1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 379 I need to call the boss

Chen Jiazhi's mind was racing, and he wanted to go back to his office immediately to call Xia Youche.

However, he restrained himself and waited until he finished inspecting the fields before going back to contact Xia Youche.

"Mr. Xia, where does Hong Kong's summer lettuce mainly come from?"

"Of course, it's Taiwan and the United States. In the summer, the lettuce produced on the mainland is all of poor quality and deformed. I wouldn't even take it if it were given to me for free."

"What about the price?"

"The wholesale price of lettuce from Taiwan has always been over HK$2 per kilogram, and it's even more expensive in the United States..."

Xia Youche sensed something was amiss as he spoke, as both of his questions mentioned lettuce. Was Jiangxin Vegetable Market planning to expand its lettuce cultivation?

He's been getting fewer and fewer vegetables from Jiangxin Market lately, but he hasn't touched the lettuce at all.

Besides the limited quantity, the price is also relatively cheap due to the excellent quality of the lettuce.

Thinking of this, Xia Youche asked, "Does Mr. Chen want to further expand the scale of lettuce cultivation?"

Chen Jiazhi noticed the wary tone on the other end of the phone and sighed, feigning melancholy.

"Yes, Mr. Xia has been ordering less and less lately. He hasn't been ordering much bok choy or romaine lettuce, and he's only shipping three to five tons of choy sum at a time. The market is under a lot of pressure to sell!"
Knowing that Mr. Xia likes lettuce, I wanted to grow more of it.

Sure enough!

Xia Youche sighed inwardly, realizing that both sides would suffer losses.

Tongxingtai has been under a lot of pressure these days. After switching to other sources of goods, customers are finding fault with them more and more.

Almost as soon as the item was replaced, the buyer noticed and immediately called to complain.

It now appears that Jiangxin Vegetable Market is also suffering, with sales affected. So, the battle between the two sides is still evenly matched.

Xia Youche thought for a moment and came up with an excuse: "I can't help it. Other vegetable stalls either have their own markets or their prices are cheaper. Mr. Chen insists on selling at a high price, and I can't not make a profit. In the long run, naturally, my goods won't sell."

Chen Jiazhi chuckled inwardly. If it had been twenty days ago, when the market was bad, he might have believed him.

The current price surge is prolonged and high, indicating a shortage of vegetables in the market.

Furthermore, Jiangxin Market places great emphasis on handcraftsmanship, quality, and packaging, so even if the prices are slightly higher, there is no risk of a sudden and significant oversupply.

However, he still tentatively suggested, "If President Xia can restore the order volume to what it was a week ago, the price is actually negotiable."

"We'll talk about it later, Mr. Chen." Xia Youche, afraid he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation, quickly said, "I have something to do, I'll hang up now."

By the way, the lettuce grown in Guangdong during the summer is of very poor quality; I won't buy it.

Done.

Xia Youche then abruptly and cruelly hung up the phone.

He was genuinely tempted just now.

The fact that Jiangxin Market was willing to make price concessions was too tempting for him.

The vegetables supplied by them have always been reliable, with no problems whatsoever. Recently, some customers who used alternative sources have been clamoring to pay extra to get the vegetables from Jiangxin Market.

Jingle bell bell~
It was not yet nine o'clock in the morning when Xia Youche heard the phone ringing and had a bad feeling.

"Hello, who is it?"

"Old Xia, why are you trying to fool me with this junk? This bok choy is old and has yellow leaves. Where is the kind that comes in styrofoam boxes?"

"Hey, Old Zhu, things are in high demand right now. That market's out of bok choy, they only have this kind..."

After a lot of effort to get rid of the client, Xia Youche wiped his sweat. Before he could even rest, the phone rang again.

"Xia has a car! Is it because I can't afford the price? And you're giving me trashy bok choy again..."

After a few phone calls, Xia Youche immediately called the vegetable market where he was getting the substitute goods when he had a spare moment.

If customers find fault with him, he will also find fault with his upstream suppliers.

However, he initially wanted to be more assertive and start hurling insults, but then he considered the current situation...
"Mr. Ding, please tell your market workers to make sure the vegetables look neat when they're cutting them, and to remove all the yellow leaves!"

The man referred to as Boss Ding said, "Old Xia, I watched the cutting process today. It's already very neat and beautiful. If you still think it's not good enough, you'll have to go buy from someone else."

Ah, this is the taste.

The market is good now, and whoever has vegetables is king, so he found an alternative source of supply. Customers can only complain a few times, but they still have to take the vegetables.

The same applies to his upstream suppliers; he has no worries about selling his produce at the market and is therefore fearless.

Not only do they clean up the yellow leaves of the bok choy, but some people deliberately leave the yellow leaves on and cut the vegetables close to the roots, all in order to increase the yield and make more money.

Apart from the markets invested in by Xiangjiang Grand Market itself, markets with consistently high quality like Jiangxin Market are extremely rare.

If Jiangxin Market hadn't been tricked by him, it could have been living a very comfortable life.

Thinking of this, Xia Youche felt not only sad but also a little guilty, after all, Jiangxin vegetable market had also made him a lot of money.

He did something dishonest.

Perhaps Jiangxin Market never considered fighting for pricing power?
For a moment, he even considered giving up on the plan to transform Jiangxin vegetable market.

He quickly shook his head, trying to convince himself to give up the idea. A qualified vegetable wholesaler should have a wide variety of vegetable sources.

He checked the past data and found that at its peak, Tongxingtai would take 40 to 50 tons of goods from Jiangxin vegetable market every day.

For a long time afterward, they continued to take ten or twenty tons every day.

It has consistently accounted for 60-70% of the total!

It's too monotonous!
If you didn't know better, you'd think Jiangxin Market was invested in by Tongxingtai.

Imagine if Jiangxin Market were to raise prices or suffer a disaster and lose its supply, how would Tongxingtai, which relies on it, cope with the risk?
The damage then will likely be even more severe than it is now.

Therefore, the supply structure had to be adjusted.

He also reflected on why things had developed to this point. The reason was simple: Jiangxin Vegetable Market always managed to enter the market when vegetables were most scarce and when prices were at their best.

I've had bok choy, snow peas and bok choy, green peppers, and kale come here on and off several times.

Few wholesalers can resist the temptation of making money, but Tongxingtai was a bit greedy.

Reducing reliance on Jiangxin vegetable market for supplies is difficult, but it's the only way to heal the wound.

Jingle bell bell~
The phone rang again, and Xia Youche put on a mask of pain.

If only all vegetable farmers had the same self-awareness as Mr. Chen.

On the other hand, Chen Jiazhi could not truly empathize with Xia Youche's suffering.

It's just a bit strange that when he suggested negotiating the price, Xia Youche was in a hurry to hang up the phone.

But there's no time to worry about that now.

Anyway, the stalls are doing very well now, and there's no worry about selling the vegetables at the market. The growth in the delivery business has also made up for the losses from the price difference with the supply to Hong Kong.

Furthermore, they also developed two clients in Southeast Asia, Xue Chenglin and Yu Hong.

Tongxingtai is now just one part of his channel development; having it is icing on the cake, losing it would be a major problem.

Instead, he paid more attention to Italian lettuce.

According to information provided by Xia Youche, during the summer, lettuce from Taiwan is sold in Hong Kong for a price that is consistently above HK$2.

There is also lettuce from the United States, which is much farther away and should be more expensive.

If lettuce cultivation were developed in Yunnan and supplies were made to Hong Kong, it would be entirely profitable even if air transport were used.

There's also an opportunity to try road transport.

Based on this analysis, Dali lettuce has been listed as a development option by Chen Jiazhi for the next two years.

Perfect timing, I'm going to Yunnan again in a few days.

Damn it, kill the Americans!

...

At the Pengcun base, vegetable harvesting continues.

However, the once lush green base now reveals red and yellow soil.

Twenty or thirty workers were also assigned to spread fertilizer, organic compost, which is readily available in Maoming, a major market for winter vegetable cultivation.

However, this also drew complaints from many of the workers.

Applying one ton of fertilizer per acre is time-consuming and laborious, and the effect is far less immediate than that of chemical fertilizers.

Ao Deliang couldn't understand the farmers' complaints, but the outsourced technician You Fei could.

"Don't think it's troublesome to spread organic fertilizer. Only when you apply enough organic fertilizer will the vegetables taste good."

"After the rotary tiller has done deep plowing, don't forget to apply compound fertilizer, 30 jin per mu, not a bit less."

On the other side, the rotary tiller was already roaring, breaking up the soil from the previous crop of vegetables, and making the color even more distinctive.

Looking at this soil, Ao Deliang had a new understanding.

Only by treating the land beneath your feet well can you grow good vegetables.

To achieve high yields and high quality, you need to apply sufficient base fertilizer.

After inspecting the progress of land preparation, Ao Deliang walked to the seedling nursery, where new transplanting would begin immediately.

As we passed a field where people were harvesting vegetables, a worker struck up a conversation with us: "Manager Ao, are you going to harvest a lot of vegetables again today?"

"We're harvesting more every day. In just a few days, we've harvested sixty or seventy acres. These vegetables are selling really well!"

"The price is high. Zhao Lao Er's little over an acre of land sold for four thousand yuan. He'll probably be laughing in his sleep tonight."

"Look how creepy his smile has been these past few days!"

Hearing the same topic every day, Ao Deliang was used to it and casually said, "Don't harvest too much today. Just like yesterday, harvest 3.3 jin. Don't harvest too much."

The villagers were quite surprised.

Ao Deliang wanted to make a big splash, but after his lips moved, he held back.

No need.

Actually, the livestock farmers in the market wanted him to harvest more, so that he could gather 3.5 jin of mustard greens and send them over.

If you're willing to be ruthless, you can cut it out.

However, the plant is still relatively small.

Secondly, if he harvests 3.5 catties of mustard greens a day, even with the current climate, the plants can be harvested in less than 30 days after transplanting, and he won't be able to continue growing vegetables for the next time.

They harvested 2.3 jin a day, and in six or seven days they harvested 3.3 jin!

It's gained 10,000 jin!

That's just too inhumane.

Just then, someone in the office called out, "Director Ao, Li Cai called you again."

Ao Deliang tried to pretend he hadn't heard, but the villagers spread the word.

He had no choice but to go back and hang up the phone without saying a word.

...

“There are no human rights at the stall!” Li Cai cried out in despair, “He won’t even answer my phone.”

Clerk Wen Rong smiled and said, "Who told you to make four or five phone calls to Director Ao this morning? Do you think phone calls are free?"

Li Cai sighed, "If you had listened to me and said that President Xu was looking for him, he would definitely have answered the phone."

"How could you lie to people?"

Wen Rong sensed a strong hint of jealousy and smiled sweetly, "Are the vegetables selling so well these past few days?"

"If it's not selling well, can I sit here and chat with you now?" Li Cai shrugged and said nonchalantly, "It's not even dawn yet, and the stall is already out of vegetables. You saw it just now, customers are all blocking my way."

Anyway, the stall has low priority. Before, only delivery services were above me, but now wholesalers in Shenzhen and Zhongshan can also surpass me.

Wen Rong chuckled and said, "You're really amazing! You sold out dozens of tons of vegetables in a single day!"

What's going on? My heart skipped a beat. Something's not right. This can't be happening. Li calmed himself down and slammed his hand on the table.

"No, I have to call the boss again!"

(End of this chapter)