1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 320 Lucky
On a July morning, as soon as the vegetable farmers stepped out of their homes, they were greeted by the sunshine and walked joyfully towards their vegetable fields.

It's hot as it is, but being able to harvest vegetables to my heart's content is still a joy.

The tricycles, fully loaded with plastic baskets, were parked at the edge of the vegetable field. The vegetable workers in each group found their group leaders and received their respective harvesting tasks.

Choy sum remains the most popular, with large quantities, good quality, and easy harvesting.

Vegetables like Shanghai bok choy, romaine lettuce, lettuce, and baby bok choy need to be cut into pieces, which is even slower.

But having vegetables to sell is better than having none, as the market's income is strictly linked to whether or not vegetables are sold.

In June, for example, a small number of people earned nearly 2,000 yuan a month.

The average income reached 1,300 to 1,400 yuan, and the high income has always motivated these ordinary farmers.

For the team leader and the weighing personnel, there is also the task of strictly controlling the quality, which requires them to keep a close eye on things in the field at all times.

"This batch of vegetables, grown in line with market prices, is doing quite well; I estimate we can get six or seven hundred tons."

Yi Dinggan walked along the ridge of the field, and Chen Jiazhi walked beside him, saying, "If we can really get six or seven hundred tons, we'll have to celebrate your achievement again this month."

"Ha, stop making empty promises," Yi Dinggan muttered. "We haven't even had the celebration party last month yet."

Chen Jiazhi shook his head with a smile, "Look at how stingy you are. I'll make it up to you once the cafeteria is officially open."

"How can they be the same?" Yi Dinggan didn't dwell on this topic and turned to ask about market conditions and prices.

Chen Jiazhi got excited when talking about this, "Even the cheapest bok choy can still sell for more than 2 yuan per kilogram. If we can produce 700 tons of vegetables in ten days, we estimate we can make another 300 million yuan!"

"Three million!" Yi Dinggan exclaimed. "If this had happened last year, I wouldn't have dared to even think about it. It's more unbelievable than a dream."

Chen Jiazhi shared the same sentiment: "We need to learn to get used to it, which brings us one step closer to our goal of becoming bigger and stronger."

"How big does it have to be to be considered big?"

"At least tens of thousands of acres of base across the country, supporting several thousand people, are needed to be considered large."

"You have to be the one who dares to dream."

“We are getting closer to that goal.” Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment. “I’ll be going out in a few days. You take good care of the house for me.”

"Leave it to me."

With vegetable production and market sales back on track, Chen Jiazhi didn't want to linger there any longer.

He plans to visit Yunnan, Shanghai, and Shenzhen as well.

Only by visiting the places in person can you understand the situation in each location.

This era is wonderful, and he has both the reason and the ability to appreciate the scenery of different places.

The two continued walking along the ridges between the fields. The early morning air wasn't too hot yet. Some teenagers were riding bicycles along the ridges and gravel paths, while their parents were harvesting vegetables in the field.
"Jiazhi, Brother Yi~"

After a while, they met Li Xiu, who was also out for a walk. She was holding Dou Dou in her arms, and the little guy's two white legs were kicking and kicking, trying to get down and crawl.

Chen Jiazhi took him and carried him around the vegetable field, making him laugh heartily.

Li Xiu said, "Look, Dou Dou loves playing with you so much. You just don't spend enough time with him."

Chen Jiazhi lifted Dou Dou high in the air, then put him down. "I'm busy with work, but I'll play with him more when I have time. Look, I've been playing with him a lot these past few days!"

"Well, Mr. Chen, you should go back and rest. Every time you come back, you rush straight to the fields."

The market hasn't been busy these past few days, so Li Xiu hasn't gone out and has stayed at home instead. She has a lot of complaints about someone passing by her house every day without going in.

"Okay, let's go, DouDou, time to go home and sleep~"

On the way home, I ran into Hongzhong again and told him some good news: Dongsheng Farm had officially purchased plastic film, shade nets and fiberglass poles from Youyi Agricultural Supplies.

Based on his conversation with Dongsheng, it's not hard to deduce one reason: the fact that Jiangxin Market was able to resume selling vegetables in a short period of time stimulated Dongsheng.

This ultimately led to the conclusion of this purchase order.

Coincidentally, when Chen Jiazhi came to the market again in the evening, he learned from Yi Dinggan that Dongsheng had come to the market to buy a batch of seedlings.

They've cleared the flooded land and want to plant seedlings so they can harvest vegetables as soon as possible.

Yi Dinggan has not yet agreed.

Chen Jiazhi asked in surprise, "Why wouldn't you agree to something that can make money?"

Yi Dinggan replied, "I thought this would be aiding the enemy, so I did not agree."

Chen Jiazhi said, "When did Dongsheng become an enemy? There is no barrier to growing vegetables. Anyone can grow them. We can sell him any extra seedlings we have."

He knew there were still extra seedlings in the seedling shed, which had been wasted in the past.

"Okay, I understand." Yi Dinggan thought for a moment and then said, "Then could we specifically expand our seedling business to external customers?"

Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, "We can consider it once the steel-framed greenhouse is built. At that time, the marketing department will find someone to be in charge of the seedling business."

The marketing department is also a newly established department. Currently, it has recruited two people, who are mainly responsible for liaising with stalls and Tongxingtai.

After chatting about the seedlings, Chen Jiazhi walked towards the cold storage and asked about today's vegetable harvest.

"We harvested 40 tons of Chinese cabbage, 10 tons each of Shanghai bok choy, romaine lettuce, and baby bok choy, for a total of 70 tons of vegetables."

"Yes, it's well-balanced."

Just then, a tricycle carrying vegetables passed by. At first glance, the vegetables looked very nice.

Chen Jiazhi then asked, "What about the yield per mu?"

"Pretty average," Yi Dinggan said, recounting the approximate yields per mu (unit of land area) compiled by each group. "The highest yields were Shanghai bok choy and Chinese cabbage, about 1.5 tons per mu, followed by romaine lettuce at about 1.2 tons, and the lowest was choy sum, only about 0.85 tons."

"It's already quite good that we can achieve this output given the market conditions," Chen Jiazhi said sincerely.

Although leafy vegetables have a short production cycle, they've shortened it a bit too much.

A new crop of vegetables can be harvested in less than 20 days. Apart from seedling cultivation and transplanting, you can imagine how much effort is saved in the process.

Some of the land wasn't even cultivated; you can imagine how outrageous that is, which also saved a lot of costs.

The output is actually not too low.

With the current price, you could say you'd be laughing in your sleep.

When Chen Jiazhi arrived at the cold storage, a large number of people had gathered both inside and outside the cold storage.

Moving, unpacking, packing... it's definitely a labor-intensive industry.

"Wangji, how many goods have you shipped?"

Tan Wangji was one of the new recruits in the market department. He was in his thirties, had a high school education, and originally worked in sales at a state-owned factory.

"Two more truckloads and we'll be done with today's task. We've delivered 30 tons to the stalls and 40 tons to Hong Kong."

Chen Jiazhi took today's order from Tan Wangji and looked at it; his work was quite simple.

The shipment volume is fixed, and the unit price for supplying Hong Kong is also a fixed amount. Only the stall is a consignment store, but another person from the marketing department stays at the stall for a long time.

Chen Jiazhi glanced at it briefly. He also planned to go to the market in the next couple of days to verify the effectiveness of the current management.

If it's appropriate, he will go out with her.

After learning about the delivery situation, Chen Jiazhi drove to the stall before it got dark.

As he predicted, due to the heavy rain, there is currently a shortage of leafy vegetables in the suburbs, and the market is experiencing a supply shortage.

The timing of the delivery at Jiangxin Vegetable Market was just right, catching the tail end of the market trend.

After finishing serving a guest, Li Caigang smiled and said, "The choy sum is still the best-selling and most expensive, at 90 yuan per piece. Bok choy is the cheapest at 60 yuan per piece, while Shanghai bok choy and romaine lettuce are better, selling for 70 yuan per piece."

Jiangxin vegetable market and stalls mainly sell bok choy, and the price is very attractive.

Chen Jiazhi joked, "Are you still in a hurry? You can't miss this opportunity, right?"

Li Cai pulled out two cigarettes and smiled, "Still in a hurry, we don't have enough vegetables to sell, Brother Chen~"

"The market should be able to stabilize its vegetable supply now, and we should be able to guarantee more than 30 tons of vegetables per day for the stalls."

Chen Jiazhi lit a cigarette and said, "In a few days, I will take Xue Jun to Yunnan and Shanghai to investigate the market and look for sources of goods."

Li Cai exhaled a puff of smoke and sighed, "Actually, I also want to go abroad; I've never been on an airplane before."

“I’ve never flown before either.” Chen Jiazhi smiled. “There will be plenty of opportunities to fly in the future. If you want to fly, I’ll pay for your ticket back to your hometown next time.”

"Haha, it's a deal then!"

Li Cai is not short of money now, he simply enjoys this feeling.

The two hadn't chatted for long before the stall got another customer. Ding Qiao, another employee from the marketing department, was also at the stall, so there were plenty of people available.

Chen Jiazhi then went to the market for a walk and could see that there were still very few local vegetables available.

Most of the vegetables are transported from other places.

He was not familiar with railway transportation, but he knew that railway transportation lacked flexibility and that trains generally had to be booked well in advance.

Even if someone knows about the information gap, it's difficult for someone without connections to ship goods from another location in the short term.

Nowadays, people who can use railway freight to transfer goods are either capable or have good connections.

In addition, road transport has also increased.

Stopping in front of a truck that was unloading goods, Chen Jiazhi remembered what Ding Sheng had said: it would take about 55 hours to travel from Tonghai, Yunnan to Huacheng.

If the people stop but the vehicle doesn't, and the journey goes smoothly, it should take at least two days to arrive.

At first glance, this transportation time seems perfectly adequate for transporting leafy vegetables.

However, the road conditions at this time must also be taken into account. The journey from Yunnan through Guangxi to Guangzhou involves passing through many treacherous terrains. If there is rain or flash floods, it would be considered good if the journey could be completed within a week.

Shipping from Yunnan carries a high risk.

However, judging from the market situation, many pioneers have already taken this path.

Along the way, Chen Jiazhi saw several trucks transporting leafy vegetables from Yunnan.

Mostly Chinese cabbage, with a small amount of bok choy hearts.

Based on the current market conditions, the net profit from a truckload of vegetables is definitely tens of thousands of yuan, and could even be as high as twenty thousand yuan.

"Mr. Chen, it hasn't been long, and you're already serving large quantities of vegetables again. Wasn't your market affected by the heavy rain?"

Zhang Qiren burst out from the stall and lit a cigarette for him. Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "Luckily, God has blessed me with talent."

"Hey, you're really lucky. The place where I get my stock was flooded with cowpeas. The rain stopped just two days ago and all the vines have withered."

"Agriculture depends on the weather."

As Chen Jiazhi walked into his stall, he saw Li Cai staring at him with wide eyes. At home, he always shouted that he was defying the heavens, but to outsiders, he was just taking chances, right?

(End of this chapter)