New York’s three brothers and sisters gave up their life and came to Shangri-La to start a career.

In 2003, when the three brothers and sisters of Malik from New York set foot on the land of Shangri-La for the first time, they were deeply shocked by the beauty here. However, the poverty of these peasants living in remote mountainous areas is heartbreaking – most families earn only about $300 a year, and they can't help but want to do something. To this end, they gave up the comfortable life of the United States, came to Shangri-La, opened the sweet business of honey and coffee.

Yuanding Shangri-La, giving up American comfort life

“We were sightseeing in Shangri-La and doing some services for non-profit organizations. A cup of coffee caught our attention and let us stop and ask the locals where the coffee came from.” – Shasha

Ma Heli Malik, the father of the three brothers and sisters, served as the representative of the UN system in China and the representative of the United Nations Development Program. When I was young, the three brothers and sisters stayed in several countries because their parents’ work places were constantly changing. For them, the family is equal to the whole world. However, when they set foot on Shangri-La in 2003, they were deeply attracted by the beauty here, and the family decided to stay in China.

In 2005, Mrs. Malik, the mother of the three brothers and sisters, founded the Yunnan Mountain Heritage Foundation in Shangri-La and established the Shangri-La Handicraft Center. At that time, the three brothers and sisters often went to Shangri-La to visit and serve. They soon became familiar with the local geographical environment and characteristic agricultural products. At the same time, they also learned that although Yunnan is rich in biodiversity, it is the second largest poverty-stricken province in China, with an average annual income of only 2000. yuan.

Once, when the whole family was sightseeing in Shangri-La, a cup of coffee attracted their attention, and they embarked on a journey to explore Chinese local coffee. It turns out that in addition to tobacco and tea products, Yunnan is one of the top five coffee bean growers in the world.

In 2019, Shasha and Arria founded the Shangri-La farm. Later, his brother Ma Sanfei also joined. Shangri-La Farm is a social enterprise that pursues the "fair trade" creed to acquire local Yunnan specialty products from farmers at a price higher than the market purchase price of 2-5 yuan - high quality coffee beans, honey, etc. After packaging, it will be put on the market. 20% of the income will be returned to the farmers in Shangri-La through the Yunnan Mountain Heritage Foundation to support local development.

Honey and coffee beans, open sweet and hard business

“I always believe that the commodity economy is a powerful weapon to deal with poverty.” – Arria

At the father's proposal, Shasha and Arya used honey as the earliest and most important product on the Shangri-La farm. Due to the low technical difficulty and little impact on the environment, many countries in the world regard beekeeping as one of the ways to increase the income of residents in poverty-stricken areas. However, selling honey is not as simple as they imagined. It is not easy to find honey farmers.

There are about two or three hundred beekeepers working with Shangri-La farms, some are retailers with only one or two beehives, some are professional beekeepers with more than 100 beehives, and the farms offer a purchase price that is at least 50% higher than the market wholesale price. Nowadays, more farmers have returned to the ranks of beekeeping, and the output of honey has increased by 15%-30% compared with the traditional method. Then, through the fair trade purchase mechanism of Shangri-La farm, each beekeeper can basically bring about 6,300 yuan per year. extra income.

In addition to honey, another specialty of Shangri-La Farm is organic coffee made in Yunnan.

In the domestic market, imported coffee is the mainstream, but in fact, Yunnan is one of the top five coffee bean growing places in the world. The coffee at Shangri-La Farm is planted by a cooperative coffee grower at a nature reserve of 800-1200 meters above sea level. The environment and soil are very suitable for coffee planting, and the coffee tree grows very well. The local coffee in Yunnan is small coffee, but the Shangri-La farm has many different coffees. The brothers and sisters import coffee trees from the coffee origins around the world and grow them on the farm. The organically grown coffee, after hand-selected and washed, is carefully baked to produce four flavors of coffee.

Brothers and sisters apply their expertise to create sweet dreams

“The purpose of doing this is not to get rich, but to help the local people. We also see Shangri-La Farm as a project to support poor areas to increase income and protect biodiversity.” – Shasha

Big sister Shasha is the founder and president of the farm, involved in all matters of enterprise construction and operation. She insists on the original intention of the company and carefully selects those partners who promise to produce high quality and natural products. In addition, she designed the visual identity of the brand and all products, and these inspirations come from the beautiful scenery and ethnic characteristics of Shangri-La. She was nominated for the 2019 China Business Women's Creative Director Award.

Sister Aria is responsible for the farm's business model and corporate social responsibility. Ariya cooperated with five families in the Huhama Valley near Shangri-La, and set up 20 beehives for them to teach them to use modern technology to raise bees. At the same time, she maintains the perspective of development economists, promotes scientific beekeeping, and hopes that this production can be scaled up and eventually establish a sustainable industry ecology that will benefit more farmers.

Ma Sanfei, a 26-year-old brother, embarked on the development of organic agriculture at the university. He traveled between Vancouver and China for four years. In Vancouver, he and his two students built a 650-square-meter greenhouse organic greenhouse; in China, he and his two sisters helped Shangri-La promote an eco-friendly land-use model and avoid the use of pesticides and chemicals. He also encourages the implementation of other environmental protection measures such as dynamic farming, improved soil quality and beekeeping. Today, Ma Sanfei is actively involved in drip irrigation systems, urban balcony planting and urban beekeeping projects in arid areas of Yunnan.

Nowadays, organic honey and coffee at Shangri-La Farm have already achieved a benign operation of production and sales, while Mrs. Malik’s handicraft shop is also helping local people increase their income while opening a free library and volunteers regularly. Here, teach the children English.