1. Branching out.
- Author
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Olijnyk, Zena
- Subjects
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NURSERY dealers , *ENVIRONMENTAL policy , *GROSS domestic product , *LANDSCAPING industry , *CHIEF executive officers , *CHIEF operating officers , *GREEN movement - Abstract
The article focuses on Hanfeng Evergreen Co. Hanfeng nursery company, which joined the TSX in September after trading on the Venture Exchange for more than a year, is taking advantage of China's stated commitment to becoming more environmentally friendly. It's also using its Canadian connection to bring the latest landscape and fertilizer know-how into a country that is only now acknowledging the importance of going green. China's goal is to increase spending on environmental protection to as much as 5% of GDP. With the approaching Beijing Olympics, in 2008 and Shanghai Expo, in 2010, Chinese municipalities are dramatically increasing spending on urban landscaping. Chief operating officer Zhao Peiyong notes that many of the mature trees Hanfeng plants in China's parks and boulevards are actually from Canada, quite an accomplishment when you consider the difficulties in shipping them across the Pacific. It now has nurseries in Beijing, Shanghai and Dalian in the northeast, and plans to start up more as business expands to new locations in China. The founder of Hanfeng, president and CEO Yu Xinduo, was among the first Chinese entrepreneurs to realize the business opportunity behind China's urban greening movement in the lead-up to its successful bid for the 2008 Olympics, which was sold to the International Olympic Committee as "the green Olympics." Realizing the potential that comes with the fact that there are more than 600 cities in China, most with virtually no grass or landscaping, Yu expanded Hanfeng into lawn-care equipment and fertilizer, and secured distribution rights for North American suppliers of landscaping products.
- Published
- 2004