Tokyo Detective

Chapter 415 Seizing the Market and the Minister's Dogeza
Inside the village office, the cold air from the air conditioner blew across everyone's skin.

There were two agreements in front of Izumiya Goro: one from the Tokyo Central Bank and the other from the Kanto United Agricultural Corporation.

He had seen the bank's offer, and it was almost identical to the JA National Agricultural Cooperative Association's offer, with the same interest rate and the same interest subsidy.

The annual interest rate for production loans is approximately 0.5-1.5%.

Equipment investment loans, greenhouse construction, and livestock facility upgrades are available with low-interest loans of 5-10 years.

Disaster recovery loans provide interest-free or subsidized loans in the event of natural disasters.

Goro Izumiya strongly suspected that the other party had directly copied the agricultural cooperative.

Sakuraba Rimi simply smiled in the face of the client's questioning gaze. She had participated in the discussion of this agreement, and the content had not actually been changed much. In order to come up with a solution quickly, her team did indeed directly present the agricultural cooperative's conditions and then, according to the professional staff, analyzed the data one by one and made some changes.

Goro Izumiya picked up another Kanto United document but didn't open it.

"Why is your bank helping the Guandong United Agricultural Cooperative negotiate? Where are they?"

He knew about the Kanto United Agricultural Cooperative. After all, the agricultural sector in Japan was only so big, and the fact that a former prime minister was serving as the president of the cooperative was something that most farmers in the Kanto region had heard of, except for a few.

Sakuraba Rimi pulled her hair behind her ears.

"Because our two companies are not only partners, but also have the same boss behind them."

"Oh, no wonder your Tokyo Central Bank is suddenly promoting its farmers' business."

After receiving a reply, Goro Izumiya then consulted another document.

The first page is the membership system.

Voluntary membership principle: Farmers are free to join or withdraw from the agricultural association. One person, one vote: Regardless of the amount of investment, members have equal voting rights. Profit-sharing mechanism: The agricultural association's surplus is distributed to members in proportion to their transaction volume.

Goro Izumiya frowned immediately. Wasn't this exactly the same as the farmers' cooperative? He held back his words and continued reading.

Agricultural cooperatives supply fertilizers, pesticides, feed, and agricultural machinery to their members through bulk purchases, at prices 10-30% lower than market prices. (Similar to agricultural associations)
Large-scale agricultural machinery, seedling factories, and storage centers are built by agricultural cooperatives, and members pay to use them. (Cheaper than agricultural associations)
To make things easier for members, the rural credit cooperative's department will provide members with access to bank loans for their production materials at interest rates lower than those of commercial banks. (Same)
Members are required to deposit a certain percentage of their sales revenue into a bank account, 30%, which can be withdrawn after one year. (This is much better than the 60-90% deposit offered by agricultural cooperatives.)
It offers life insurance, pension insurance, crop insurance, etc., with premiums lower than commercial insurance. (Same)
The agricultural cooperative hires professional instructors to help members solve technical problems. (Same)
Members must comply with the pesticide residue standards and safety traceability system established by the agricultural cooperative. (Same)
Farmers pay into the pension insurance through agricultural cooperatives and receive supplementary pension benefits. (Same)
Elderly farmers can entrust their farmland to agricultural cooperatives for management and receive dividends. (Same)
Agricultural cooperatives pay compensation from their mutual aid fund for reduced yields caused by typhoons and droughts. (Same)
When Goro Izumiya read the terms, his eyelids twitched; he was tempted.

Don't be fooled by the lack of agricultural cooperative medical cooperation or similar services; ordinary members have no use for them at all. Agricultural cooperatives only cooperate with a few hospitals, and farmers can't possibly travel for hours to see a doctor.

The most important thing is still profit.

The commission for the first agricultural cooperative's full-scale sales was only 10%, less than the agricultural association's 15%.

Secondly, the purchase price of commodities such as rice and wheat is limited to no less than one-third of the market price. At the same time, a guaranteed price is agreed upon with the government, so that even if the price is low, the agricultural cooperative will suffer the greatest loss, while the farmers will not lose money.

If the rice price is based on this year's prices, then the farmers' income will have doubled. Who would turn down money?

In addition, the sales channels of agricultural cooperatives do not have middlemen; they collect agricultural products and then arrange them to be sold at grassroots sales points.

This is also one of the reasons why Naoki Hanyu is so confident. Unlike agricultural cooperatives, which have a nationwide layout, he only operates in the Kanto region. Transportation costs can be subsidized for farmers, and unlike agricultural cooperatives, which require 3 to 5 layers of middlemen to reach the grassroots level for sales.

When Naoki Hanyu first learned that some agricultural cooperatives had as many as five layers of middlemen, he was shocked. No wonder the prices were so high with each layer adding to the markup.

Goro Izumiya hesitated for a moment before asking.

"I must say your terms are very tempting, but I have serious doubts about your guarantees and whether there is a risk of insufficient funds."

"Mr. Quangu, please rest assured, we have the government backing us up. Look at the last point."

In the end, Goro Izumiya signed his name. Compared to the agricultural cooperative founded in 1947, this agricultural cooperative was younger and more free.

Quangu Village is a village with the same surname that manages more than 2000 hectares. It is said that their ancestors were all the same person, which is why they were able to jointly create an agricultural organization with the village chief serving as the head of the cooperative and all villagers being shareholders who receive dividends.

With the contract signed, Kanto United Agricultural Cooperative successfully purchased its largest batch of rice, totaling more than 2 tons, and the Tokyo Central Bank also received its first deposit of 30 billion yen.
Meanwhile, it wasn't just Sakuraba Rimi's group that made progress; hundreds of bank and agricultural cooperative groups were working overtime every day to personally visit their respective targets, and the number of agricultural cooperative members signing contracts was also growing rapidly.

1, 10, 10, 1000, 5000, 1, 2.

There are a total of 34 people engaged in agriculture in the Kanto region, including 12 main farmers, 11 quasi-main farmers, and 10.5 sideline farmers.

The total farmland area is 69 hectares, including 31.3 hectares of paddy fields (mainly for rice cultivation), approximately 34.6 hectares of dry land (for vegetables, fruits, and forage crops), and 2.4 hectares of orchards.

Because Xinongshe mainly targets customers who haven't yet sold their rice, it acquired 4 hectares of paddy fields and 38 tons of rice in just one week. Its expansion slowed down, but it didn't stop.

As for the agricultural cooperative, members can withdraw freely, so new members of the agricultural cooperative and former members of the agricultural cooperative will not be in breach of contract if they do not sell rice to the agricultural cooperative.

Chiba City, port warehouse.

As the company president, Juzo Tanaka officially signed a contract with the city government to lease a medium-sized grain warehouse with a total capacity of 17 tons, at an annual rent of 60 billion yen. Juzo Tanaka then grasped the hand of the middle-aged man opposite him.

"Junior, thank you for your help. Otherwise, I really would have had a hard time finding such a good spot."

"Not at all, I'm happy to be able to help you, senior."

Hikoichi Ohara, the vice governor of Chiba Prefecture (a deputy high-ranking official), and Juzo Tanaka are old acquaintances and part of his network.

Looking at the more than 20 vertical and horizontal silos in front of him, Tanaka Juzo couldn't help but feel a little tired. He had been very busy lately.

He found three warehouses in total: an inland warehouse in western Kansai (18 tons), a warehouse in Kanagawa Prefecture (15 tons), and the port of Chiba City.

If it weren't for his connections, it would have been impossible to find a suitable warehouse in a short time.

Next, we need to find agricultural talent. Fortunately, given his connections with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and his alma mater, finding a large number of agricultural talents will not be difficult.

However, building a seedling factory is troublesome, since if he doesn't hurry, he won't be able to plant in time for next spring's planting, and he can't let his members have no seedlings to plant.

Fortunately, the issue of distribution channels for the new grain was handled by the vice president, Saeko Amamiya, or rather, that woman seemed to have a very good relationship with Naoki Hanyu.

"Could they be having an affair?"

Just then, an old man named Momoi Saburo, one of his former assistants, came over. Since his downfall, Momoi Saburo was the most trustworthy of the three assistants and the only friend he still kept in touch with.

"President, I have found out about the new seedlings being cultivated in the Tokyo area."

"Sanlang, you can just call me Thirteen. We're old friends."

"No, we must keep our work matters separate."

Tanaka Juzo shook his head and took the documents from the other party. That's right, he wanted to find better new seedlings. Strictly speaking, the first-class Koshihikari rice was a product of the agricultural cooperative. If he wanted to defeat his opponent in the Kanto region, he needed to have higher-yielding and better-quality seedlings. This would be his weapon.

Tanaka Juzo quickly identified several seedlings that were better adapted to high temperatures and other harsh weather conditions.

"I want to talk to them."

"Yes, I'll arrange it now."

Although he has several targets, Tanaka Juzo estimates that none of them may be useful, since the current first-class rice is already excellent.

"They spent over 800 billion yen in just over a week. I wonder what Yuzuru Hanyu thinks about that?"

Naoki Hanyu didn't have any particular thoughts. He wasn't a businessman who needed to make investments, so he didn't mind spending all his savings. Money was just a number to him, not even worth as much as a damaged fighter jet.

He is currently keeping his promise to become the bodyguard of Agriculture and Forestry Minister Koizumi Jiro. Unfortunately, several days have passed and neither the National Police Agency, the Metropolitan Police Department, nor even the Defense Forces have been able to find anything about him.

As the week-long deadline approached, Koizumi Jiro panicked. He was worried that a terrible assassin would silently attack him, and as the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, he couldn't just stay hidden in the ministry forever.

In the main hall of the Ministry of Defense, Naoki Hanyu and Jiro Koizumi looked down at the press conference below.

Koinujiro sighed with emotion.

"Being a minister in this day and age is really tough. Yuzuru, even you police officers must be having a tough time now."

"Yes, the number of police officers killed or injured in recent years is dozens of times higher than before. I think the government should improve the treatment of police officers. Minister, do you think it should be improved?"

Koinujiro's lips twitched; he really didn't want to answer. He was just the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, and he didn't care about the police's treatment and benefits, yet he still needed the other party's protection.

"I also think it's reasonable to improve the treatment. I guess the Ministry of Defense will also call for improved treatment for soldiers, after all, 200 people died in one incident."

"Yes, the Minister of Defense has it tough too."

As the two talked, they glanced down at the crowd below. Then, Defense Minister Shinji Kitada walked onto the stage, took a deep breath in front of the numerous reporters and cameras.

"Thank you all for attending this press conference. The purpose of this conference is to explain what happened some time ago."

A few minutes later, Shinji Kitada suddenly tapped his knee, then clenched his chin and bent over.

"Red Bean Paste Smith Marseille, I have let everyone down, I am really sorry."

The minister, who had been rising in rank, bowed again and performed a dogeza (a traditional Chinese kowtow) in front of the camera. Every second of his kneeling was deeply imprinted on the eyes of the entire nation. The Minister of Defense knelt once more.

Including this time, the Defense Minister has knelt down five times in the past few years.

(End of this chapter)