The greatest singaporean born after 1965: Lim Hong Zhuang

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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

i read this offline but can't find the full online version. would appreciate if someone could post it. this chap is truly inspirational. no pun intended, but this farmer can really teach our scholars a lesson or two.

Betting the Farm (ST 23 Aug, the long interview)

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AS WE drive past a green tapestry of plantations and farms 11/2 hours away from Singapore in Johor, Mr Lim Hong Zhuang suddenly gestures to his right. "Look, this belonged to a Singapore guy who lost RM5 million in two years."

Across the road, he points out another vegetable farm, raking in millions a year, which has its own three-storey collection point for produce and whose owner lives in a towering villa.

Welcome to the high stakes world of cash crop farming. It is volatile, subject to the vagaries of weather, sunny at times, stormy the next, and plagued by pestilence. The risks are heightened by the short shelf life of fresh produce and highly variable prices according to the whims of middlemen, market supply and demand.

Into this mix entered Mr Lim, who is out to prove that farming can make big bucks - and improve lives of those in the community too. He was then 23, a third-year Singapore Management University (SMU) student. At the height of the 2007 commodities inflation, he and a friend started driving to Malaysia to scout for land...

--------- does anyone have online access to the rest of this article?----------

Lim Hong Zhuang on:

Why he has not given up

"Farming is relatively hard, even for experienced companies with huge resources. Entry barriers are high as it is both capital- and labour-intensive. It's a hands-on job that needs a strong character and a lot of patience. If I stay the course, there's a chance for me to develop both my character and career at the same time."

His worst day ever

"Last Chinese New Year, after paying salaries, I drove back to Singapore and arrived home at midnight. I got a ring at 2.30am from my workers that some thugs were at the farm accusing them of stealing livestock. I had to rush back to Seremban, exhausted, at 4am to resolve the conflict. Just the night before, my then partner had rung me to say he was pulling out of the venture. Double whammy."

Vagaries of nature

"During the monsoon season in October, it rained for almost two weeks. The banks of the river broke, (the waters) swept away a bridge I built and flooded the farm. Being a city boy, I had never heard the roaring waters of an angry river. It was terrifying. I was up all night holding onto my dog, hoping the water wouldn't flood the container I slept in. Needless to say, the morning after was spent dealing with the loss of a whole cycle of crops, damaged infrastructure and demoralised workers."

Organic farming

"It's a hippie hoax. Organic farming is very difficult in our equatorial climate where everything, including insects, grows so fast. I actually consider organic as taking a step back because fertilisers and chemicals were invented for good reason. Going organic means taking away these two factors of production and selling for more money."
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