1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 393 Stocking up
The rain continued to fall, soaking his trouser legs, but Xia Youche seemed oblivious and continued driving.

Almost a year ago, he was one of the first vendors in the market to sell vegetables packaged in foam boxes and ice packs, but now he has reversed course and gone back to using bamboo baskets.

Business is getting worse and worse.

What an irony!
Although Jiangxin Market accounts for a large proportion of the supply, it increases the operational risk for Tongxingtai.

But that was just a hypothetical outcome and never actually happened.

However, the fact that business is now declining is undeniable.

The rain intensified, and the wind howled. Xia Youche gripped his umbrella tightly, his gaze fixed blankly in one direction.

The loading dock there was unloading goods, and the size of the styrofoam boxes gave him a sense of familiarity.

A bad feeling suddenly became very strong in his heart, and he couldn't help but look up at the sign of the vegetable market.

Yonglong Vegetable Market.

One of the three giants of Changsha Bay.

This vegetable wholesaler, second only to Hop Hing in Hong Kong, dominates the wholesale of Chinese kale and has an absolute advantage in this single product category.

However, he felt that the styrofoam box did not contain kale.

Xia Youche stepped into the somewhat flooded road, walking step by step.

Someone in the market was opening boxes to inspect the goods. He could see the vegetables in the styrofoam boxes clearly. There were neatly handmade, uniformly sized bok choy hearts, mustard greens, and baby bok choy.

The more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.

The more I watch, the more uncomfortable I feel.

After working together for more than a year, how could he not know what the vegetables at Jiangxin Market look like?
This is clearly from Jiangxin Market.

At that moment, a salesperson recognized him.

"Mr. Xia, what a rare guest! Would you like to buy some of Yonglong's bok choy? Such high-quality produce is hard to find on the market!"

Another person said, "Anan, you've forgotten that Boss Xia's Tongxingtai sold a lot of premium bok choy recently, and Hexing is learning from him."

Anan chuckled teasingly, "You said it yourself, it was a while ago. Recently, Tongxingtai's products haven't been doing well, so can't President Xia even buy some of Yonglong's?"

“Hmm, you have a point.” The other person asked, “Boss Xia, what kind of goods do you want to buy? How much?”

Having been mocked, Xia Youche was powerless to refute and had no choice but to return home in the rain.

Even if he wanted to ask where the goods came from, no one would tell him.

But his intuition told him the answer.

After returning to the vegetable market, Xia Youche casually tossed his umbrella onto a bamboo basket of vegetables and began rummaging through drawers and cabinets looking for something.

The staff at the stall are speaking less loudly now. With this rain today, business seems to be even worse, and the loss of regular customers is quite serious.

A moment later, Xia Youche produced a cooperation agreement signed with Jiangxin Vegetable Market.

He looked at them one by one. In addition to a strict agreement on price, both parties also made it clear that Jiangxin Vegetable Market could only supply goods to Tongxingtai in Xiangjiang.

Holding the contract, Xia Youche pondered how to communicate and resolve the situation.

...

On April 21, after the rain had stopped, the sky suddenly became clear and bright.

Chen Jiazhi stretched on the balcony and muttered, "It's so comfortable staying in the countryside; even the air here smells sweet."

Downstairs, Li Xiuzheng and Peng Guozhen were sweeping the courtyard together; there were many dry branches after the rain.

"Jiazhi, breakfast is ready. Once you're done tidying up, call Xue Jun to come down and eat together."

"Oh, okay, where are Second Sister and Brother Yi?"

"I went to the market."

"It's a bit early~"

"Being a boss really changes things, huh? You've probably forgotten what daily life is like for vegetable farmers, haven't you?" Li Xiu stopped sweeping and said, head held high.
"The weather is clear today, so we need to hurry up and harvest the vegetables. The cold storage is empty. Besides the demand from the market, we also have 40 tons of goods to be shipped to Indonesia and Thailand."

"If we don't hurry, when will we be able to ship the goods?"

Back in the countryside, after a comfortable nap, Chen Jiazhi was instantly jolted awake by Li Xiu's words; there was still a lot to do.

"I'm here, I'm here. After I eat, I'll help out and experience the life of a vegetable farmer."

At this moment, Xue Jun also got up, saving him the trouble of calling him again.

"Boss Chen, there's no time for you to experience the life of a vegetable farmer. Once you're done with your work, you'll have to come with me to Zengcheng as soon as possible to finalize the base so we can start preparing the land."

"I also have some ideas about the base surrounding the Shenzhen market, so let's go take a look together this time."

"..."

Chen Jiazhi felt a little regretful, as it seemed he would never experience the joy of being a small vegetable farmer again.

When I went downstairs, I didn't see anyone except Li Xiu and her mother sweeping the floor.

"Where are Dad and DouDou?"

"He was taking bamboo shoots from the chicken coop to feed the rabbits." Peng Guozhen said somewhat unhappily, "Those bamboo shoots are so tender, it's a waste to feed them to rabbits. I told him not to listen, and now he doesn't even wear his hearing aid anymore."

"..."

Chen Jiazhi quietly ate breakfast, and then went to the market with Li Xiu and Xue Jun.

The vegetable workers had already spread out all over the market. The white rain shelters had been lifted, and the lush green vegetable leaves were eye-catching. The fresh scent of soil and green leaves filled the air.

Seeing this, Chen Jiazhi nodded, "Suddenly I feel like a market owner."

Li Xiu, sitting on the back of the bicycle, said, "Stop joking around and get down to business. Can't you see the knife we're using to cut vegetables is practically smoking?"

Chen Jiazhi sighed, "Xiu, you're just lucky to have met me. If you were more serious, you would have pointed out which vegetable-cutting knife was smoking."

The market was indeed very busy. Chen Jiazhi wanted to have a chat with Yi Dinggan, but he only gave him two words in return.

No time. Yi Dinggan was also almost constantly on the move, riding his motorcycle back and forth in the market.

Several days of continuous rain have had a significant impact on the management of the vegetable market. Removing the plastic film from the 900-acre plot is a huge undertaking.

Not to mention harvesting crops.

Meanwhile, due to the construction of the Yuanmou base, Shanghai base, Pengcun base, and Lianzhou cooperative base, many of the key personnel of Jiangxin vegetable market have been gradually withdrawn.

Newly promoted grassroots managers lack experience, so Yi Dinggan always needs to fill in the gaps and make up for their shortcomings.

After the vegetable workers were reassigned, their combat effectiveness decreased. While it might be an exaggeration to say that the knives were smoking from being swung, the pressure of harvesting vegetables did indeed increase.

Chen Jiazhi wanted to help coordinate, but he had many other things to do, and Tan Wangji hadn't returned yet, so he planned to go directly to Shanghai.

So he went back to his office and began dealing with the backlog of financial, human resources, and procurement matters.

After meeting people, signing documents, and checking my watch, I was busy for a while when the landline phone rang.

"Hello, who are you?"

"Oh, Mr. Chen is back. That's perfect. I was too lazy to ask someone to pass on the message." Xia Youche was somewhat surprised.

Chen Jiazhi: "Oh, it's Boss Xia. What can I do for you?"

Xia Youche said coldly, "Jiangxin Vegetable Market is selling vegetables directly to Hong Kong, which violates the contract. And you're asking me what's going on?"

Chen Jiazhi chuckled, "It's a wonder you still remember there's a contract. What, you only allow Tongxingtai to vigorously develop other sources of goods, but you don't allow Jiangxin Vegetable Market to develop other sales channels? What kind of logic is that?"

If anyone's going to break the contract, it should be Tongxingtai who did so first. I haven't even bothered you, yet you're picking on me first?

The phenomenon of going back on one's word is common in the vegetable industry and even in agriculture in general.

Therefore, Chen Jiazhi did not pursue Tong Xingtai at first.

However, while he values ​​honest transactions, he doesn't rigidly adhere to the rules, and Tongxingtai has no right to criticize him.

Furthermore, Jiangxin Market has not yet conducted direct transactions with wholesalers in Hong Kong.

"If Mr. Xia came just for this, I'm hanging up now."

"and many more."

Xia Youche quickly called out to stop him, realizing that it was impossible to control Chen Jiazhi with a contract.

"Mr. Chen, Tongxingtai is willing to resume our previous cooperation and increase our order volume. The flow of vegetables from Jiangxin Market to Xiangjiang Market can be stopped."

"Heh, you're willing to recover, but it won't be that easy for me!"

"What do you mean? Does that mean someone else offered a higher price than me?"

“It’s not a matter of price.” Chen Jiazhi pondered for a moment and said, “Let me be frank, I don’t have any direct cooperation with wholesalers in Hong Kong, and I don’t know who resold my vegetables to Hong Kong.”

Moreover, I am unwilling to easily dismantle the newly established market channels. Tongxingtai may not care about reputation, but I care a lot.

Meanwhile, Jiangxin Vegetable Market's export business has been doing well recently, having just received two container export orders from Indonesia and Thailand in the last two days.

Therefore, I have no shortage of market channels, and it will be difficult for Tongxingtai to resume their previous cooperation.

Xia Youche listened in silence, her heart breaking, and she desperately wanted to hang up.

But the imminent crisis forced him to abandon his proud dignity.

"Mr. Chen, considering we've been cooperating for so long and Tongxingtai has helped Jiangxin Vegetable Market make a lot of money, please send Tongxingtai an extra 10 tons of goods every day."

Chen Jiazhi calmly found Tongxingtai's purchase order from a pile of documents.

I glanced at it.

“Hey, Mr. Xia, you’re only taking two or three tons of goods a day now, that’s a reduction of more than ten times.”

Xia Youche opened his mouth, but in the end he just sighed.

"5 tons."

"We can only give you a maximum of 5 tons, and we can't guarantee that there will be any every day. The market has to prioritize fulfilling export orders."

Xia Youche's temper had been worn down. He originally thought that as long as he offered a high price, it wouldn't be a problem to get Chen Jiazhi to change his mind.

In hindsight, it was just wishful thinking.

"Sigh, Mr. Chen, I've really been woken up by this."

"Is President Xia planning to build his own vegetable market?"

"Ok?"

Xia Youche exclaimed in surprise, suddenly having this idea. He thought of Hexing Vegetable Market, which had been established in the mainland for several years and was still the leader in the Yangtze River Delta market.

But now Hexing Vegetable Market is also learning from Jiangxin Vegetable Market~
While he was thinking, Chen Jiazhi assumed he was really going to build the venue, but didn't pay much attention to it.

"That's all for now, Mr. Xia, I have other things to attend to."

beep~
Hearing the busy tone, Xia Youche came to his senses and realized that the best place to learn from Jiangxin Vegetable Market was to build a market.

Just considering the other party's market analysis capabilities, even with Xia Youche's many years of experience in vegetable wholesale, he had no confidence in comparing them.

Moreover, Tongxingtai has no background in growing vegetables, so starting from scratch is no easy task.
How about we partner with Chen Jiazhi to build the venue?

Once the thought took hold, it became completely irresistible.

...

On the other side, after a busy morning, Chen Jiazhi, feeling a bit overwhelmed, went for a drive in the vegetable field.

The company's financial management is somewhat sloppy; it cannot be examined closely or investigated in depth.

Xu Yao, who had been promoted to finance manager, complained to him for an hour or two that the managers of various vegetable markets were all a bit rough around the edges.

However, if vegetable markets and farms want to be quick and flexible, they can't be subject to too many restrictions. They can only focus on the big picture and let go of the small details. In contrast, markets can be relatively more standardized.

In his view, this is a necessary growing pain that must be experienced if one wants to grow bigger and stronger.

(End of this chapter)