1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 371 You absolutely have to give it your all
This is so unlike you!

Yi Dinggan raised an eyebrow; it seemed to make sense. Why force his two sons to suffer when they could have lived comfortably?
However, looking at Chen Jiazhi smoking next to him, he felt that something was not right.

"I'll just go sell some vegetables. When have I ever made them suffer without any hardship?"

"If they go with you to sell vegetables, will you let them suffer?"

"Look what I made them do! I told them I made them suffer without any real hardship!"

Three questions in a row left Chen Jiazhi no chance to refute, so he could only leave with the words, "I'm too lazy to argue with you, I'm going to inspect the fields."

"You're not in charge of production, so why are you patrolling the fields?"

"My pleasure."

"Damn, wait for me! You still haven't told me how sales went last night."

Yi Dinggan chased after him, having almost forgotten to ask the crucial question after being distracted by Yi Long and Yi Hu in the morning.

He put in a lot of effort for this batch of kale, leaving no stone unturned in any step from seedling cultivation and transplanting to watering and fertilizing.

That's why we have such a bountiful harvest today.

How much does the kale cost?

"90 yuan per piece."

"Sold out?"

“That’s no nonsense!”

Even though I know it's nonsense, the feeling of imagining it and hearing it with my own ears is completely different.

It's rare to hit a big market trend like this, and that's the kind of feeling that Yi Dinggan craves.

Just like those famous scenes from the past, you'll never get tired of hearing them repeated.

After pestering Chen Jiazhi for a while, he finally said with satisfaction, "I think I managed it pretty well~"

Chen Jiazhi wanted to tease him, "Do you know what I said about Xiaolong and Xiaohu this morning?"

"What did they say?" Yi Dinggan suddenly felt a little nervous.

"I said your dad is amazing."

After saying that, Chen Jiazhi walked away quickly, not giving Yi Dinggan a chance to ask Xiaolong and Xiaohu what their reactions were.

Wandering aimlessly through the vegetable field, Chen Jiazhi sometimes chatted with the vegetable workers and sometimes talked with the team leader.

Whenever this crop of vegetables is mentioned, he always gives a positive signal.

The vegetable market is making money.

This month's commission and bonuses are guaranteed.

After talking with several vegetable harvesters, Chen Jiazhi finally found Li Xiu and her son, who were also in the vegetable field.

The mother and son were picking eggplants, one picking and the other putting them down. At first glance, they seemed to be another one who was willing to endure hardship.

But the smiles on their faces showed that they were clearly enjoying themselves.

...

Hong Kong, Sham Shui Po.

A strong man carried a styrofoam box and walked briskly down the street, eventually placing the box in front of a restaurant.

He then rushed to the next location, dragging a cart, and took the elevator to deliver several boxes of vegetables to the hotel kitchen.

Judging from his agile movements, you would never guess that he is almost 60 years old.

His name is Yuanfeng, a delivery driver for Tongxingtai, and he is rushing to deliver goods.

Following the planned route, he delivered several more orders and arrived at yet another customer's shop. However, he was scolded for being late, and Yuanfeng couldn't contain his anger.

He drove back to the market, went straight to Xia Youche, slammed his fist on the table, and said, "Boss Xia, I quit. Find someone else!"

Xia Youche was looking at the accounts when he was suddenly startled. He was even more surprised when he heard that Yuanfeng had quit.

"What's wrong, Lao Yuan? Haven't I treated you well?"

"Do you really think I'm an honest person? With so much cargo now, besides exploiting me, can't you hire someone else to help with the delivery?"

Xia Youche saw the sweat on his body and understood what had happened.

"Old Yuan, I've already asked Yangyang to hire more people. Just hold on for a couple more days, and soon someone will come to help you out."

"I can't take it anymore!"

Yuan Feng said angrily, "You said you were recruiting, but so many days have passed and there's not a trace of you. Do you know how many orders I have to deliver every day?"
I was practically running to get here, my legs were practically burning from all the running, I couldn't afford to waste a single second, but I still ended up with three orders late today, how am I supposed to make up for it?

Xia Youche frowned slightly, but still took out a cigarette. "Here, Lao Yuan, have a smoke to calm down. Don't say anything like quitting. At your age, it won't be easy to find a job."

Yuanfeng: "It's better than working myself to death here!"

Xia Youche continued to mediate with a smile: "How about this, I'll handle the recruitment myself, and there won't be a fine for being late today. Also, I'll give you some of the orders tomorrow, is that alright?"

After smoking for a while, Yuanfeng gradually calmed down.

He really didn't know what to do after losing this job. After Xia Youche persuaded him a couple more times, he agreed to stay at Tongxingtai.

Damn, how come the business is getting better and better with such a stingy boss?
Xia Youche didn't go to find Xia Yang. He knew what kind of person his son was and guessed he was out fooling around again.

He then stared at the accounts.

Tongxingtai's business has been booming over the past year, which is also the key reason for the increase in delivery orders.

But it also made him very wary.

Tung Hing Tai mainly supplies markets in Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po, offering a wide variety of products.

Over the past year, the number of customers specializing in leafy vegetables has steadily increased, while the number of existing customers has remained stable, but many new customers have emerged.

Most of these new clients proactively approached Tongxingtai when market conditions changed.

The rate of increase has been stable in the past.

Yesterday afternoon, the kale, which had been in the works for half a month, finally hit the market, reigniting the market and driving up the number of new customers.

These people successfully purchased kale, and the quality was excellent, top-notch.

Both new and old customers were very satisfied. Xia Youche was also hard to be dissatisfied with; he estimated that this batch of kale would bring in substantial profits.

However, the page about suppliers remained a thorn in his side.

"It's Jiangxin Market again~"

"How come you always manage to run into me?"

Jiangxin Vegetable Market is now Tongxingtai's main supplier of leafy vegetables. The vegetables are of stable quality, with uniform packaging, and rarely receive negative reviews.

This is naturally a good thing.

However, Xia Youche felt that Jiangxin Vegetable Market had too strong a presence in Tongxingtai!

Now, Chinese kale is all the rage again.

If things continue like this, I'm afraid that he and Xingtai will have to rely on Jiangxin Vegetable Market instead.

This is truly a reversal of the Heavenly Stems!
There's a secret passage for vehicles in the summer; we absolutely cannot let this happen.

what can we do about it?

Should we buy less of our produce from Jiangxin Market?
No way! Chinese kale is so popular right now, it would be a fool not to make money from it!
Choy sum?

No, that won't work either. The bok choy at Jiangxin Market is the best quality at the market, and the market price is good. Taking less bok choy would be both hurtful and expensive.

After much thought, I decided to start with bok choy and romaine lettuce, but the quantity was already limited.

We can only wait and see.

Once this batch of kale is sold out, we must reduce the amount we buy from Jiangxin Market!
Hong Kong wholesalers are now relying on vegetable growers in mainland China. Damn, if word got out, their competitors would laugh at them.

...

Li Cai waited and waited, and finally Yi Dinggan came back to his office to answer the phone.

"Manager Yi, can we ship an extra 5 tons of kale today?"

Yi Dinggan: "Can't hold on any longer?"

"Yes, an important client is clamoring for more goods."

“How can young people not do it? They have to persevere even if they can’t handle it.” Yi Dinggan teased, “What did you say to me last time? Were you worried that we wouldn’t be able to sell all 400 acres of kale in a short time?”

"..."

How petty of you to remember such details!
However, Li Cai was indeed in the wrong.

“Your judgment is more accurate. If you hadn’t withstood the pressure and shipped the goods last time, you would be losing a lot of money now.”

In a short period of time, the price of Chinese kale rose from 2.2 yuan per kilogram to more than 3 yuan. If it is sold early, one or two thousand yuan will be lost per mu.

Li Cai added, "But the price is already about right now, it's hard to go up further, and the risk is too high to delay it."

"Yes, the market is already organizing people to load the trucks."

Li Cai almost thought he had misheard, then checked again, wondering why he was suddenly so easy to talk to.

Yi Ding chuckled dryly, "We vegetable farmers have to be ready to leave the table even when betting on the market. Let's keep in touch these next few days. Even if you need vegetables in the middle of the night, I can arrange for someone to deliver them."

Li Cai, a rational gambler, thought to himself, "Alright, let's go drinking another day!"

At this point, Chinese kale had been on the market for five or six days, but its popularity showed no signs of waning.

We can sell as much as we ship each day, with no surplus at all.

However, even though most of the kale has been harvested and stored, the market is controlling the amount shipped out.

"With these 5 tons, we've produced about 300 tons of kale, but there should still be 300 tons left in the cold storage and vegetable fields!"

Yi Dinggan was somewhat excited, "Jiazhi, this time you've really pulled off something big again!"

He was also very excited about the yield of this batch of kale, even more so than the market price.

If Chen Jiazhi's market assessment is accurate, then the production output is entirely a result of his solid management performance.

Chen Jiazhi was also in his office looking at the latest sales figures.

In short, the sales of vegetables at the market are rising steadily, with daily sales once again exceeding 30 yuan.

"Don't be so smug. Even the two dogs at home know you're happy these past few days, and they'll be happy to follow you around."

"Haha, it's a rare opportunity to meet like this, I'll get back to work now~"

Just looking at Yi Dinggan's back, Chen Jiazhi felt a sense of triumph.

He then looked down at the sales report.

"Tongxingtai has continuously reduced its purchases of bok choy and romaine lettuce. Logically, given the current market conditions, they shouldn't be reducing their orders."

"Furthermore, with the price of Chinese kale rising in Yihe Xia, he seems to be restraining his desire to buy more."

"Is he up to something again?"

Thinking about his conversation with Xia Youche over the past two days, Chen Jiazhi tried to figure out the other party's mindset.

It's perfectly normal for vegetable farmers and wholesalers to have conflicts; the ideal situation is for both to earn a reasonable profit.

When the market is good, vegetable farmers will make some concessions to leave more profit for wholesalers;

When there is a glut, wholesalers will also lose some money to help sell the goods so that vegetable farmers don't go bankrupt.

However, the current situation is that wholesalers use information asymmetry to drive down prices, and farmers are always ready to break contracts when the market is good; neither of them are easy to deal with.

The market for Chinese kale is currently good, giving the vegetable market an advantage, but in reality, Chen Jiazhi is controlling the price increases at the market.

The price of Xiangjiang kale has long exceeded 5 yuan per jin, but the price at Jiangxin Vegetable Market has remained at 3.5 yuan per jin.

Gross profit margin far exceeds 40%.

However, the market has been mediocre for the past six months, and Tongxingtai hasn't caused any trouble. They've been consistently taking delivery, so Chen Jiazhi considers this compensation to Tongxingtai.

However, now that the price of Xiangjiang kale has risen to 6 yuan, if I raise the price, you'll be scheming.

Although it eventually went up, it was somewhat reluctantly so.

Chen Jiazhi estimated that Xia Youche would make another move, and coincidentally, he had many cards to play this year.

Mr. Xia, you absolutely have to give it your all!
(End of this chapter)