1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 408 Fatal Blow

The rain was pouring down, and the rainwater flowed down from the steel roof overhead.

In just a short while, the water in the ditch began to surge and flow into larger ditches.

The rain lasted for more than half an hour before it started to subside. Some buyers and tricycles were already impatiently moving around the market, but soon Mother Nature taught them a harsh lesson, and the rain became heavy again.

Amidst this torment, fewer and fewer people entered the market, and most stalls experienced dismal business.

Even at dawn, stall number 63 still had a small truckload of vegetables left, but they had all been pre-ordered.

Li Cai said, "It's always like this when it rains heavily at night. Fewer and fewer people buy groceries, but at these times, the business at the distribution center will see a significant increase."

"The demand for vegetables hasn't changed much," Chen Jiazhi smiled. "With this kind of rain, the market should pick up again."

Li Cai asked, "Won't this affect the vegetable market?"

Chen Jiazhi said, "After I returned from Zengcheng, the vegetable market was prepared and made arrangements. At this time, the cold storage should be full of vegetables."

"I see."

My brother-in-law also prefers to stay in the countryside and enjoys fishing, but he rushed back at this time, which means he must have already made arrangements for the rainy season.

This ability to plan ahead always keeps the company on the right track, allowing it to grow bigger and stronger little by little.

As dawn broke and the rain stopped, the market regained some of its vitality.

The shoppers, who were stuck at home due to the torrential rain, rushed out to buy groceries again.

Unlike stall number 63, as soon as the rain stopped, tricycles began delivering the remaining vegetables.

As soon as it was light, Li Cai went back to his dormitory and lay on his bed, thinking about who he should invite first when he went fishing next time.

Chen Zhengxu also returned to the distribution center, took off the raincoat he was wearing, and found that his clothes underneath were also soaked.

Chen Jiazhi walked out of the office and asked, "Have you been busy since last night?"

Chen Zhengxu said, "No, I went out when the rain subsided in the early morning. Business was good this morning, and we couldn't keep up with the deliveries, so I went along."

Every rainstorm presents both a reliable and precious opportunity, and a test.

It is through this process of refinement that the distribution center has become stable and reliable, enabling it to seize opportunities time and again.

"Go back and change your clothes first, then come to the cafeteria for noodles. Today they made rabbit noodles."

"Have it."

Chen Zhengxu went back to his room to change his clothes and then came to the kitchen. A bowl of noodles was already on the table, topped with a layer of rabbit meat, mixed with bright red chili peppers and green vegetable leaves.

"Come and eat."

"Has Auntie eaten?" Chen Zhengxu also saw Li Xiu cleaning up the kitchen, and guessed that the rabbit meat was brought up from the countryside.

Chen Jiazhi picked up a piece of rabbit meat and put it in his mouth. "I ate it. Li Cai also ate it and has already gone to bed."

Chen Zhengxu also likes to eat rabbit meat; the rich spiciness makes him sweat profusely.

He would occasionally stop to talk about the business growth, and what others avoided like a downpour became a timely rain in his eyes.

The impact of the Dragon Boat Festival rains is far-reaching, with frequent heavy rainfall affecting vegetable production in many areas.

Chen Jiazhi spends his days at the distribution center gathering and organizing information from various locations.

Ao Deliang from the Pengcun base called.

The last bit of chicken heart mustard greens had been washed away by days of rain and had lost their harvest value.

Ao Deliang decided to push the land aside, allowing it to recover and regenerate ahead of schedule.

They also want to take advantage of the summer harvest to expand the mustard greens base and have already drafted a plan, but expanding the base requires money.

This money was mainly earned through the self-reliance of the Pengcun base.

The Pengcun base covers a total area of ​​300 mu, and two crops of chicken heart mustard were planted in the first half of the year.

The first crop of chicken heart mustard produced a total yield of 107.3 million jin, with sales revenue of approximately 320 million yuan; the second crop produced a total yield of approximately 94 jin, with revenue of approximately 270 million yuan.

The two crops of vegetables generated a total revenue of 590 million yuan, a remarkable achievement.

Previously, Chen Zhengxu estimated that the sales volume of chicken heart mustard in the next year would be 1500 million jin, which is equivalent to the yield of about 1000 mu. If this is the case, a new base of 700 mu will be needed.

Based on the previous cost of 200 million yuan for 300 mu, at least 400 million yuan would be needed.

The Pengcun base made that money.

Expanding the geographical base is what is appropriate.

Chen Jiazhi agreed to Ao Deliang's plan to expand the base; he was a meticulous person.

Even in handwritten plans, many restrictions and potential future problems were taken into account.

The base has expanded to 1000 mu, but the area it can affect is much larger than that.

According to Ao Deliang, many farmers near Pengcun are considering planting mustard greens, which may lead to a period of unchecked growth.

Chen Jiazhi said, "Farmers may not be willing to invest, and even if someone is willing to invest, the quality varies."

Ao Deliang then understood what his boss meant.

He can manage the land neatly and beautifully, so naturally he can grow high-quality chicken heart mustard that looks and tastes exactly the same.

Like gold being sifted from sand, only the essence remains, and he will surely be among them.

Chen Jiazhi also did the math: in the first five months, excluding Yunling Agriculture, Kaopu Fresh generated a total revenue of 2146 million yuan.

With the gradual return of payments from overseas, the company has over 1400 million yuan in cash on hand, with 1000 million yuan from the Zengcheng base and over 400 million yuan from the Pengcun base, which is just enough.

But he's still a bit short of getting dividends and bonuses, and Chen Jiazhi is counting on his recent performance.

Jiangxin Vegetable Market.

The new farm manager, Qi Yongfeng, stood upstairs. The wind was howling, and all he could hear was the sound of plastic film fluttering in the vegetable fields, but the rain had stopped.

"If this rain continues, the seedlings in the greenhouse will soon perish."

Team leader Huang Rixin asked, "Judging from the weather, it shouldn't rain this afternoon. Should we remove the plastic film?"

Qi Yongfeng also looked up at the sky. Having grown vegetables for several years, he roughly understood the nature of the weather. It might not rain in the afternoon, but who knew what would happen in the evening. "Uncover the sheds with vegetables, and leave the ones without vegetables alone. Have the workers ready to cover them up at any time."

Due to the rush to harvest, there is actually quite a lot of open space in the vegetable market, but in this kind of weather, it is difficult to have the opportunity to till and prepare the land.

It's easy for it to get caked up when it rains, so I just leave it covered.

Several group leaders also took action one after another.

Qi Yongfeng went to the cold storage, which was filled with baskets of vegetables. At the other end of the cold storage, workers were packing and boxing vegetables.

He couldn't receive vegetables, but he couldn't stop shipping them; the 300 tons of goods in the cold storage were his source of confidence.

evening.

Curly-haired boy arrived at Gangnam Market in a flurry of activity, carrying a flashlight and walking at breakneck speed, only stopping at stall number 63.

"God of Wealth, is everything you get practical?"

"We don't sell wet goods."

"As expected, it has to be you guys." Mao Liangcai handed over a handwritten purchase order. "I called a tricycle to come and load the goods. It will be here soon. You calculate the bill, and I will come over to pay you in a bit."

"Leave it to me, you can rest assured..."

Mao Liangcai didn't hear what Li Cai said at the end; he was busy going to find some vegetables.

With the arrival of the rainy season, many vegetables become soggy, making it risky for him to bring them back to the market to sell. He has to be extremely careful when handling vegetables.

This issue is only not required for file number 63.

How much do sweet potato leaves cost?

"One dollar and two cents."

"It went up?"

Mao Liangcai then realized with astonishment that he had forgotten to ask about today's prices at stall number 63.

So what if it goes up? I'll have to buy it eventually anyway. It's just that his vigilance has become so low.

Mao Liangcai was very picky about buying vegetables. In the beginning, he would wait for several hours in the market in order to buy cheap goods.

Later, after being burned by Chen Cai Nong, he changed his ways, but became even more picky. He would compare the same vegetable from several vendors, a level of patience that most vegetable vendors don't have.

Now, to save time, they don't even ask about the price anymore.

If even he's like this, how decisive must everyone else be when buying groceries?

After buying two orders of vegetables, Mao Liangcai returned to the vicinity of stall number 63. Instead of going directly there, he stood still.

The trucks and people loading vegetables at stall number 63 never stopped, but it seemed that very few people came to ask about prices and buy vegetables.

After watching for a while, he noticed something amiss.

Many shoppers are just as decisive as him, or even more extreme. One man didn't even go into the stall; he just said how many items he wanted in the aisle and left. The whole process took less than 10 seconds.

Mao Liangcai remained silent.

When he went to pay the bill, he inadvertently saw Li Cai taking notes after reading the pager message, so he asked him a question.

Li Cai showed the pager to Curly.

"Exclusive service for long-term clients. Mr. Juan, if you are in a hurry next time, you can send me the order quantity first, and I can hold it for you for a few hours."

Some long-time customers would come at three or four in the morning, but they were afraid of not being able to get their goods if they came too late, which eventually led to the creation of this service.

Mao Liangcai finally understood why stall number 63 looked deserted, yet never had trouble selling its goods.

It turns out the order was placed a long time ago.

That night, Li Cai clearly felt the changes in the market, and his shipments became even more rapid.

After selling his vegetables, he still had time to wander around.

When it got light, I went back to the office and called the vegetable market.

"Manager Qi, we're adding more stock today."

"it is good."

After noting down the shipment quantity, Qi Yongfeng breathed a sigh of relief and stood on the second floor, calling out to the warehouse manager, Wang Hong, and loudly announcing the total shipment volume for the day: 65 tons.

The 300 tons of goods will only take four or five days to process, so there's absolutely no need to worry about them rotting in the cold storage.

He was more worried about when the rain would stop.

It seemed as if God was against him, with rain falling every day, the ditches never running dry, and the air so thick it felt like a damp cotton ball, you could wring water out of it if you grabbed a handful.

Looking up at the clusters of dark clouds drifting across the sky, Qi Yongfeng had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

Another torrential rain fell, dealing a fatal blow to many vegetable farmers.

Qi Yongfeng lamented the hardships of life, but still led his vegetable workers in disaster relief efforts, doing everything they could to help.

Even those that couldn't be saved, he had already made a record of propagating large-stemmed water spinach through cuttings.

Jiangxin vegetable market was not the only place affected by the disaster.

At this point, the key is to speed up the resumption of production. Water spinach is undoubtedly the fastest. As soon as the floodwaters receded, Qi Yongfeng didn't care about anything else and immediately led people to propagate large-stemmed green vegetables.

A storm can ruin a crop of vegetables, but it can't defeat a clever and hardworking farmer.

Reliable Fresh Food, Office.

Chen Jiazhi spoke with Tong Gang on the phone this morning and learned about Qi Yongfeng's response. He was pleased that Qi Yongfeng had made the right choice.

dong dong~
Li Cai walked in and said, "The price of all kinds of vegetables is going up!"

Chen Jiazhi nodded and said, "I notified Ao Dehai yesterday to prepare for shipment, and it will be on the ship today."

Li Cai praised, "Awesome! This batch of goods will definitely make money. It's just that the road out of Lianzhou is blocked, so the vegetables can't be transported out. Otherwise, we could have made even more money."

Chen Jiazhi remains optimistic, saying, "As long as the vegetable fields are still there, the roads will be restored soon."

(End of this chapter)