1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 305 Expansion
Going all in is a kind of wisdom, and going all in during a bad market requires even more courage, making people's hearts jump, but also making their souls tremble.

From the moment they started transplanting large numbers of seedlings, Jiangxin Vegetable Market was walking a tightrope.

Yi Dinggan and the others were filled with excitement, but they were also cautious and often fantasized about what would happen if it really came true.

Only Chen Jiazhi and Tong Gang calmly arrived at the town government.

The market is located in Miaobei Village, Lingshan Town. Miaobei Village has 5760 mu of arable land and a population of over 4000.

Chen Jiazhi's purpose in coming to the government was to continue expanding the area of ​​the vegetable market.

Led by Tong Gang, Chen Jiazhi arrived at the office of Fang Jianfang, the town mayor in charge of agriculture.

"Mayor Fang, I apologize for disturbing you."

"What a presumptuous move. Mr. Chen is a rare guest. Please have a seat and some tea. Huang Jintian has not arrived yet, so please wait a little longer."

Fang Jian had the look of an old cadre. He asked the two of them to sit down and then made tea and poured water for them.

Huang Jintian, whom he mentioned, is the village party secretary of Miaobei Village.

"How much does Mr. Chen want to expand the market?"

"We can expand the existing base to the surrounding area, by two or three hundred acres."

“Our town welcomes this,” Fang Jian said, crossing his legs. “But ultimately, it will depend on Miaobei Village’s opinion.”

In the past two years, besides you, Dongsheng Farm in Miaobei Village has also leased 1500 mu of land.

Your two families together have rented almost half of the village's land; the rest will depend on the villagers' wishes.

I can't say for sure whether we'll offer you any large, contiguous plots of land for rent.

Chen Jiazhi smiled and said, "Judging from the current situation, the town's work is very effective, and the villagers are quite willing to rent out their properties."

"Haha, actually, as long as the land rent is paid in place, everything is fine," Fang Jian laughed. "I heard that Jiangxin Vegetable Market has made quite a bit of money since you came here!"

"By luck, God has blessed me with talent."

Fang Jian is Tong Gang's brother-in-law, so Chen Jiazhi was not surprised that the other party knew about the vegetable market.

They also intended for Tong Gang to convey some information and showcase some of their strength.

After chatting idly in Fang Jian's office for a short while, Huang Jintian arrived. He was about fifty years old.

"Fangzhen~"

"Enough with the small talk." Huang Jintian asked directly, "Old Huang, Jiangxin Farmers Market wants to expand its area. Is there any land available nearby?"

“The land is available, but the villagers don’t want to rent it.”

"what's up?"

“You’ll have to ask Jiangxin Market,” Huang Jintian said, looking rather annoyed. “Jiangxin Market is putting on airs; they won’t even let villagers go to work there anymore.”

Chen Jiazhi looked at Tong Gang: "Is that so?"

Tong Gang said, "Secretary Huang, you can't blame the market for this. Last September, when we were recruiting, many villagers were unwilling to come, so I had to go around looking for temporary workers from other places to come to the market."

Huang Jintian asked angrily, "And what about this year?"

"We've already filled all our positions. The market hasn't needed any workers this year, so of course we're not hiring!"

"That's none of my business. Anyway, if they don't hire people from our village, it'll be difficult to expand the area!"

"you!"

Fang Jian understood the reason and looked at Chen Jiazhi. Just as he was about to speak, there was another knock on the door.

"Dong dong."

"Please come in."

A middle-aged man with dark skin walked in. "Secretary Huang and Mayor Fang are both here. Our market wants to hire a group of vegetable workers and would like to ask the town for help."

"What a coincidence!" Fang Jian exclaimed with delight. "Old Huang, here we are! The villagers are looking for work, and Dongsheng is hiring. Perfect timing!"

"Old Huang, say something! President Li is waiting right here."

Huang Jintian pursed his lips and said, "The villagers would rather go to the Jiangxin vegetable market."

Fang Jian asked in confusion, "Aren't they all vegetable markets? What's the difference?"

Huang Jintian's expression suddenly became very strange, and the middle-aged man referred to as President Li also looked embarrassed.

Fang Jian guessed, "Mr. Li, are you paying your workers too low wages?"

"Actually, it's not bad. It's considered to be above average among other vegetable markets."

Li Jiyong, the person in charge of Dongsheng Farm, originally wanted to say that it was top-notch among its peers, but unfortunately, there was a monster next door.

"Then what happened?"

"Old Huang, you speak!"

Huang Jintian said, "Actually, the cause of this matter also lies with Jiangxin Vegetable Market. The wages at Jiangxin Vegetable Market are too high, and now villagers are scrambling to get jobs there."

Fang Jian looked surprised and turned to Chen Jiazhi and Tong Gang, "President Chen, how much do you pay your workers a month?"

"The base salary is 12 yuan per day, plus commission and bonuses, so the salary system is quite flexible."

How much money can I earn in a month?

"The average was about 1300 yuan last month."

Fang Jian's eyes widened, but he could tell that none of them seemed surprised, so they obviously already knew.

"Mr. Chen, with such a high salary, I'd like to work as a vegetable vendor at your market."

Chen Jiazhi: "It's not that we can get this much every month. It's just that sales were better last month, and the workers worked overtime and were tired, so we got more. Usually, it's only a few hundred yuan a month."

Huang Jintian muttered, "Several hundred yuan is quite a lot. How much do the villagers earn in a year?" Chen Jiazhi pondered, "The market is indeed full. However, if we expand the area, I can promise to recruit all the new staff from the village. But they will all have to be selected, since our workload is not low."

Huang Jintian immediately asked, "How much expansion do you want? The village has plenty of land, as much as you need! As long as you're willing to hire people, the villagers' work will be much easier!"

Tong Gang interjected, "Actually, there are about 100 local villagers in our market as well."

Huang Jintian said, "If it weren't for these 100-plus people, would you still be able to live so peacefully?"

Chen Jiazhi stopped Tong Gang from continuing to speak. After thinking for a moment, he said, "What I'm thinking is to expand around the vegetable market, preferably to make it a concentrated and contiguous area, which would be easier to manage."

The exact expansion area will only be known after on-site measurements.

“Sure,” Huang Jintian said. “We can go back and test right now, immediately!”

Chen Jiazhi looked at Fang Jian.

Fang Jian smiled and said, "The town is now developing 'high-efficiency, high-quality, and high-yield' agriculture, and of course we support the continued development of enterprises. It's a good thing that it can solve the employment problem for villagers!"

However, Mr. Li from Dongsheng is still here. There's no rush to leave. Let's sit down, have a cup of tea, and chat.

"Old Huang, I'm talking to you! What's the rush? Can't I even sit in my office for a little while?"

Huang Jintian complained, "Mayor Fang, I just want to get this matter confirmed as soon as possible. Aren't I just doing this for the public good?"

"Are you afraid that President Chen is lying to you?" Fang Jian said in a deep voice, "Sit down!"

So Huang Jintian angrily found a stool and sat down against the wall.

They didn't say a word while the others were chatting.

In fact, Chen Jiazhi was quite interested in the nearby Dongsheng Farm.

Dongsheng Farm is located west of Jiangxin Vegetable Market and closer to Miaobei Village Committee. It is also a vegetable market supplying Hong Kong, and the investor is Tai Kee Vegetable Market in Xiangjiang District.

The owner, Qu Jingtai, is from Panyu. He and his two older brothers went swimming to Hong Kong in the 70s. At first, he stayed with relatives and helped sell vegetables at the wholesale market.

In the 1970s and 80s, it was common for farmers from Shenzhen to grow vegetables in Shenzhen and then cross the barriers to carry the vegetables to Hong Kong to sell.

Qu Jingtai also frequently planted, purchased, and resold vegetables in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, accumulating capital.

Later, he established Au Tai Kee Vegetable Market, cooperating with Xiangjiang Supermarket and restaurants, and at the same time getting to know many people from Taiwan and Japan.

Their business grew bigger and bigger, and they successively established bases in Shenzhen, Dongguan, Conghua and other places.

Two years ago, I wanted to invest in my hometown, so I invested 2000 million yuan to establish Dongsheng Farm.

Chen Jiazhi's previous life in Shanghai was also from Dongsheng, so he had some understanding of it. Dongxiang Vegetable Market originally had Dongsheng's investment.

But he had never met Qu Jingtai before, and this was also the first time he had met Li Jiyong, the person in charge of the farm.

Li Jiyong is from Maoming and has been growing vegetables for many years.

I've been quite troubled lately, firstly because of the difficulty in recruiting workers, and secondly because of this terrible job market.

With 1500 mu of land, Dongsheng Farm needs at least five or six hundred vegetable workers.

Without Jiangxin vegetable market, they might have had a smooth time using the trade union, easily gathering hundreds of people.

However, the two companies are not far apart and both have local vegetable workers, so they share information and the difference in wages becomes immediately apparent.

Li Jiyong has strong opinions about the wage levels at Jiangxin Vegetable Market, and he does not agree with them.

"Mr. Chen, the current market is terrible. Lowering wages would benefit everyone. Why insist on this?"

“We had pretty good sales last month.”

"You guys were lucky. First you got a crop of snow peas, then you got a crop of green peppers. You can't be lucky all the time, can you?"

"The business model is different. Paying workers high wages is to keep them motivated. If it's only two or three hundred yuan a month, who's going to work their butt off for you?"

"So, the high wages are just to make workers work themselves to the bone planting seedlings?"

Li Jiyong's tone was somewhat dismissive, though as a neighbor he was certainly aware of the situation.

The once half-dead vegetable market was revived in six months, and he admitted that Jiangxin Vegetable Market's planting methods were unique.

But he felt it was mostly just good luck.

One crop of snow peas and one crop of green peppers have both caught a big market, making people green with envy!

However, he couldn't understand the current frenzy of planting Chinese cabbage seedlings.

Can seedlings be planted in the summer?

Can't they see such a big sun? What's their survival rate?

Even if the plants survive, will they be able to break even with current vegetable prices and market conditions?
Therefore, he believes that the high-wage system at Jiangxin Vegetable Market will collapse sooner or later!
Chen Jiazhi didn't argue with him; the salary system was impossible to change.

Dongsheng Farm is financially powerful, investing 20 million yuan right from the start, with better infrastructure and stable markets in Hong Kong, Macau and overseas.

As long as you can grow vegetables, you basically won't lose money.

Jiangxin Farm doesn't have the financial strength to steadily build its business. If it wants to compete with more rivals like Dongsheng Farm in the future, it can only grow rapidly and aggressively.

So even though he knew that 'stability' was important, he still tried to gamble on the market time and time again.

Winning a bet once is a leap forward.

Negotiations with the town and village went smoothly, and after paying the "tea money" (a form of payment), the land leasing work proceeded quickly.

A total of 300 mu of land has been added, which can be delivered after the early rice harvest.

Chen Jiazhi readily agreed to the land rent, offering 320 yuan per mu.

They also agreed to increase the lease by 5% annually during the contract period, for a total of 5 years, and extended the lease for an additional 600 mu for 2 years, with priority given to renewing the lease when it expires at the turn of the millennium.

In 2025, the land rent in the suburbs of Huacheng will be 4000 to 6000 yuan per mu, and it is currently increasing by 5% every year. This contract can be considered as a small profit.

(End of this chapter)