth, I grew rice and vegetables, and carried buckets of human feces. I did all the work that a peasant was expected to do. I might have a pole across my shoulder carrying 75kg. I was very hungry. I was as tall as I am now but I only weighed 55kg.”