1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 319 Internal Debt is Not Debt

"I harvest crops every day~"

"Ten tons a day is not enough to sell." Li Cai stopped his bicycle next to Chen Jiazhi. "Every day, it's sold out before evening."

Xue Jun chimed in, "That's right, we can collect more, at least 20 tons."

Chen Jiazhi held a cigarette in one hand, surveying the vegetable field. The shade netting had all been removed, and the vegetable market was green again.

"You guys are too impatient."

"We're afraid the price will drop again."

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "Let's wait two more days. Li Cai has also gone to check around. Many vegetable markets and farmers' newly planted crops have only sprouted a few days ago. We still have plenty of time."

Li Cai and Xue Jun looked at the vegetables in the field and were really craving them.

However, they knew it was hopeless. Besides Chen Jiazhi's opposition, the team leaders below were keeping a close watch on the two of them.

People who grow vegetables are often more concerned about yield than those who sell them, and they are also more likely to understand the hardships of farming.

Harvesting vegetables at this time is a waste.

Chen Jiazhi also rode his bike around for a bit.

The weather has cleared up, and the vegetables in the market are growing very well. Two batches of vegetables are as big as the many teenagers riding bicycles in the market; they'll be adults in just one more head.

This pace is really fast.

As the sun set and it was time to leave work, the vegetable workers went home one after another. Chen Jiazhi gathered the management staff together for a meeting, and the vegetable market established two new departments.

Firstly, the seedling department will invest in 10 mu (approximately 1.65 acres) of steel-framed seedling greenhouses on newly rented land;
Secondly, the research department will allocate a plot of land to establish a breeding research park, and will also recruit researchers to conduct research on machinery improvement, fertilizer formulation, and other areas.

The seedling department received everyone's support, but the research encountered some setbacks.

Yi Dinggan asked in confusion, "President Chen, nobody in the market understands scientific research. How are we going to set up a research department?"

"Recruit people, hire experts to do this specifically," Chen Jiaxian instructed. "Tong Gang, this is your job. It would be best to recruit one or two highly educated individuals or experts."

There's a saying going around these days: "Those who work on missiles are not as well off as those who sell tea eggs. If the pay is high enough, people would be willing to do it."

Tong Gang agreed.

Chen Jiazhi added, "Besides dedicated researchers, other managers or vegetable workers can also participate in improvements and innovations. If they are effective, the market will also provide rewards."

For example, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the Chinese cabbage planter.

And what about water spinach? Could we also develop and design a small planting tool?

When it comes to ditching, no one has ever thought of adding a ditching tool to a mini tiller.

There are many other examples like this that can solve practical production problems; who knows, one day someone might have a flash of inspiration and come up with a small invention.

At first, the group was somewhat dismissive, but after Chen Jiazhi gave a few examples, they felt it was worth a try.

Ao Dehai asked, "Mr. Chen, I'd like to try welding a trenching machine. Will the market reimburse the materials?"

"Report!"

Chen Jiazhi was happy to see Ao Dehai take the lead, as the new land was a paddy field and ditching was a major undertaking.

"In addition, if Huang Chuan wants to develop a ditching machine, he can contact a repair shop or agricultural machinery factory to develop it together. The vegetable market is the best testing ground."

"Okay, I'll try."

Yi Dinggan then asked, "Who will be in charge of the seedling department and the research department?"

Chen Jiazhi had a plan in mind, saying, "You will still be in charge of the seedling department for the time being. I am quite interested in breeding, so leave the scientific research to me."

The meeting then concluded after finalizing details such as the location of the land parcel and the budget.

Chen Jiazhi invited everyone to dinner together.

During this period, Yi Dinggan also organized a summary of daily management and some technical discussions.

This is almost becoming a tradition.

With consistent practice, everyone can say a few words, though most of the time they are repetitive. However, occasional new discoveries and insights can prove valuable after being shared.

After the meal, Li Cai went to the vegetable stall with the car to sell vegetables, while Xue Jun stayed at home and played cards with Chen Jiazhi, Yi Dinggan, and Chen Shaochang.

After playing for a while, I slept until three or four in the morning, and arrived at the market a little after five.

The vegetables at the stall were sold out long ago.

Chen Jiazhi first arrived at the new two-story office building of Kaopu Fresh, where the signboard had already been hung up.

It has a larger area and more complete functions, integrating sorting, office, accommodation and warehouse.

The staffing is also more complete, with personnel gradually being added for sorting, delivery, procurement, administration and finance in addition to sorting and delivery.

Kaopu Fresh's two main businesses, stall consignment and delivery, both achieved good results in June.

Besides the 42.6 yuan from stall sales, the delivery business generated over 80 yuan in revenue, with a relatively low gross profit margin of less than 10%.

The main issue is that prices rose sharply at the end of the month, but the price increases at the retail level did not keep up, which squeezed profits.

However, with prices rising now and procurement costs decreasing, profit margins should increase in July.

The sorting center is on the first floor, and it was brightly lit and busy at the time, with delivery personnel coming and going.

Chen Jiazhi sat in the office for a while, but Chen Zhengxu didn't come, so he went to the market with Xue Jun.

Vehicles continued to come and go in the market, and transactions were happening all the time, with prices generally not low.

In addition to local melons, beans, and vegetables, there are also many vegetables from other places, mostly transported by rail and some by road.

The profit margin on each vehicle will be substantial.

"Mr. Chen, shouldn't we also go out of the province to find suppliers?"

"Yes, the company has also hired two purchasing agents. We can send them out to the production areas to organize supplies."

Chen Jiazhi also noticed that the wholesale market had a wide variety of goods, with the exception of Northwest cuisine, which was relatively scarce, goods from all other regions.

He also noticed several trucks coming from Yunnan, loaded with various vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, and potatoes. Leafy greens were quite rare.

However, Chen Jiazhi also included investing in a vegetable market in Yunnan as an option, at least to include it as a source of goods.

...

Even after daybreak, the trading activity in the Jiangnan market remained high.

As Chen Jiazhi walked through the market, a sudden thought struck him: "What if we only did business during the day?"

Xue Jun hesitated and said, "Vegetable wholesale is usually done in the early morning, after all, it's less common during the day."

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "That might be because the preservation measures are not perfect. Forget it, let's focus on the evening for now."

In addition to refrigeration and preservation, he also considered the grocery shopping habits of his customer base.

Currently, stall number 63 has about two to three hundred customers. Apart from a small number of restaurants and hotels purchasing from them, most of them are secondary wholesalers.

Due to refrigeration and preservation requirements, secondary wholesalers are accustomed to receiving goods before midnight, while purchasing agents prefer to buy goods in the middle of the night.

Stall number 63 could sell vegetables during the day, but that goes against most people's habits.

It's okay during a booming market, but during a downturn it's just stubbornness.

After assessing the market situation, Chen Jiazhi returned to his office and checked the customer base of his stall.

Every day, the stalls would handwrite out receipts, which would then be compiled and printed into booklets on the office computer.

A total of 297 people have bought groceries from stall number 63, but most of them only do so once or twice a month, so the number is negligible.

Another portion are new arrivals at the end of the month, and this proportion is also quite significant.

We have fewer than 100 true long-term customers, with an average daily purchase volume of about 500 to 600 kilograms.

In other words, excluding the surge in prices at the end of last month, the normal daily sales volume of grade 63 is 25 to 30 tons.

It's alright.

However, looking at the notes after the customer section, Chen Jiazhi felt that he had overlooked something.

Factory and company canteens, restaurants and hotels, wholesale markets...

Oh, right, the supermarket!
Chen Jiazhi suddenly realized that supermarkets would also be a major customer group in the future, but there are currently very few supermarkets that sell fresh produce.

In what year was Yonghui founded?

Walmart, Carrefour, and other foreign-owned companies, do they have stores in the country?
Chen Jiazhi was eager to find this information, but after fiddling with it on the computer for a while, it seemed to be completely useless!
Isn't it said that computers are great for searching information?

I can't find anything!
But he knew that there were already quite a few supermarkets in China, and fresh produce would definitely be a key category for supermarkets in the future.

Perhaps supermarkets could also do something about this.

Before the rise of e-commerce, supermarkets were one of the major customer groups of wholesale markets.

Chen Jiazhi asked the administrative department to collect relevant information, and he also found a few newspapers to read.

"Uncle, how long have you been here?"

Chen Zhengxu returned sometime later and poured himself a large glass of water.

"I sat for a while." Chen Jiazhi put down his newspaper. "Did you finish delivering the goods?"

"Not yet," Chen Zhengxu said. "Xiao Xiong is still bringing people to deliver it, and he's already got his driver's license."

"That's pretty fast, I remember it hasn't been long." Chen Jiazhi said in surprise.

Chen Zhengxu sat down. "Besides learning at the driving school, I also took him to practice every day. After he learned to drive, he spent money to buy a license. Xiao Xiong and Wang Lan are quite decisive in this regard."

"Hmm~"

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment, then asked about the supermarket.

Chen Zhengxu spends a lot of time on the streets and pays close attention to these kinds of things.

It is confirmed that Huacheng already has a supermarket, but there is no large supermarket like Carrefour.

There were no shops selling fresh produce either.

Although before his rebirth, his supermarket business was almost taken over by e-commerce, and Carrefour seemed to be on the verge of bankruptcy.

But the supermarket business will be booming for the next ten or twenty years.

Besides, he just wanted to sell the vegetables to the supermarket.

Huacheng doesn't have supermarkets or hypermarkets yet, but they should be soon. He instructed Chen Zhengxu to keep an eye on this information and expand their customer base in this area.

Then, the two chatted about buying a house and building a cold storage facility.

To Chen Jiazhi's surprise, housing prices in Huacheng have actually been falling over the past six months.

"Let's put buying a house on hold for now and solve the cold storage problem first. Ideally, we should buy a plot of land to build a cold storage facility."

Chen Zhengxu said in surprise, "Buying land must cost a lot of money. The company only has a little over 300,000 yuan in its account right now."

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "Jiangxin Market has some. You can lend it to Kaopu Fresh. In short, you can try to contact them first. If it doesn't work out, you can rent land long-term to build a cold storage."

"I haven't even paid back the 72 yuan I borrowed last time to buy a house, and now this is happening again!"

Chen Zhengxu seemed to view debt as a monstrous threat.

Chen Jiazhi crossed his legs and said, "The more debt you have, the more capable you become."

Chen Zhengxu shook his head repeatedly: "How can you say that? Being in debt is a terrible feeling."

Chen Jiazhi chuckled, "You have no idea how high the debt can be in the real estate industry. Two trillion yuan, you know?"

Although he has always been conservative, this is an internal loan between the two companies. He has broadened his perspective and believes that internal debt is not necessarily debt.

Using his two free days, Chen Jiazhi finalized new tasks for both the vegetable market and Kaopu Fresh.

Immediately afterwards, the market resumed producing large quantities of vegetables.

(End of this chapter)