1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 303 Both Volume and Price Plunge
These days, having a pager on your belt and saying "Call me if you need anything" is something to be very proud of and a symbol of status, even though the monthly fee is several tens of yuan.

Ah, what Xue Jun said really resonated with me.

Li Cai immediately started playing with it, clipping it to his waist and walking around a couple of times. His demeanor instantly improved. Then he took out a small notebook and wrote down the numbers of the other people.

"Brother Chen, what about yours?"

"Me? This is it."

Chen Jiazhi also took out his brick-like mobile phone, which he both disliked and felt very comfortable with.

It really feels good, as heavy as a weight.

"A mobile phone, just like your status!" Li Cai's eyes lit up. He stopped fiddling with the pager and took the mobile phone to play with it.

"Alright, alright, that's enough for now. I have to go back. I'm exhausted after staying up so long, so I won't be coming tonight. Call me if you need anything."

"Good."

"Call us if you need anything."

After learning about the sales situation, Chen Jiazhi took the exhausted Li Xiu home.

Although business was booming last night, there was an unusually large amount of produce arriving – a total of 48 tons. Eight trucks of various sizes arrived, which was quite astonishing and left many merchants dumbfounded.

However, from the time I sold vegetables last night until this morning and into the afternoon, there are still quite a few vegetables left over.

Fortunately, the preservation measures were well done, so leaving it for an extra day didn't have a significant impact.

Judging by this, the vegetables should be sold out by the time the evening batch arrives.

Tomorrow is the Dragon Boat Festival, so there shouldn't be any worries for the next couple of days.

Looking at the bright sunshine, Chen Jiazhi felt that if it didn't rain heavily for a few more days, the market situation would be hard to predict!

The two cars sped along; Yan Hao, the driver from the market, drove an Isuzu, while Chen Jiazhi drove a Jetta, and there wasn't much traffic. When they arrived home, Chen Jiazhi first told Li Xiu to go back and rest, while Chen Jiazhi went to the market first.

As he approached, he honked his horn, and the beeping sound attracted many people.

Then Yi Dinggan and several group leaders rode back at breakneck speed, and a group of people surrounded the bikes, touching them repeatedly.

A car is the standard equipment for big bosses.

"Just touch it, okay? Don't drool on the car. Manager Yi, here's your pager. You can call me anytime if I'm not around."

Wow!

"A pager!"

Yi Dinggan excitedly took the pager and started fiddling with it, which made the others quite envious.

"Jiazhi, how do you use this pager? I don't know how!"

Chen Jiazhi could only offer further explanation.

This small pager works on a very simple principle.

First, people need to call the communications center via pager and then tell the staff the pager number of the person they are looking for.

The staff will then input the information into the computer and send it to the recipient's pager. The recipient's pager will then receive the message, and the user can then contact the nearest phone booth based on the content.

Chen Jiazhi found this method to be extremely cumbersome.

But nowadays, it is the most convenient way to communicate.

In addition to Chen Zhengxu, Li Cai, and Xue Jun in the market, he also provided one for Ao Dehai and Yi Dinggan.

"Great, this will make things much more convenient."

Chen Jiazhi looked at the others and said with a smile, "From now on, all farm managers will be provided with communication tools. Right now it's a pager, and in the future it will be a cell phone."

"And what is a cell phone?"

Chen Jiazhi pulled out a brick again.

"Holy crap, it's a mobile phone!"

"We should have bought them a long time ago. Xia Youche called the office several times today." Yi Dinggan suddenly remembered something important. "By the way, Jiazhi, how did the vegetables sell last night? Are they all sold out?"

"Not yet, but we estimate they'll be sold out by tonight."

"Xia Youche wants to increase his bok choy supply, so please send him two more truckloads of bok choy today!"

"install?"

Chen Jiazhi was somewhat surprised, not because Xia Youche was asking for vegetables, but because he asked for them so quickly!
They refused yesterday, and they're backing out today. Can't they have any backbone at all?!

“We haven’t agreed yet; we said we’d wait for you to come back and decide.” Yi Dinggan asked, “Since we didn’t sell out last night, could we send him two truckloads?”

"Of course I'll send it!"

Chen Jiazhi is very realistic. He feels that the market this Dragon Boat Festival is much weaker than last year and won't last more than two days.

There are still plenty of vegetables in the field.

With over 30 mu (approximately 2 hectares) of land available daily, guaranteeing nearly 30 tons of vegetables, and with a 30-cent premium for Hong Kong, plus reduced sales costs, why hesitate?

Yi Dinggan said, "I'll have Xu Yao call him back and arrange for vehicles to come over immediately."

Chen Jiazhi called out to him, "Don't rush, let's wait for him to call again. He should call again, right?"

"Yeah, I told him to call later."

"Okay, let's wait a little longer."

The two chatted while Qi Yongfeng and his group continued to look at and touch the cars.

"Stop touching it, it'll get all worn smooth. If you want to drive, you should all get a driver's license. Do you really need that little bit of money?"

Qi Yongfeng immediately asked with great interest, "Will the vegetable market still buy cars in the future?"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "If necessary, I will definitely buy another car!"

Qi Yongfeng, who was not old, readily agreed, "Okay, I'll sign up too, but I'm afraid it will affect my work."

Chen Jiazhi looked at the others and said, "Any of you going to learn to drive? We can take turns going and help each other out."

“I’ll go!” Ao Dehai stepped forward.

The other four were still hesitating, saying they needed to go back and discuss it, probably because they didn't want to go.

Chen Jiazhi didn't try to persuade him much. Learning to drive was entirely up to his own will, and he would have to pay for the tuition himself. He also didn't necessarily have that many cars to drive in the future.

Have you prepared the gift boxes and holiday allowance for the Dragon Boat Festival?

"They were all distributed when I left work this morning, and the results were great." Yi Ding chuckled dryly. "Tong Gang is also handling the paperwork for the cafeteria construction, and construction should begin in a few days. The morale at the market is very high right now."

However, everyone is still more concerned about last month's salary and bonuses. Chen Jiazhi nodded and said, "The salary will be paid out as soon as the amount is calculated, there won't be any delay. Yours too, you all got quite a bit last month."

After a moment's hesitation, Chen Jiazhi clapped his hands, attracting the attention of the few people still looking at the car.

"Don't any of you care about salaries and bonuses at all?"

Despite being drenched in sweat, Qi Yongfeng sat in the driver's seat and replied, "Anyway, Brother Zhi, you won't let us down."

Chen Jiazhi smiled and asked about the harvest. The plan was to harvest 30 tons of bok choy today.

The yield of green peppers can still be harvested as much as possible, but with the removal of seedlings, the yield has dropped significantly, and maintaining 10 tons per day is the limit.

After understanding the situation and sending the group away, Chen Jiazhi returned to his office.

Huang Chuan had already installed the newly purchased computer, but before Chen Jiazhi could even check it, Xia Youche called.

"Mr. Chen, it's really not easy to find you!"

"I just got back too. I just arrived and heard that Mr. Xia wants to send two more truckloads of bok choy today. It seems that Mr. Xia was very satisfied with yesterday's shipment!"

"It's very good."

Xia Youche had been tormented and restless all morning, and now he made no attempt to hide it.

"Mr. Chen, we've been working together for so long. Although there have been some unpleasant moments, I've never been late with payments. Will you continue to entrust me with selling your bok choy from now on?"

"But Hexing offered a higher price!"

“Mr. Chen, you don’t need to scare me,” Xia Youche said. “Hexing has its own vegetable market, and the price they offer you can’t be higher than mine. Even if they cooperate with you, they’re just using you temporarily. In comparison, Tongxingtai is a more reliable option.”

Chen Jiazhi: "I didn't feel secure at all; I only felt constantly calculating. It's a bit unreasonable that the vegetable growers aren't making as much money as the vegetable sellers."

"Haha, Mr. Chen, you're just joking. You've gone to great lengths to expand your market channels in the mainland, isn't it because growing vegetables doesn't earn as much as selling them?"

This is the normal market phenomenon.

"..."

Xia Youche added, "I'm now discussing cooperation on an equal footing with you. Let bygones be bygones in the past. In business, long-term is the key."

Chen Jiazhi found it somewhat amusing; he felt that Hong Kong people were truly pragmatic in business, able to be both flexible and adaptable.

He hadn't intended to refuse anyway, so he agreed to continue driving, mentioning that the green peppers were almost gone, which surprised Xia Youche.

To be honest, he's quite realistic.

After hanging up the phone and fiddling with the computer for a while, Chen Jiazhi drove his Jetta home.

When I got home, Yi Long and Yi Hu had already come home from school and were doing their homework.

But as soon as his car arrived, they all excitedly got in and out.

Chen Jiazhi was really tired. After washing up and eating something, he went back to his room to lie down and sleep.

...

Days passed by, and soon it was the Grain in Ear season, which is June 6th.

Grain in Ear is a solar term in midsummer. At this time, the weather is hot and there is often heavy rain. The growth rate of crops is further accelerated, and a variety of seasonal vegetables and fruits are successively on the market.

Normally, the impact on leafy vegetable production will gradually intensify.

However, since the heavy rain on May 28th and 29th, although there have been several rain showers, no major disasters have occurred in the Pearl River Delta.

The quality of leafy vegetables was affected, but the yield was not significantly impacted.

Because it's fast!
When the weather is good, leafy greens can grow at a breathtakingly fast rate!
All the leafy vegetables in the entire city seem to be growing, being harvested, and then hitting the market at an accelerated pace!
In just a few days, the market, which had been doing relatively well, plummeted again!
Whether it's leafy greens or melons and fruits, they all fell in unison!
Even the No. 63 category was not spared, experiencing a drop in both volume and price.

But thanks to its superior quality, the Chinese cabbage can still maintain daily sales of over ten tons.

The season for green peppers was already coming to an end, so there was no worry about selling them.

The only problem is the vegetable market.

In just a few days, the 300 mu of bok choy planted at Jiangxin Vegetable Market have all reached the harvest requirements, and the yield has far exceeded previous levels!

The consequence is that we have to harvest the bok choy endlessly every day.

We harvest in the morning, we harvest in the afternoon, and we even have to work overtime to harvest at night!
Even professional vegetable harvesters who want to harvest as much as possible are tired of cutting vegetables. Many people complain that they dream about cutting vegetable hearts in the field while sleeping, and their fingers and arms are in pain.

But morale is a good thing.

After sensing something was wrong, Chen Jiazhi asked Xu Yao to organize overtime work to calculate the salary commission.

And the wages and bonuses were distributed in a timely manner.

Throughout May, the market paid out a total of 390,000 yuan in wages, commissions, and bonuses.

The average monthly wage for a regular vegetable worker is 1300 yuan. For reference, the average monthly wage for employees in Huacheng this year is only 847 yuan.

The team leaders differed; among the three people from the northern region who were selling green peppers, Chen Jiazhi paid more, with prices fluctuating between 8 and 1.1.

The three people in the southern region shipped less this month, with prices fluctuating around 5.
He plans to use this method to generate revenue in the future; doesn't he like to gamble on market trends?

If you win the bet, you get more money; if you lose, the team leader has to bear the consequences.

Paying wages boosted the already high morale at the market, allowing the harvesting work to proceed efficiently.

The cold storage facility has also been greatly improved!
The originally empty cold storage was filled to nearly halfway in just four days.

Chen Jiazhi glanced at the cold storage from the doorway and asked, "How many bok choy have been put into storage?"

"More than 130 tons."

Yi Dinggan was a little dejected. The good days didn't last long, and the price of cauliflower returned to a meager level.

This drizzle wasn't 80 or 90 cents, but 60 cents a pound, which really upset me.

Is God deliberately going against him?
"Hmm~" Chen Jiazhi nodded slightly and said, "Once the vegetables are harvested, we need to hurry up and transplant the seedlings."

"Do we still need to transplant it?"

Chen Jiazhi glanced at him: "You're not a qualified gambler yet. A true gambler won't leave the table until they've recouped their losses."

"But gamblers are very likely to go bankrupt."

"The cold storage isn't even full, what's there to be afraid of? Not only should we plant, we should plant as much as we can. The worst that can happen is that the vegetables will rot in the ground. A vegetable farmer who hasn't had a few batches of vegetables rot is destined to be just a mediocre vegetable farmer."

"What if it keeps getting rotten?"

"I might as well go to the city to work; my physical condition isn't suited for growing vegetables."

(End of this chapter)