1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 362 Matchmaking for Yuanmou

"Manager Ding, it's not that I'm unwilling to give you more seeds, it's just that I have no choice. The other seeds are all propagated by others, and they don't match the parent stock you provided."

Although it was a bit of a disappointment, Ding Jianhui knew that he was just indulging in wishful thinking.

"I'm placing an order now. How long will it take to receive the new batch of seeds?"

Chen Jiazhi thought for a moment and said, "Sowing after the Spring Festival will mean waiting until at least early June, which is about the same time for Sijiuxin."

"It's a bit late," Ding Jianhui said. "In Guangzhou, you can plant the Sijiu Hearts in May."

Chen Jiazhi: "It can also be used to propagate other seeds."

Ding Jianhui: "Okay, I'll think about it some more. I'll give you the next batch of contract manufacturing orders after the New Year. We'll discuss the price after the New Year as well. There's only one requirement: the quality must meet the standards of this batch."

“That’s not a problem,” Chen Jiazhi said thoughtfully. “Actually, I suggest you also go to Yuanmou to investigate and cooperate with the locals to establish a vegetable breeding and propagation base. That would be more efficient.”

Ding Jianhui asked in surprise, "Aren't you afraid that the locals will steal your orders?"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "I'm not afraid. Only by maintaining competition can a company be more dynamic. Besides, such a large seed company sells tens of millions of kilograms of seeds every year. What is my little amount?"

After a pause, Chen Jiazhi added, "If you're interested, I can act as a go-between. Well, seed companies from other provinces have already expressed interest."

Ding Jianhui pondered his true intentions but couldn't figure it out for the time being.

But upon hearing that other units were making moves, he said, "I will report to my superiors immediately and wait for the leaders to make a decision."

"Okay, I'll wait for your good news."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Jiazhi comfortably took a sip of hot tea, and now his mind was completely at ease.

It all depends on whether the city's seed company will accept the challenge.

If the municipal seed company can build a vegetable breeding and propagation base in Yuanmou, it will certainly affect seed propagation.

However, seed companies deal with a wide variety of vegetables, which also increases the potential customers for seedling farms.

At the same time, Chen Jiazhi took this opportunity to extend invitations to other breeding units for the same purpose.

The seeds bred this time are like several prostitutes soliciting customers at the gate.

Only the wording has changed.

Yuanmou has a great natural environment, allowing for seed propagation even in winter. Look at mine—plump, round, and glossy black with a smooth, delicate surface!
Hey there, come and have some fun!
This is practically a walking advertisement, but unfortunately he doesn't receive any advertising fees and can only try to make a living by getting some orders from seedling farms.

Thinking of this, Chen Jiazhi's mind became confused again, so he started calling Ma Ming in Yuanmou.

"Director Ma, I am Chen Jiazhi from Yunling Agriculture. I have some work to report to you."

"Oh, it's Mr. Chen."

Ma Ming was in high spirits and immediately began talking non-stop as soon as the call connected.

“I’ve been keeping an eye on the greenhouse vegetables at Yunling Farm. They’re doing well, and the department is writing a report on it. The county is also studying relevant industry policies, so you don’t need to worry.”

Chen Jiazhi: "It's not about the greenhouse."

Ma Ming: "What else could it be?"

"It's nothing major. I just promoted Yuanmou a bit. After the New Year, a few seed companies and research institutions may come to Yuanmou to investigate investment opportunities. These include seed companies from Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, and Guangdong Province."

"President Chen, wait a minute!" Ma Ming's eyes widened in disbelief: "President Chen, are you saying that all these companies are going to invest in Yuanmou?"

Chen Jiazhi corrected, "It's just an inspection. Whether we can keep her or not depends on the local conditions. But with Yuanmou's abundant resources, we can easily get a wife by giving her a small dowry."

There was a few seconds of silence, and Ma Ming seemed to understand what was going on.

"President Chen, you've given Yuanmou a wonderful New Year's gift!"

Chen Jiazhi smiled and joked, "If these marriages go through, shouldn't we give them some matchmaking fees?"

Ma Ming immediately said, "I'll go report to the leader and ask for their arrangements!"

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "No, I was just joking. Don't bother the leader."

Ma Ming said seriously, "No, if we can really bring investment to Yuanmou, President Chen, we should give you a token of appreciation, both out of courtesy and reason."

Chen Jiazhi was amused; the implication sounded quite interesting.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries and hanging up the phone, Chen Jiazhi stroked his chin, feeling that things seemed to be going well at Yunling Farm recently, so he called Li Mingkun again.

Compared to the previous two months, Yunling Farm now only has cucumbers and tomatoes left in the greenhouses.

Daily output has remained stable at seven to eight thousand catties.

The price has only increased slightly, but at 1.2 yuan per kilogram, it is still quite good.

At least far exceeding Zhanjiang and Maoming, winter vegetables in Guangdong this year are generally priced at 3-5 cents per kilogram.

Due to distance and transportation constraints, such market phenomena are quite common nowadays.

Yuanmou is further north and located on a major transportation line like the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, making it closer to the southwest and northwest. This reduces travel distance, and with fewer local competitors in the depths of winter, it's not surprising that prices are high.

Just like the vegetables in the greenhouses in Shandong right now, it's normal for them to sell for 2 yuan per kilogram.

Even ten years from now, such fragmentation in the vegetable market will still be commonplace.

Thanks to decent prices, Yunling Farm's daily vegetable sales revenue has stabilized at eight to nine thousand yuan.

Since November, the cumulative sales have reached 105 million yuan.

There is also income from seed propagation, and the seedling farm has gained recognition among a small group of vegetable farmers.

Meanwhile, the trial production of leafy vegetables is also progressing well and is about to enter the harvest season.

Yuanmou is a bit remote, but the work in the past six months has gone more smoothly than I imagined.

Although we are still far from breaking even, we have a relatively large amount of cash on hand, which should make it easy to support our operations for the next year.

...

Chen Jiazhi was very busy with work before the Lunar New Year.

Because I've decided to go back to my hometown for the Spring Festival this year, and I also have several important plans in progress.

The personnel remaining at each base and their work arrangements are therefore quite important.

However, the bases are scattered, and progress in each location can only be understood through telephone contact.

Kale from Jiangxin Market, grafted seedlings prepared by the nursery for the Lianzhou base, mustard greens from Shuidong, broccoli from Shanghai, leafy vegetable cultivation in Yuanmou...

These are mostly the key business areas at the beginning of the year.

It can even affect the overall cash flow.

Therefore, Chen Jiazhi spent his days making phone calls in his office, understanding problems, and providing solutions or suggestions. Just after he had finalized the sale of leafy vegetables in Yuanmou with Xiang Bin, a merchant from Rongcheng, Xu Wenxiang called again.

"Mr. Xu, what is it?"

Xu Wenxiang: "The Spring Festival is coming soon, so I bought some things to wish you a Happy New Year."

Chen Jiazhi raised an eyebrow: "No need, I'm still young. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up now. I've been extremely busy these past few days."

Xu Wenxiang said jokingly, "Alright, then I won't bother you any longer, Mr. Chen. I had contacted a merchant who was interested in buying broccoli, but since you're too busy, I'll postpone it for now."

Chen Jiazhi: “…”

Next time, could you just get to the point?

The broccoli grown in Shanghai is a cold-resistant and excellent variety from Japan, and it will be available on the market in about two months.

The plan is to grow 200 mu of broccoli. Even if the yield is 2000 jin per mu, that's still 40 jin, so the sales pressure is still quite high.

So Chen Jiazhi chose to follow his heart, "Coincidentally, I also prepared a New Year's gift for President Xu. When are you free, I'll bring it to you?"

Xu Wenxiang teased, "It seems that President Chen isn't busy enough. He always finds time when it comes to meeting clients."

Don't hit someone in the face.

Chen Jiazhi was speechless for a moment.

Then Xu Wenxiang's voice came through, "Tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock, we've arranged to meet at the hotel's tea room."

"Okay, I'll be there on time."

"Then I won't bother Mr. Chen any longer."

"..."

At first glance, it sounds a bit like Chen the Blind.

Blind massage?

Chen Jiazhi shook his head with a chuckle, but Xu Wenxiang has really been doing a great job lately.

Broccoli has a short history of cultivation in China, having been introduced to coastal areas in the 80s, where it has a certain sales base.

However, it is still primarily geared towards the export market.

If you only contact clients at the last minute, you'll definitely be in a rush, and in a rush, you're more likely to be pressured to lower your prices. Contacting them more than two months in advance is a good precaution.

He looked up at the calendar on the wall again. There were only four days left until New Year's Eve, and he had booked a plane ticket for the day after tomorrow.

We had to adjust our plans; the whole family will go to the city tomorrow, and then head back to our hometown the day after.

Thinking of this, Chen Jiazhi got up and went downstairs, intending to inspect the fields one last time before the New Year.

There were still plenty of vegetables in the market, and a wide variety of them.

Besides the leafy greens, the grafted eggplants are also still growing. Some of them don't show obvious advantages in winter, while others can be felt to be extraordinary.

For example, eggplants grown on Yunnan water eggplant rootstock grow slowly in the early stages, but have great potential later on, and the yield per acre in the trial planting was outstanding.

As Chen Jiazhi walked, he stopped again in the seedling shed, where workers were sowing seeds one by one into the seed trays. It required good eyesight and was very slow.

There is still a long way to go before seedling nurseries can truly become factory-style seedling production.

Both fully automated seeding equipment and water, fertilizer, and temperature and humidity management systems require a significant amount of money.

...

The next morning.

Chen Jiazhi and Li Xiu took Dou Dou and prepared to go into the city. Chen Jiafang also got up early in the morning to help.

Xue Jun, Li Cai, Zhou Xiaoxiong and the others had already set off a day earlier in their Isuzu truck from the market. Xue Jun would then pick them up from the airport.

Li Xiu hesitated for a moment before placing several bags of cold-cooked rabbit in the car. "Jiazhi, can President Xu eat spicy food?"

Chen Jiazhi shook his head slightly, "No."

Li Xiu asked in surprise, "Then why send her cold-cooked rabbit? I found it too spicy, let alone her."

Chen Jiazhi: "We didn't have anything else to give, and besides, this is a local specialty from our hometown, which better represents our feelings."

Li Xiu rolled her eyes. "You just have a lot of twisted logic!"

"Alright, what's there to argue about?" Chen Jiafang said from the front of the car. "Once we get to the city, Li Xiu, you can just buy her some gifts."

Li Xiu said, "This is the only way. I should have told you about this sooner."

Chen Jiazhi was disgruntled; this was indeed an accident.

He got into the car and waved to his second sister's family, saying, "I'm leaving, I'm leaving, Happy New Year."

Chen Jiafang instructed, "Drive slowly on the way, and keep a close eye on the child when you fly."

"Okay." Chen Jiazhi called out to Dou Dou, "Dou Dou, say goodbye to your second aunt and your two older brothers."

The little guy smiled and waved.

Yi Dinggan said with dissatisfaction, "Jiazhi, why don't you teach Doudou to wave to her son-in-law?"

Chen Jiazhi handed him his last cigarette before the Spring Festival, saying, "I'm afraid you'll corrupt him. I'm leaving now; I'm in a hurry."

Yi Dinggan: "Take it easy, I'm here at the market, there won't be any problems."

Chen Jiazhi gave an OK sign with one hand, then called out to his two nephews, "Let's go, Xiaolong and Xiaohu, your parents will take you to the city for the New Year."

Yi Hu said politely, "Uncle and Aunt, may you have a safe journey."

Yi Long stepped forward and spread his hands, "Uncle, is there something you've forgotten?"

"I haven't forgotten, it's on the computer desk, one for each of you."

Chen Jiazhi lightly pressed the accelerator, and the square-headed Jetta smoothly drove onto the road.

In the courtyard, Yi Hu asked, "Brother, what did Uncle put on the computer desk?"

Yi Long smiled, his eyes crinkling. "Give me a red envelope."

The two brothers rushed upstairs, leaving Yi Dinggan and Chen Jiafang in the courtyard, gazing at the other end of the road.

"Alright, time to go to the market. We still have to plant about twenty acres of kale today. We're planting seedlings all year round, it's hard not to make a fortune."

Last year they went back to their hometown, but this year they have already planned for the whole family to stay behind.

(End of this chapter)