Korean TV series: King of Peninsula 1997

Chapter 483 Gathering Strength
"Eat more." Li You was about to suggest changing to chicken and pork when he remembered what was about to happen.

He frowned in thought.

Ding Qing was a little puzzled, "What extra goods?"

"Stop selling American beef first," Li You pursed his lips, "Replace all meat with Australian beef, don't rush to sell it yet."

It is now the end of December 2003, and in January of next year, there will be an outbreak of avian influenza, which is more serious than mad cow disease.

December 24th.

This was the day after Ding Qing found Li You. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Korean Peninsula held a press conference and issued a statement.

From now on, the import of beef from the United States will be banned immediately, and the sale of American beef from all sources in the Korean market will be suspended.

So it's not just the United States. The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has also imposed a ban on beef products from more than 30 countries, including Japan and Canada.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's statement did not specify how long the ban would last.

On paper alone, the Korean Peninsula is the third largest market for U.S. beef exports, after Japan and Mexico.

Even in 2002, the Korean Peninsula imported 210,000 tons of beef from the United States, with an import value of up to US$600 million.

This year, imports to the Korean Peninsula reached US$700 million.

But under Li You's instructions, the smuggling of beef is still going on vigorously. The meat in the United States has problems, but it is none of Australia's business.

Even Australia is the world's largest beef exporter.

Share prices of Australian agricultural companies have continued to rise, and even the Australian dollar has risen.

The Australian beef futures that Li You instructed to hoard saw their biggest increase in a year today.

December 30th morning.

A group of Americans in suits arrived at Incheon International Airport by plane and met the current Vice Minister of Agriculture and Forestry after getting off the plane.

Since the imported beef is now also transported by Kinmen Trading, Ding Qing brought Jiang Renjiu to participate in this incident.

It will take some time for Li Zicheng to return to the Korean Peninsula.

During the talks, the U.S. government Agriculture delegation asked the South Korean government to lift the ban on importing beef from the United States.

David, the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Forestry delegation, made the following statement at the meeting.
It was discovered in Washington, USA, that cattle infected with mad cow disease were imported from Canada, and the beef exported here is very safe, so the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry here is asked to review the current ban on importing beef from the United States.

However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Korean Peninsula still insisted that there is no evidence to prove that the mad cow disease incident in Washington has nothing to do with them, and the cause of the disease is still unclear, so they cannot lift the ban on importing beef from the United States.

As a trade representative, Ding Qing did not say a few words, but held a small meeting with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Korean Peninsula after the meeting and confirmed that some beef would be imported from Australia.

The smuggling business in Incheon is no longer a small workshop.

There are also several officials in the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry who are very "familiar" with Ding Qing, and even the main means of smuggling in Kinmen's trade has become different numbers reported to customs.

For example, the actual amount to be shipped is ten tons, but only five tons are available at customs.

Before the U.S. Agriculture and Forestry delegation left, the Korean Peninsula's farmers' associations joined forces with the Environmental Movement Association to strongly oppose the visit of the U.S. agricultural delegation and even began to incite citizens to hold protest demonstrations.

This is also the force that Li You and Ding Qing have focused on.

After all, according to the Agricultural Cooperatives Act, farmers' associations are entrusted by the state to exercise public power outside of government power.

It can even go beyond the provisions of departmental laws such as finance and insurance and engage in all agriculture-related businesses.

It includes finance, insurance, grain sales, transportation, warehousing, logistics, supermarkets, overseas trade, etc. Even the agricultural financial funds of the peninsula government must be allocated through agricultural cooperatives.

The reason why Li You focused on this was because the nature of this association was destined to not cooperate with the smuggling of agricultural products.

Their slogan is 'body and land are one', which means 'local people should eat local food'.

But there are still many people in this association who love money.

Agricultural products are sold on this land and there is no way to get rid of them.

Li You had foresight and knew that these people were about to suffer a serious disaster.

What they promote the most now are their own Korean beef, pork and chicken.

Chicken in particular is the top priority of their promotion.

After all, the production of Korean beef is too small. Although it is sold at a high price, the profits are still considerable.

Chicken is relatively cheap and can be made into the national food fried chicken. The output is large enough for the farmers’ association to make a lot of money.

Li You knew very well that although they were dancing happily now, they would become obedient after the Asian avian flu broke out in a dozen days.

In fact, more than ten days ago, in mid-December, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Korean Peninsula had already discovered avian influenza in a chicken farm in Eumseong, but the scale was small, and after the extermination, no new discoveries have been made for the time being.

Large-scale dissemination will have to wait and see.

By then, the scarce Korean beef and Australian beef transported to the Korean Peninsula will become the mainstream meat on the Korean Peninsula.

At the beginning of 2004, the avian influenza virus began to wreak havoc in Asia.

Thailand, as Asia's largest chicken exporter, was also the first to be hit by the crisis.

There was even a large-scale spread of avian influenza, which caused even greater damage to the economy.

Next are Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan and Vietnam.
This of course includes the Korean Peninsula, a major player in the PUBG market.

At the end of 2003, the Korean Peninsula, which had never suffered from the ravages of avian influenza, was attacked by this avian influenza at the beginning of the new year.

By February 2004, highly pathogenic avian influenza had been discovered in 19 broiler chicken farms on the Korean Peninsula.

At one chicken farm in the southeast alone, nearly 10,000 chickens died from avian influenza.

The entire Korean Peninsula has begun to be afraid of chicken, which has caused hundreds of billions of won in losses to various fried chicken restaurants and chicken restaurants, and the losses are even expanding.

The Korean Peninsula can only sound the alarm again. This time it is not about banning imported beef, but even local chicken poses a threat.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry will announce a special protection period for avian influenza.

At the same time, a special inspection team composed of staff from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry was sent to areas prone to avian influenza.

Li You is no longer satisfied with just making money.

If we talk about the many industries that the Korean Peninsula values, aquaculture is definitely one of them.

The Korean peninsula government needs to rely on national breeding industries such as "Korean beef" and of course locally grown vegetables to reduce its dependence on imported agricultural products.

South Korea is a country with a large population and limited land. It has many mountains and little arable land, and its animal husbandry is underdeveloped. It cannot reach the scale of the United States and Australia, resulting in high costs for raising Korean beef.

Even in the past twenty years, the number of Korean cattle has remained at around one million, but the per capita meat consumption on the Korean Peninsula has increased several times compared to twenty years ago.

The annual import volume of overseas beef is the result of a long-term negotiation between farmers and farmers' associations on the Korean Peninsula and the peninsula's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

They also know that if the market is completely liberalized, Korean beef will be vulnerable to the high-quality and low-priced imported beef.

The amount of meat consumed is increasing, but the number of Korean beef is limited, and the amount imported is limited. The demand for beef is huge, and the strong national self-esteem fostered by the farmers' association has continuously increased the value of Korean beef, even making it a good gift. Ordinary people rarely get to eat a meal of it.

This is also why Li You always instructed Ding Qing to engage in the business of smuggling beef.

The actual amount of imported beef on the market now is much higher than the statistics on the Korean Peninsula, and almost one-third of it is smuggled in through Incheon.

Hundreds of billions of won in profits are converted into regular funds through various means. Excluding the portion distributed to customs and various departments, 60 percent goes into Kinmen Group or Li You's pocket.

This profit is not static. As people's lives get better and they eat more meat every year, the profit will also become larger and larger. So in the past decade or so, whenever someone mentions free trade, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people will protest, causing the South Korean government to strictly control beef imports.

When Li You and Quan Douguan met, they also mentioned it during their casual chat.

Jeon Doo-kwang was the originator of modern free trade on the Korean Peninsula, so even though he ensured that most people had enough food and clothing, and even bought a house every five years, he still had countless opponents.

Now, Li Youke did not import openly like Quan Douguang, but imported secretly so that everyone could make money together.

In the office of Kinmen Group, Li You and Li Zicheng, who had rushed back to China, sat face to face.

Li Zicheng had just returned from Suriname and took the opportunity to personally report the business in Suriname to Li You.

"President," Li Zicheng still looked like a cold-faced man, and his skin color even darkened due to his long stay in Suriname, "The progress of both Kinmen Heavy Industries and Future Auto is pretty good."

"There is very important news," Li Zicheng said seriously, "Chairman, Kinmen Heavy Industries has made a new discovery while conducting oil extraction."

He spread out the map of Suriname and circled a location on the map.

"We named this place Block 58," Li Zicheng sniffed. He was a little uncomfortable returning to the cold Korean Peninsula from South America. "This place may have world-class oil reserves."

Li You's eyes lit up, "How much?"

"The potential reserve model has been developed," Li Zicheng unfolded a document with various data and drawings, "and it is estimated that there are 6.5 billion barrels."

6.5 billion barrels may not be comparable to Iraq, but this is enough oil. Together with what we know before, the total is around 10 billion barrels. If it can be mined, it is not an exaggeration to call it an emerging force in the global oil market.

Li You also knew that Suriname could not consume this batch of oil, and now Kinmen could not consume it either.

“How many people know about this?”

Li Zicheng sighed, "Only our current oil extraction team has collected various data and made calculations."

"It's just that this method was learned from the United States. Maybe they also know it there."

"It's okay," Li You nodded, "This kind of thing can't be hidden. I will communicate with the CIA. There is no way these Americans don't want it."

From the very beginning, Kinmen Heavy Industries had consulted with the CIA about its oil exploitation in Suriname, but at that time, no one would have thought that the oil reserves would become so large.

However, there are traces of this. After all, Suriname's neighboring country Guyana has much more oil reserves than Suriname, and it has now become the main place for American oil companies to exploit in South America.

"Okay." Li Zicheng nodded gently, put away the data and drawings, and placed another document on the table. "This is the first batch of oil produced. It is estimated to be 10 million barrels."

In fact, this progress is not fast, and it is even a bit slow. You know, in this era, many oil companies can produce hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day.

However, for the emerging Kinmen Heavy Industries, the results are quite good, not to mention that it has to carry out various industrial constructions in the early stages.

"We'll go through the formal import process," Li You smiled. "I've already informed the Korea National Oil Corporation."

The Korea National Oil Corporation was established in 1979. Unlike the Tianxia Group, it is a state-owned oil company.

It is mainly engaged in the development and storage of domestic and foreign oil resources. In simple terms, it helps people to mine, then builds warehouses for storage on the Korean Peninsula and obtains priority purchase rights.

For example, after the war broke out last year, a reserve contract was signed with a Saudi company, allowing the company to spend money to build a warehouse in Ulsan to store oil, but requiring the company to obtain the right of first refusal to the oil in the Ulsan warehouse.

They have warehouses in several locations, and many of them are now empty due to the outbreak of the Iraq War.

The 10 million barrels that Li You transported back were more than enough for their use, and many people were even grateful to him.

This is also the reason why Li You is not in a hurry to build factories and warehouses on the Korean Peninsula. Someone has already built them, so he can just use the ready-made ones. In any case, he will sign compensation clauses.

But once this kind of strategic business starts, it means officially confronting the Tianxia Group.

Even Tianxia Group may temporarily stop competing with Daying Auto in the automotive industry.

It is very likely that the Tianxia Group will turn around and deal with the Kinmen Group that dared to get involved in their core industries.

"After it's shipped here, it will be stored normally," Li You said lightly. "By then, Jin Jianying will come to her senses and will definitely come to me, but we are different from them."

The Korean Peninsula has no oil reserves. The rule of the Tianxia Group lies in purchasing the mining rights of various small oil storage mines overseas and then transporting them back to the country to make profits.

Suriname's oil exploration rights were almost bought by Li You in one package, including a 30% share for the CIA.

The total cost was only 200 billion won, which was just the profit from the smuggling business in one year.

But the benefits and strategic value brought by paying 200 billion won are much greater than that of Tianxia Group.

Especially in recent times, the economic situation in Asia as a whole has once again stagnated and recovered.

After experiencing the financial crisis a few years ago, everyone was developing in an orderly manner.

But the economic losses caused by this avian influenza are too great and have already affected recovery.

While the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue, oil prices have stabilized, but are rising steadily.

Moreover, Tianxia Group and Daying Group are still fighting in the automobile industry. At this time, Li You reached into his pocket and took out 10 billion barrels of oil. Not only will Tianxia Group be unable to sit still, but it will also be in chaos.

Li You is quite satisfied with the current progress, which meets his expectations. "So how will the sales of cars there be in the future?"

He picked up a document beside him and started flipping through it.

Li Zicheng told him softly, "The sales of future cars are pretty good, and they have already been exported to neighboring countries."

"Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, Venezuela, Peru," he said in detail, "plus Suriname, these South American countries are very welcome to this cheap and durable small car, especially Guyana, because there are many oil companies there, which has driven the local economic development. Many people can afford to buy this small car. There are also some South American countries, because the number of people who buy is relatively small, so I didn't specify it."

“And a lot of older people are starting to think we’re the new big camp car.”

"Oh?" Li You had a smile on his face, and he knew why.

Daying Auto’s first self-developed car was exported to Ecuador in South America.

However, since their business expanded to the United States, Japan and other countries, they no longer pay attention to business in South America.

Li You set his sights on Daying's history of prosperity, and while he had control over Suriname, he simply started running Future Automobile from here.

The people of the Korean Peninsula like to do things that enhance their self-esteem. When the automobile industry becomes big in these South American countries in the future, we can promote it to the Korean Peninsula as an internationally popular Korean automobile brand, and we don’t have to worry that they will not buy it.

"Just keep running the business," Li You closed the file, "Do you have any suitable personnel in Suriname?"

Li Zicheng was silent for a few seconds, "It's more appropriate for me to be there."

"what happened?"

"Chen Zhen and Park David," Li Zicheng sighed, "it would be best if Chen Zhen was only responsible for the gang forces in Suriname. He is too short-sighted to run this kind of business."

"Park David is better, but he didn't find anywhere to go," Li Zicheng said helplessly about the two men. "Park David is a very smart guy, but when it comes to management, especially for such an important industry, I think it's best not to let this layman come."

"Okay," Li You stood up and walked to his side, patting him on the shoulder, "Since you've figured it out, then work hard over there."

Before, Li Zicheng always wanted to come back just to be with his family, but as it became more and more convenient to travel back and forth, he now comes back one or two days a week, which is still acceptable to him. The most important thing is that he really can't just ask anyone to take charge of the work there.

Li Zicheng left quickly as he wanted to take advantage of the precious time he had back home to spend time with his wife and children.

Li You stood in front of the window, looking at Seoul outside.

When his cell phone buzzed, Li You picked up a call from an unfamiliar number.

"President Li," the old and resonant voice of Quan Douguang came from the other end of the line, "We have almost finished what we talked about before."

"What do you mean, General Quan, is almost there?"

Quan Douguang smiled lightly, "I have already established the connection."

(End of this chapter)