1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 202 Market
Early in the morning, before the morning mist had completely dissipated from the river, Chen Jiazhi was making his final emphasis.

"Be sure to water the pumps once before finishing work in the morning, but don't water them too early. Start watering around 10 o'clock. The voltage problem has also been solved. All 24 water pumps can be used at the same time, and it's very stable!"

"The thinning team should hurry up and thin the seedlings. After thinning is completed, apply fertilizer once before watering in the evening!"

After the planting plan was successfully completed on September 25, Jiangxin Vegetable Market quickly entered its routine management period.

The level of busyness hasn't slowed down at all.

Although the weather wasn't as sweltering as it had been in the previous two months, the sun was still blazing every single day.

It hurts to have the sun shining on you.

The soil is exposed to the sun in the vegetable field, which causes the water to evaporate extremely quickly. If the soil is not watered even once, it will dry out and crack.

Water is essential for the growth of Chinese cabbage.

Fortunately, through Tong Gang's introduction, and after having two drinks with the town leaders, the voltage problem was solved.

The biggest challenge was solved by using 24 sets of water pumps for irrigation at once, supplemented by manual watering with manure scoops.

Of course, due to the workers' lack of skill, the vegetables may inevitably be damaged during the watering process.

But getting water twice a day is already pretty good.

If all you have are manure scoops or water buckets, these 600 acres of land and 200 people can just water the plants every day without having to do anything else.

After the work was assigned, the team leaders returned to their posts one after another to assign tasks to their respective vegetable workers.

Six distinct groups were formed in the vegetable field, each with more than 30 people. The groups for ditching and spraying pesticides were also divided up, and they would gather again when needed.

A little while later, the vegetable workers got back to their usual busy routine.

The group leaders finally had a chance to go back and have breakfast.

The larger the area, the more necessary it is to patrol the fields. Every morning around 5 a.m., Chen Jiazhi would lead the team leaders to patrol the fields.

Then I arranged the work, ate breakfast, and went out to supervise, inspect, and guide.

There will also be a field patrol before dark.

Compared to the vegetable workers who work under the scorching sun every day, the team leader's life is quite easy.

If we didn't work this hard, it would actually be easier, but we chose to take this gamble because everyone knows how crucial this moment is.

Chen Jiazhi and Yi Dinggan returned to their dormitory and quickly made two bowls of noodles for breakfast.

Yi Dinggan said, "Jiazhi, we need to prepare for sales as soon as possible. Judging from the current weather, I estimate that the bok choy will be ready to harvest in about ten days."

"I'll ask again later~"

The first batch of vegetables at Jiangxin Vegetable Market consisted of 20 mu of Chinese cabbage and 10 mu of Chinese kale, planted on September 12.

Today is February 9.

Fifteen days have passed.

Chinese kale will have to wait a little longer, but Chinese cabbage should be ready for harvest in 10 days, depending on both its growth period and the actual conditions in the field.

After eating noodles,
Chen Jiazhi went to the office and dialed a phone number using the landline.

However, no one answered after I called for a while.

Looking at his watch, he realized it was not yet 7 o'clock, and Xu Wenxiang probably hadn't gotten up yet, so he hung up again.

During this period, the vegetable workers' working hours are from 6:00 AM to 11:00 AM and from 3:30 PM to 8:30 PM, a total of 10 hours a day, with two hours of overtime included. They are paid for each day they work.

The strength is a bit high.

Chen Jiazhi thought he should give the vegetable workers a break before they started harvesting, because once they started harvesting, they would definitely not have enough rest time.

After making a few casual work notes, Chen Jiazhi went to the corridor and looked out over the vegetable fields and the river view.

This batch of vegetables should be ready.

The yield per unit area is certainly far less than that of Dongxiang Vegetable Market, but the total output is even less comparable; it all depends on how it is sold.

He was also very curious about how capable Xu Wenxiang and Huang Jianyuan really were, given their boastful claims.

After admiring the scenery for a while, Tong Gang, Xu Yao, and Cheng Tiantian also walked towards the office one after another.

Tong Gang and Xu Yao greeted him one after another, and even Cheng Tiantian smiled at him.

Chen Jiazhi returned early as usual, treating everyone the same.

Cheng Tiantian's attitude has changed somewhat in the past two days, but Chen Jiazhi has already decided not to keep her.

After the three went upstairs, Chen Jiazhi called out, "Xu Yao, calculate the workers' wages as soon as possible, and pay them off as soon as possible after this month ends. Tong Gang, please assist with this."

"okay."

"Good~"

Chen Jiazhi then went into his office and called Xu Wenxiang. This time the call was answered.

"Hey?"

"I am Chen Jiazhi."

"Director Chen, what's the matter? Tell me."

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "The vegetable market should be able to start selling vegetables in about ten days. I'd like to coordinate with who to contact regarding sales in advance."

"Oh, that's pretty fast!" Xu Wenxiang said, somewhat surprised. "About how many dishes are there?"

Chen Jiazhi: "The planting is a bit concentrated, so there might be a lot of vegetables."

Xu Wenxiang: "I've heard about it. Just give me a time and quantity."

Chen Jiazhi held his notebook and began to recite.

"Starting no later than October 8th, at least 30,000 jin of bok choy will be produced every day."
After October 15th, in addition to 30,000 jin of Chinese cabbage, there are also 30,000 jin of water spinach and 30,000 jin of bok choy every day.

In late October, the harvest season for bok choy ended, but there were still 30,000 jin of Chinese kale available every day.

In total, we estimate that we'll need to sell 800,000 to 900,000 jin (400,000 to 450,000 kg) of vegetables in the next 20 days!

After finishing his sentence in one breath, there was silence on the other end of the phone. Chen Jiazhi chuckled and said, "Mr. Xu, it's time for you to step up your efforts. Buyers, vehicles, transportation, packaging, and so on all need to be prepared."

After a while,
Xu Wenxiang took a deep breath and said, "Director Chen, we can't be careless yet. There are still ten days before the first batch of vegetables arrives. If something unexpected happens, it's normal that we won't be able to collect the vegetables. Jiangxin Vegetable Market has experienced this kind of lesson too many times before."

Chen Jiazhi: "Yes, I know what I'm doing. Actually, I'm more afraid of accidents happening than you are."

"That's good." After a pause, Xu Wenxiang added, "Besides, you planted too many vegetables at once, and the vegetable market hasn't been very good lately." Chen Jiazhi asked doubtfully, "Can't you eat them all?"

Xu Wenxiang pondered for a moment and said, "I can definitely eat it all, but there's a chance we'll be pressured to lower the price. It would be best to spread it out in the future."

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "Didn't you say that there are still ten days left? The market reversal might happen in these ten days or so?"

"hope so."

Xu Wenxiang said, "Okay, I'll contact General Manager Huang about the sales. I'll let you know when there's news."

"it is good."

"dudu~"

Having not sold vegetables for more than 20 days, Chen Jiazhi was somewhat unfamiliar with the current market situation.

All I know is that prices have been falling.

Come to think of it, the weather has been great lately, sunny every day. As long as the water and fertilizer management is up to par, the leafy greens will grow like crazy.

With increased supply, prices naturally decrease.

However, Chen Jiazhi looked up and saw that it was only a little past eight o'clock, and the sun had already risen high in the sky.

He made a record; today marks the 20th consecutive day of bright sunshine.

With the sun shining like this and little rain, how many people can keep up with water and fertilizer management?

Moreover, water is not readily available in many parts of Huacheng.

It would be exhausting just to water them every day, and a decrease in yield or even a complete crop failure is not out of the question.

Chen Jiazhi was convinced that the market was already on its way.

Farmers' description of the climate as the judge of fate is no exaggeration.

...

Spruce,

Xu Wenxiang also had a headache after hanging up the phone.

In the end, I dialed Huang Jianyuan's landline and explained the situation at the market in detail.

Huang Jianyuan said with a wry smile, "More than a million kilograms of vegetables, that's quite a lot of pressure!"

Huang Jianyuan used to worry about not having enough vegetables to sell, but now he worries about having too many. He was surprised that just changing the farm manager would lead to such a big change.

Xu Wenxiang said, "Although it's a bit early to talk about production volume, if there really is this much produce, we will sell it even if the price is lowered."

"Of course, it wasn't easy, we've finally waited for this day."

In fact, Huang Jianyuan was the initiator of Jiangxin Vegetable Market and the former major shareholder. Later, due to severe losses and other reasons, he transferred most of his shares to Xu Wenxiang.

But he has an affection for Jiangxin vegetable market.

Huang Jianyuan said, "Mr. Xu, let's each contact our existing channels and make preparations, shall we?"

Xu Wenxiang: "That's for the best. It's over a million catties. This Director Chen is really stingy."

Huang Jianyuan laughed and said, "I suspected he did it on purpose a long time ago. This kid is interesting."

Previously, Chen Jiazhi had mentioned vegetable sales on several occasions, and Huang Jianyuan and Xu Wenxiang always spoke very confidently about it.

In short: you just need to focus on growing the vegetables well, and you don't need to worry about sales at all.

Now he's suddenly putting a lot of pressure on the two of them, which definitely has an element of revenge in it.

Xu Wenxiang smiled and said, "It's a good thing after all."

Despite the pressure, the couple was in a good mood because they were about to see income.

However, the two of them encountered some difficulties when contacting the market over the next two days.

As Xu Wenxiang had predicted, the price was reduced.

The existing catering business of the shareholders is not enough to handle all the demand, so going to Hong Kong's traditional wholesale markets is the most reliable option.

According to Chen Jiazhi, the average daily output is 5 jin (25 tons) of leafy vegetables.

Compared to Hong Kong's daily demand of 1000 tons of vegetables, this is not a small amount.

After making calls for two days without finding a suitable buyer, and with the National Day holiday approaching and hotel business expected to be even better, Xu Wenxiang became somewhat anxious.

The same applies to Huang Jianyuan.

On the morning of the 29th, Huang Jianyuan came to Yunshan again and walked out of the hotel side by side with Xu Wenxiang.

“Mr. Xu, Hexing is even more aggressive in driving down prices than Yonglong. These past two days, they’ve only quoted 1.2 yuan per jin for the cauliflower supplied to Hong Kong.”

"If the production volume is really as Director Chen described, the profit at this price is actually not low."

"But the wholesale price of Chinese cabbage in Hong Kong today is 3.2 yuan per jin."

"They're so heartless and shameless!" Xu Wenxiang couldn't help but curse.

This is the norm in the Hong Kong market: wholesalers arbitrarily drive down prices, forcing the supply bases to use only cheap pesticides. When pesticide residue problems arise, they then blame everything on the mainland vegetable farmers and bases.

The two had just stepped out of the hotel lobby when they ran into Tang Xiao and Gou Tao returning at the same time.

"What a coincidence, Mr. Xu, Mr. Huang, are you on your way to the market? I heard you've had some trouble selling vegetables these past few days. Do you need any help?"

Xu Wenxiang smiled and lowered her eyes: "There have been some setbacks, but it won't affect the Jiangxin vegetable market's ability to make money."

Huang Jianyuan also said, "There might be the first dividend soon, but unfortunately it has nothing to do with President Tang."

"Go ahead and try to fool us. At the current price, you'll be lucky if you break even!" Tang Xiao said angrily before entering the hotel with Gou Tao.

Xu Wenxiang and Huang Jianyuan exchanged a glance.

Actually, they were a little worried that Chen Jiazhi was fooling them, since according to the output he gave them, they were guaranteed to make a profit.

"He shouldn't be so bad as to lie."

"I think so too."

But the two still went to the market, and when they saw the thriving vegetables, their worries were completely relieved.

So what if the price is lowered?

With production volume standing out, we can still make money!
(End of this chapter)