- How we work · People & Community
We believe good ingredients come from treated well people.
The quality of what we make begins with how we treat the people who grow the herbs and the people who process them. These are not marketing positions — they are practices that cost money and require discipline to maintain. We describe them here because honesty about how a supply chain operates matters.
100%
of partner farmers on
multi-year purchasing contracts
0
days wages delayed
since the company was founded
3×
daily meals provided free
to every employee, without exception
Farmer Partnerships
We source through direct contracts with farming communities, we ensure fair compensation for growers and absolute traceability from field to extract.
Free Meals & Housing
Three meals a day and a clean place to sleep — provided at no cost to every person who works here.
Wages Without Delay
Payroll runs on the same day every month. This is not a policy we are proud of — it is a basic obligation. We mention it because in parts of China's manufacturing sector, it is not universally kept.
We don't buy herbs. We invest in the people who grow them.
The conventional model in China’s herbal ingredient industry is spot purchasing: every season, buyers approach farmers when the harvest is ready and negotiate the lowest price they can achieve. It is efficient, in a narrow sense. It is also, we believe, deeply short-sighted.
When a farmer doesn’t know from year to year who will buy their crop, or at what price, they cannot invest in better practices, better seed stock, or better soil management. The quality of the plant — and ultimately the quality of what we extract from it — suffers. And when a drought or a policy shift comes, the relationship evaporates overnight.
We chose a different model twelve years ago, and we have not deviated from it. Our farmer partnerships are multi-year agreements with fixed baseline pricing, advance payment for planting costs, and a technical advisory relationship where our R&D team visits cultivation sites at least twice per growing season. When we pay more than the spot market for a harvest — and we often do — we consider it an investment in next year’s quality, not a loss on this year’s numbers.
200+
Farming families
across the Funiu Mountains, deeply rooted in Lushi County, who grow geo-authentic medicinal herbs for our enterprise on multi-year partnership agreements.
- Multi-year pricing agreements — farmers know their baseline income before the seed goes in the ground
- Full-harvest purchase commitment — within agreed quality parameters, we buy the entire crop. Farmers do not go to market with a partial harvest
- No retroactive price renegotiation — when market prices fall, we honour the agreed price. When they rise, we pay the higher of the two
- Twice-yearly field visits — our CSO or R&D team visits cultivation sites in spring and autumn to advise on GAP practices
The families behind the harvest.
These are three of the farming families we have partnered with the longest. We share their stories — with their permission — because we believe the people who grow the plants are part of what makes the extract trustworthy.
Master Wang & Family
Forsythia suspensa
- Funiu Mountains, Lushi County · High-altitude region
Wang’s family has harvested semi-wild Forsythia in the Funiu Mountains for generations. The conventional market forces farmers to harvest early to secure cash, which severely degrades active compounds. When we partnered with him on a multi-year purchase agreement, that pressure vanished. Instead of rushing to sell, he now focuses entirely on optimal harvest timing — picking the green Forsythia (Qingqiao) at the exact moment when Phillyrin levels naturally exceed 6%.
"Before them, I planted and hoped. Now I plant and plan. That's the difference a real partner makes."
Zhang
Taraxacum mongolicum (Dandelion)
- Dagan Village, Hengjian Township · 1500-acre demonstration base
Zhang is a leading dandelion grower in Dagan Village, Hengjian Township. In 2023, Ruizhiheng established a 1,500-acre traditional Chinese medicine demonstration planting base in Dagan Village, with 600 acres of dandelion and Banlangen planted in the first phase.
Ruizhiheng provides her with free seeds, soil testing, and organic planting techniques, offering a purchase price 15% above the market rate. Her dandelion now has a stable chlorogenic acid content of over 2.5%, making it exclusive raw material for Ruizhiheng’s high-end veterinary medicine products. Through land transfer and working at the base, her family earns an additional 8,000+ RMB per year.
"They came to my field, tested my soil, and told me exactly how to grow better dandelion. No buyer had ever done that before. Now I get paid more for better quality."
Lushi Herb Growers Co-operative
Isatis indigotica (Banlangen)
- Lushi Region · River valley cultivation basin
Veterinary and feed-additive markets require massive, uninterrupted supply chains without compromising botanical safety. Rather than buying from fragmented spot markets, we helped 15 local families form a cooperative. We provide the seed stock and technical agronomy support, while the cooperative pools their land to grow Isatis Root at scale. This model guarantees us a stable, high-volume supply of premium raw materials, with documented traceability from the exact seed to the final extract.
"We're not a supplier to them. We're part of their supply chain — and they've made us feel like it matters."
If you're going to ask
people to do good work,
take care of them first.
Our facility is in Lushi County, Henan Province — a mountainous region rich in botanical resources, but not a bustling metropolis. Many of our staff have moved from smaller towns and rural areas across the region to work here. Some are supporting families at home. Some are young scientists who have just finished their degrees. All of them have made a commitment to us, and we have made a commitment to them.
That commitment has a practical expression: we cover the basics. We do not believe that someone doing careful analytical chemistry or delicate extraction work should be spending half their mental energy on where their next meal is coming from, or whether their rent will eat their salary. So we feed everyone — every day — and we house anyone who needs it.
This is not unusual in Chinese manufacturing, but it is unusually well-executed here, because our founder decided from the start that the canteen and the dormitories were not afterthoughts — they were part of the workplace.
Three Free Meals, Every Day
Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are provided at no cost to every member of staff — from the newest laboratory technician to the management team. No exceptions, no hierarchy. The canteen serves the same food to everyone.
Our kitchen team prepares fresh meals three times daily using local Henan produce. The menu rotates weekly and caters to authentic local tastes, offering freshly steamed buns (mantou), hearty noodle dishes, and steamed rice, alongside seasonal vegetables and protein-rich dishes suitable for the physically active work of our production staff. Dietary requirements and preferences are accommodated where possible. No employee has ever paid for a meal at our facility.
On-Site Accommodation, Fully Covered
Staff accommodation is provided free of charge to any team member who needs or prefers it. No rent, no utility bills, no deposit. The dormitory buildings are maintained as part of the facility, not as an afterthought.
Our on-site accommodation includes private and shared room options, dedicated laundry facilities, common areas, and reliable heating — important in a mountainous Lushi winter. Staff who choose to live off-site receive a housing subsidy instead. Nobody lives in poor conditions because of where they chose to work.
🥘 🍚 🥗 🍜 🥦
The Canteen · Open 7 days · Three meals daily
A canteen that people actually want to eat in.
When our founder designed the facility in 2021, the canteen was given the same square footage and construction budget as the analytical laboratory. “If the lab is where the science happens,” he said at the time, “the canteen is where the scientists recover.” That logic has produced a kitchen that serves our team three times a day, every day of the year — and where the food is, by all accounts, genuinely good.
Staff Accommodation
Our dormitory buildings accommodate approximately 60 staff members at any given time. Rooms are cleaned weekly by facility staff. Internet access, heating, and hot water are standard. Staff are free to bring personal belongings and make their space their own.
We believe that where someone sleeps reflects how an employer regards them. Our accommodation is not a barracks — it is a home-away-from-home, and we maintain it accordingly.
Additional staff benefits
- Annual Spring Festival bonus — paid in full before the holiday, every year without exception
- Conference and training budget for scientific staff — at least one external conference per year for any scientist who requests it
- Publication support — staff are encouraged and assisted in publishing peer-reviewed research from their work here
- Open-door policy — any member of staff can request a direct conversation with Dr. Chen or the CSO at any time. There is no HR layer between a scientist and the founder.