1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 306 Harvesting and Storage
The crimson sunset cast its glow over the rice paddies, and two figures walked across the weed-covered ridges.

"The terrain is somewhat low-lying and it is prone to flooding."

After walking around the newly rented land, Yi Dinggan commented as follows.

Chen Jiazhi said, "Jiangxin Market was originally like this too. The terrain is flat and low, making it prone to water accumulation."

Yi Dinggan: "Is this going to be a major overhaul as well?"

“We should make changes, but there’s no need for major changes,” Chen Jiazhi said. “The costs are too high. The new landlords will plant winter and spring crops, and summer crops will be left to chance. They can plant more water spinach.”

These low-lying rice paddies, without any improvement, are used to grow leafy vegetables, making it difficult to sleep well in the summer.

However, if we were to renovate it, we would be repeating the mistakes of the Jiangxin vegetable market, which would require a huge investment. If you don't have the resources, don't even think about it.

Chen Jiazhi is willing to invest money, but he is unwilling to invest in infrastructure right away.

The early rice won't be ready for harvest for another month or so. After the rice is harvested, the land is taken over, and some land is renovated, it will be August or September by then.

If we wait until September and then steadily grow good vegetables for another six months, the costs should be roughly recovered.

Reinvesting the income from this land is a more acceptable option for him.

After seeing the new base, the two walked back. In fact, this land was right next to the third group of the North Plot, and further west was the nearby Dongsheng Farm.

After walking along the ridges between the fields, the bustling scene of Jiangxin Market came into view once again.

The planting of seedlings is still in full swing.

Ao Deliang's green bell peppers have also been transplanted. The 6 mu planted in early June, and the recent 500 mu plan in 7 days.

All 600 mu (approximately 40 hectares) of land must be transplanted within half a month.

The two arrived at the seedling shed.

Chen Jiazhi inspected the seedling cultivation situation and emphasized that the seedling cultivation work must also keep up.

This all-in bet might not work out. If it fails, we'll just move on to the next batch. Chen Jiazhi doesn't believe the current market is that bad.

There are now enough staff at the market.

In the past few days, due to considerations for the village and town, a new batch of locals have been recruited, expanding the number of vegetable workers to 300.

The newly recruited staff were mainly assigned to the seedling cultivation and packaging stages, and their wages were slightly lower.

The highest-paying part of the market is still the vegetable harvesting, which is also the most demanding job.

The simple greenhouse is filled with a variety of seedling trays, including bok choy, Shanghai bok choy, Chinese cabbage, and romaine lettuce, all of which have a relatively short growing period.

If you only have one type of product, it can be very exciting when you win, but it can also be very frustrating when the market is bad.

If the variety of dishes offered in the past few days had been more diverse, things wouldn't be in such a passive position.

When citizens have enough vegetables in their shopping baskets, they will start to try different kinds of vegetables. As the variety increases, they will also pursue higher quality.
The domestic vegetable industry has now developed to its second stage, offering a wider range of choices.

In addition to Chinese cabbage, other vegetables such as romaine lettuce, kale, mustard greens, and bok choy should also be appropriately developed.

After inspecting the greenhouse and arriving at the cold storage, Chen Jiazhi made further requirements regarding entry and exit.

Do not open the cold storage unless absolutely necessary.

At the same time, when loading vegetables out of the warehouse, priority should be given to loading vegetables that have been stored for a longer time, so as to make good use of the cold storage.

Nobody knows how long the market downturn will last.

...

Dongsheng Farm.

Boss Qu Jingtai, wearing a straw hat, stepped into the neighboring Jiangxin vegetable market like an ordinary farmer.

Last year he paid little attention to Jiangxin Market, but in recent months he and Li Jiyong have been coming here quite often.

One crop of snow peas, one crop of green peppers—how many people envy that?

However, he couldn't understand the actions taken by Jiangxin Market in the past month.

"Ah Yong, does the Jiangxin vegetable market plant seedlings every day?"

"Yes, there are more than two hundred people planting every day. The planting progress is very fast, and it should be finished in a few days."

“Young people are too prone to gambling!” Qu Jingtai said. “Such a way of gambling will inevitably lead to their downfall sooner or later.”

Li Jiyong said, "Perhaps their good luck the first two times made them arrogant."

Qu Jingtai looked at the vegetable workers jogging around in the field and said, "Our workers aren't working fast enough; we need to find a way to improve that."

Li Jiyong said with distress, "There's nothing I can do. They pay high wages, with bonuses and commissions, so the workers work like their lives depend on it."

If Dongsheng wants to improve efficiency, the only option is to significantly increase workers' wages.

“That’s impossible,” Qu Jingtai said. “With hundreds of workers, if each worker’s pay is increased by 100 yuan, it would cost tens of thousands more per month. We can’t raise the pay!”

The only solution is to strengthen supervision and management, keep a close eye on things, and reduce the number of people who try to cheat or shirk their responsibilities…

Li Jiyong curled his lip in disapproval. So, he didn't want to spend money but wanted others to do the work.

After walking for a while, Qu Jingtai noticed the open small arched shed, with the plastic film placed in the furrow.

"It's already June, why aren't you taking the plastic film away? Aren't you afraid it will break?"

For the first half of the year, the main crops were snow peas and green peppers, and Qu Jingtai was unaware of the function of the plastic film.

But Li Jiyong already knew. He scratched his head and said, "The plastic film seems to be used to prevent rain. It's put on before it rains."

"is that useful?"

“It’s not very useful,” Li Jiyong said with some doubt. “Besides the winter vegetables, we only had a batch of bok choy at the beginning of the month this year, but it didn’t sell for a good price, so the output value was just average.”

Qu Jingtai asked, "How much does this type of mulching method cost per acre?"

"The cost of materials is five or six hundred yuan per mu, but the main cost is labor." Li Jiyong pondered, "Covering and uncovering the film is very frequent. It feels like we have to work whenever it's about to rain, so the workload is huge."

I once witnessed them covering the vegetable fields with plastic film. Hundreds of people rushed into the fields like a war zone, and they were very efficient, finishing the entire field in under twenty minutes.
Dongsheng might not be as good; if the mulch is applied too slowly, it won't effectively prevent rainwater from entering.

Qu Jingtai understood that when it came to manual labor, Dongsheng Farm couldn't compare.

Given Dongsheng's current efficiency, organizing several hundred people to cover the plastic film would likely take half an afternoon to complete, rendering it ineffective at preventing rain.

To put it bluntly, it all comes down to salary.

Without high wages, the seedling planting efficiency at Jiangxin Vegetable Market could not have been so high.

Interlocking.

Qu Jingtai was initially intrigued when he heard that the small arched shed could prevent rain, but the act of covering and uncovering it made him give up on the idea.

Qu Jingtai hadn't gone far when he started to return. As soon as he arrived at the market, a manager came up to him.

"Director Li, District Manager, can we harvest some vegetables today? The rapeseed flowers are already in bloom." "Mine is too. If we don't harvest them soon, it will be too late."

Li Jiyong also looked at Qu Jingtai and said, "President Qu, indeed two batches of vegetables have reached their harvest time early, and in a few more days they may just rot in the ground."

"Then let it rot in the ground."

Qu Jingtai gave a reply, then looked in the direction of Jiangxin Vegetable Market. Judging from the planting method at Jiangxin Vegetable Market, the subsequent situation would probably be even more difficult.

It's not a good thing for young people to have an excessive gambling habit.

...

That morning, Chen Jiazhi came to stall number 63 again. There weren't many vegetables at the stall, only about 10 tons of bok choy in total.

The market is so-so, there's no need for the stalls to stock too much inventory. Since we're focusing on high-quality products, we don't need to rely on volume to attract customers.

In the past few days, shipments of item number 63 have been intermittent.

One truckload departs in the afternoon, one truckload departs in the evening, and one truckload departs in the morning.

To save on shipping costs, Chen Jiazhi brought this truckload of vegetables this morning.

"How did sales go last night?"

"Same as usual, so-so. I sold about 9 tons intermittently, and almost didn't even make 10,000 yuan."

"It's okay."

Xue Jun and Li Cai, who were guarding the stall, should have gone back to rest after their shift.

After parking the truck at the stall to unload the goods, Chen Jiazhi went to the distribution center. There were still plenty of vegetables at the stalls along the way.

No wonder the market is bad.

However, Kaopu Fresh's delivery service is still performing well, with order volume continuing to grow and unaffected by market conditions.

Gross profit even increased slightly due to lower procurement costs.

"Jiang Xiaoyan, do you know how to use a computer?"

"will not."

"Oh, I'll find a place to learn. I'll buy a computer in a while, and I need to record all the sales data on the computer so that it can be emailed to me every day."

Chen Jiazhi checked the accounts from the past few days, which were all handwritten, and then mentioned computers.

Jiang Xiaoyan asked, "Is it mandatory to learn?"

“You don’t have to learn it,” Chen Jiazhi said. “I’ll just hire someone else.”

"Uh……"

“I’ve tried it out these past few days, and it’s not difficult. You’re young and you’ve already graduated from high school, so you’ll be able to pick it up quickly. Once you’ve learned it, I’ll give you a raise.”

After a beating followed by a treat, Jiang Xiaoyan immediately nodded in agreement, "But where am I going to find a computer?"

"You'll have to figure that out yourself."

Chen Zhengxu went out to visit clients early in the morning, so Chen Jiazhi didn't stay at the distribution center for long.

Instead, they bought a two-story building outside the market, and the renovation is progressing quite quickly.

The building has two floors. Several walls were knocked down on the first floor, making it much more spacious. It is mainly used for sorting and office work, while the second floor is for living quarters.

Standing on the street looking at this small building, Chen Jiazhi became happier and happier.

This location is really good.

Despite the surrounding fields, if Gangnam Market wants to expand outwards in the future, this is the only direction it can take.

Not to mention there are other wholesale markets nearby, such as Yuexiu and Dongwang, making purchasing very convenient.

When conditions are right, delivery won't have to be limited to vegetables. Fresh produce, in addition to vegetables, will definitely include meat and fruit.

"Drip~"

A car honking its horn incessantly caught Chen Jiazhi's attention.

The car was carrying bamboo baskets of vegetables, and it was heading in the wrong direction, veering into a small alley next to the building.

There's nothing behind that except a river. What's the point of taking us there?
Pouring out the food?

Chen Jiazhi instinctively had the answer in his mind. He followed the car to the riverbank and soon saw it again.

Sure enough, they dumped basket after basket of vegetables into the river.

He didn't go any further.

This river is now jokingly called the "Black Dragon River" because it's black and dirty, and it seems like a lot of rotten vegetables have accumulated in it recently.

A bad market can really affect a person's mood.

Within two or three days, more vendors were dumping vegetables into the river, and piles of vegetable waste appeared in the market.

This is the result of not having cold storage.

If the vegetables don't sell for even a few days, they'll either rot in the fields or in the market.

Fortunately, Jiangxin Market has advantages in quality and packaging.

If the price weren't nearly half again as high, the shipment volume could actually be much higher.

However, with cold storage, we can sell them slowly without having to sell them cheaply, since quality also comes at a cost.

Three days of sunshine, one day of rain.

There was a fair amount of rain, but it was too mild.

The Jiangxin vegetable market still needs to be covered with plastic film. Noticing signs of rain, the vegetable workers rushed to the scene upon receiving instructions.

It's become instinctive.

However, the impact of the rain was weak, so the seedlings in the open field were not easily knocked down, and the vegetable plots were not compacted.

Its only function is to reduce the quality of vegetables under high temperature and humidity, and to make them difficult to store.

Jiangxin Market's quality advantage is once again highlighted, with prices reaching 70 cents per jin (0.5 catties), nearly half the market price.

However, the market situation has not fundamentally changed.

On June 10, the bok choy transplanted at Dongxiang Vegetable Market on May 26 also began to be harvested.

On June 15, all of Yiding Ganbo's 300 mu of rapeseed in stock was sold out.

However, the first 100 mu of vegetables transplanted to Jiangxin Vegetable Market have also been harvested and put into storage, and the inventory is increasing day by day.

(End of this chapter)