1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 267 The negotiations broke down right from the start.

"Strictly speaking, this is illegal business operation."

"That's what everyone does now."

After chatting for a while, Hong Zhong revealed his secret: he had contracted the agricultural supplies business rights from the plant protection station.

It is not recognized by provincial-level or higher industry and commerce departments.

But this is common throughout the country. In addition to contracting and leasing, some county and township agricultural stations (agricultural technology stations, plant protection stations, and soil and fertilizer stations) even "sold" their operating rights for a few hundred or a few thousand yuan.

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and asked, "Could you contract out the operating rights for this part of Lingshan?"

Hong Zhong said, "It should be possible. As long as it's in Panyu, I can find a way."

Chen Jiazhi gave a thumbs up, "Awesome!"

Hong Zhong laughed and said, "With such a big client as you here, I'm determined to win you over."

Chen Jiazhi: "Okay, you take over the management rights here first. I'll sort out my ideas, but don't have too high expectations. Right now, we can only operate on a small scale."

Hong Zhong laughed and said, "With your style, even if you only serve one customer, it would be enough to support a whole store."

This is probably the main reason why Hong Zhong recruited him. The Jiangxin vegetable market covers a total of 600 mu, and the annual cost of purchasing agricultural materials is at least several hundred thousand yuan.

If we don't bring Chen Jiazhi on board, this order could be stolen at any time.

Chen Jiazhi can also use this to reduce the cost of purchasing agricultural materials and increase the risk threshold.

Perhaps there will be even greater opportunities once the industry is fully liberalized.

Chen Jiazhi quickly came up with a future development direction: to become an agent and distributor for foreign companies, selling pesticides and seeds.

Now he can also offer some advice on product categories and operating methods.

For example, there is great potential for the promotion of small arched greenhouses, as well as seeds with potential such as Zhongjiao No. 5, and imported pesticides and seeds.

This is equivalent to streamlining the product line.

There's not much they can do in terms of business methods; it's simply a matter of being long-legged, fast-moving, and diligent. They can easily steal business from those old men in the supply and marketing cooperatives.

But you can't stop people from complaining, so you have to keep a low profile and only operate in rural areas.

After a quick review back in his office, Chen Jiazhi wrote a suggestion that he was fairly satisfied with.

After reviewing the existing funds, Jiangxin Vegetable Market had 82 yuan in its accounts and 4.8 yuan in personal accounts.

It will take Hong Zhong some time to secure the management rights, and Chen Jiazhi's shareholding will not be large, but the money will definitely be enough.

This time, however, the investment will be made in a personal capacity.

By the time we finished all that, it was almost dark.

Chen Jiazhi walked out of the office, stretched in the second-floor corridor, watched for a while the workers packing vegetables, and the lush chili seedlings in the vegetable field, where the chilies were also sprouting tiny white flowers.

The weather has been really nice lately, with temperatures consistently around 20-25℃.

All the vegetables grew very quickly.

The vegetable prices are really just average.

One evening, Chen Jiazhi went to the wholesale market again.

For safety reasons, in addition to him and Chen Zhengxu, he also brought Li Cai, Qi Yongfeng, and two trusted vegetable workers, who were also driving Isuzu cars from the market.

Qi Yongfeng and Li Cai only learned of the robbery in the early morning while on their way to the scene.

Qi Yongfeng was furious: "Damn it, there are more and more of these bastards! Last time my wife and her friends went out, they encountered a bag snatching in the street!"

This was the first time Chen Jiazhi had heard about this. "Was the loss significant?"

"No loss." Qi Yongfeng chuckled. "The robber was a very thin young man. He tried to snatch the bag but failed. My wife knocked him to the ground, and he scrambled away."

"Aunt Juan is awesome!" Chen Jiazhi smiled as well, and he suddenly remembered his second sister, Chen Jiafang.

Chen Jiafang was strong and powerful. Once, when he was robbed, he slapped the robber so hard during the struggle that the robber was stunned and couldn't get up for a long time.

In my previous life, it was also in the middle of this year that my second sister brought Chen Zhengyun back to her hometown by herself.

Qi Yongfeng sighed, "I heard there are drug addicts and gamblers around here. I had a couple of vegetable workers who didn't come after the New Year, and I only found out a few days ago that they had gotten involved."

"Is there such a thing?"

Chen Jiazhi looked serious. Generally speaking, vegetable workers tend to stick together, and the vegetable market is a relatively safe environment because it is secluded and closed off.

Qi Yongfeng said, "The wages paid by the venue may be too high, and some people are vain, so it is inevitable that they will be targeted."

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment: "It seems that we need to have each group compile statistics on this matter in the next couple of days."

Qi Yongfeng was surprised: "Do we still need to worry about these things?"

Chen Jiazhi thought for a moment and said, "At least we can't let people take advantage of our people. Let's sort out the situation and give them a heads-up. Vegetable workers are also part of the market's assets, especially skilled ones, which are not easy to train."

Qi Yongfeng nodded.

As the city opens up more rapidly, more and more people are flocking to Guangzhou.

Vegetable workers used to be an insignificant group, with little to no profit to be made from them. But this group is different now; their wallets have gotten fatter.

We chatted all the way; having many people around made me feel safe.

The arrival of the two light trucks at stall number 56 surprised many people, including Xue Jun.

He only found out about the incident early yesterday morning at this point, and he was equally furious and cursed loudly.

Stall number 56 suddenly became much larger, with two temporary workers added, bringing the total to nine people.

Moreover, Xue Jun and Qi Yongfeng looked like they were very good fighters, and Chen Jiazhi knew they were indeed good fighters.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have brought two people out. But being aggressive and ruthless can only provide temporary relief; it's hard to achieve anything in the long run.

In his previous life, Xue Jun fought too fiercely for his boss at a construction site and was eventually killed.

Chen Jiazhi didn't want to get involved in organized crime; he just wanted to sell vegetables.

The main reason for bringing so many people today is to make a show of force and give a warning to those who are watching them.

The effect was also very obvious.

The night passed, and all was calm.

Even the delivery speed was affected, and vegetable prices remained sluggish, barely managing to sell 4000 yuan worth of produce.

As he left, looking at the empty stall, Chen Jiazhi thought that it was about time to rent a stall with a storefront.

Number 56 should be a thing of the past.

...

After inspecting the fields in the morning, Chen Jiazhi gathered the management staff together and instructed them to remind the vegetable workers to pay attention to their personal and property safety and strictly prohibit drug use.

Production management was then arranged.

The chili peppers have entered the initial flowering and fruit setting stage, and timely watering is necessary to coordinate the relationship between vegetative growth and reproductive growth in order to improve the fruit setting rate.

After a large number of fruits have set, provide sufficient water in a timely manner, and when the second fruit has just set after the first batch of fruits has set, it is also necessary to dig holes and apply compound fertilizer deeply.

There is a time difference in the planting of each batch of pepper seedlings, and the team leader needs to keep a close eye on the timing of watering and fertilizing.

After everyone left, Chen Jiazhi walked along the ridges of the field, looking at the sparsely planted pepper seedlings, which were clearly distinguished from each other, with clusters of small, white pepper flowers adorning the branches.

As I walked along row after row, I saw the same scene every time.

Chen Jiazhi only turned back after several cars had parked on the side of the road.

Looking from afar, he saw several people, some familiar and some unfamiliar, getting off the car. He recognized Xu Wenxiang, Xu He, and Xia Youche from Tongxingtai Vegetable Market.

Besides them, there were three other men I didn't recognize.

But his arrogant and condescending attitude was on full display.

"I didn't believe it before I came, but it turns out there really is someone who grows 300 acres of chili peppers in Guangzhou!"

"Tsk tsk~ This is totally a gamble!"

"Hey, you know what, they were just lucky. Someone won the bet on the snow peas."

"It seems like our luck is almost gone!"

Perhaps because they thought he couldn't understand Cantonese, the two of them communicated rather unrestrainedly.

Chen Jiazhi, who was walking out of the vegetable field, could hear it clearly.

He suddenly turned cold.

The three stopped talking as they got closer, and Xu Wenxiang then introduced them.

"You've met Mr. Xia before, this is the owner of Tongxingtai Vegetable Market, and this is Manager Xia Yang."

"Cao Hong, General Manager of Hengyang Trading Company."

"Master Yu Zhaokun has long been in charge of organizing the refrigerated truck fleet."

Chen Jiazhi exchanged pleasantries with the group and sized them up, especially Yu Zhaokun, whom he didn't recognize, so it was highly likely that he had never been here before.

He then nodded to Xu Wenxiang in thanks. Compared to the others, he suddenly felt that Xu Wenxiang was much better.

Chen Jiazhi said, "President Xia, President Cao, President Xu, let's go to the office, sit down, and have some tea while we talk."

"No need," Cao Hong said. "I'm here today to give President Xu face. Originally, Hengyang only started doing vegetable export business because of her. From now on, I will handle things strictly by business."

Chen Jiazhi raised an eyebrow and said, "What do you mean by that, President Cao? Haven't we always handled things strictly by business?"

Cao Hong sneered, "We haven't made any money from this deal in the past six months, but we won't be so kind in the future."

"Very well." Chen Jiazhi said in a similarly cold voice, "I don't want anyone else sucking my blood either. How about we end it here?"

Cao Hong was somewhat taken aback, seemingly not expecting Chen Jiazhi to turn hostile on the spot, but he had no reason to back down.

"Great! Let's see how much you'll sell 10,000 catties of snow peas every day!"

"Then you don't need to worry about it."

The talks were on the verge of falling apart in just a few words, which caught Xia Youche, who was prepared to watch the show, off guard. "Director Chen, there's no need to be so tough. We're all businessmen, and we can make money together if we're on good terms."

Chen Jiazhi said, "Mr. Xia, I don't know how you price Hengyang, but given the current situation, the price of Dutch beans is low, and the price difference between Hong Kong and the mainland is only two cents."

For just two cents, I don't need to put so much effort into packaging, controlling pesticide residues, or strictly adhering to Hong Kong standards for production, harvesting, and transportation!

Therefore, this business deal is essentially dispensable to me!

Xia Youche immediately frowned.

His son, Xia Yang, went even further, saying, "You country bumpkin, Tongxingtai is doing you a favor by buying your vegetables!"

"Then there's nothing to discuss." Chen Jiazhi shrugged and turned to leave; he wasn't used to selling vegetables on his knees.

Xia Youche shouted, "Director Chen, why bother? You're going to find a market for 10,000 catties of snow peas every day in such a short time."

Chen Jiazhi stopped and turned around, saying, "Let's give it a try. We've already recouped our costs, so we'll sell as much as we can. I don't want someone else to control the lifeblood of the market."

Xia Youche squinted: "Young man, this society isn't as simple as you think. Being young and impetuous will only lead to big losses!"

Chen Jiazhi took out a cigarette and lit it. "I'll wait."

(End of this chapter)