1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 423 Crisis and Opportunity

Xia Youche's call made Chen Jiazhi feel very comfortable. He ate the pear in his hand and found it more and more delicious. After a few bites, only a little bit of the core was left.

Li Xiu, with Dou Dou listening nearby, joked, "I thought you were going to eat the fruit pit too."

"I'm not stupid." Chen Jiazhi accurately tossed the fruit pit into the trash can not far away.

Dou Dou clapped excitedly on the side, and Chen Jiazhi wiped his hands and gently flicked his face.

"Her skin is so fair and tender."

Li Xiu slapped his hand away, saying, "You're just being nosy, don't touch his face like that."

Chen Jiazhi laughed and said, "Then let me touch yours. DouDou's skin is like yours, white and tender, but it's still not as tender as yours."

Li Xiu rolled her eyes at him, "You've been so irresponsible ever since you came back. If you have nothing to do, you go to the fields to inspect the crops. In another two or three days, we'll have a batch of bok choy to harvest."

The choy sum is different from the late-season choy sum. The weather in Zengcheng in September is also suitable for the growth of the choy sum in September, and a growing period of one month is enough.

Chen Jiazhi said, "No, I came back to see you. If I go to the fields too often, Boss Yi will say that I don't trust him."

Li Xiu slapped Chen Jiazhi's hand away again, saying, "My son is watching here."

Chen Jiazhi said, "I didn't do anything, I just touched his face. Look how happy he is. Son, come here, give your mom a kiss, and then you can sleep with your grandma tonight, okay?"

Dou Dou still giggled and pounced over. Li Xiu said, "It's strange, he likes to laugh and move around when he's with you."

"Because I love taking him out to play."

Chen Jiazhi arrived at the door and, seeing that the sun had already set, turned back and said, "Come on, let's go for a walk together."

Li Xiu said, "Didn't we say we wouldn't go to inspect the fields?"

Chen Jiazhi: "I won't patrol the fields, I'll just accompany you for a walk. Look how nice the environment is now, you can't see this in the city."

"troubled you."

"fine."

"I said, it's kind of you to still think of walking with us."

"..."

After leaving the office, Li Xiu went home and called Peng Guozhen out with her. When Peng Guozhen heard that it was Jia Zhi calling them, he chuckled and closed the door before coming out.

The rented house was in a small town. The houses in the town were quaint and charming. Not far away, we arrived at the farmland.

You can see your own vegetable garden from a distance; the green vegetable patches stretch out to the riverbank and the foot of the mountain.

The vegetable fields were bustling with activity: sowing, watering, thinning seedlings, weeding...

From an outsider's perspective, it would be a beautiful pastoral scene.

After walking for a while, the two bear dogs living in the vegetable garden management house also joined the walk.

Dou Dou was tired from walking, so Chen Jiazhi picked her up and carried her on his shoulders.

DouDou was both excited and scared. Her hands first gripped Chen Jiazhi's ears tightly, then turned into her hair.
Chen Jiazhi couldn't help but recall a scene he had seen in his previous life, where his father had taken his grandson to the market in the same way.

Now he has inherited it, and he has never been this close to his son in his previous life.

In his previous life, when Dou Dou was just born, he found it troublesome and pushed all the burdens onto Li Xiu and his second sister.

Later, my second sister took Dou Dou back to her hometown, and they rarely saw each other more than once every year or two.

Thinking of this, Chen Jiazhi looked back at Li Xiu and his mother, and asked again, "Dou Dou, is it fun? Do you want to get down and walk by yourself?"

"Fun, so much fun!"

"Then scratch your ear gently."

DouDou didn't care. She just felt that sitting on her father's shoulders made everything look new and exciting, but she was also very scared. She could only hold on tightly to whatever she could grab.

"Gently, gently~"

Chen Jiazhi kept adjusting his posture. He thought his father could do this "stirrup" so easily, but why was it so painful for him to do it himself?

Li Xiu and Peng Guozhen couldn't help but laugh as they watched Chen Jiazhi pleadingly take care of the child.

They walked all the way to the riverbank, where Dad was fishing again with the bamboo fishing rod that Yi Dinggan had made.

Chen Jiazhi was then able to put Dou Dou down and go to look at the fish in the bucket. He had caught several, but they were all small fish.

Chen Shaochang asked in bewilderment, "Why did they all come out?"

Peng Guozhen said, "Your whole family came to watch you fish, and you're still unhappy. You should catch more fish."

Chen Shaochang continued watching the float and said, "With your commotion, all the fish will be scared away. What's the point of fishing then?"

After watching for a while without catching any fish, the group lost interest and continued walking.

An occasional gentle breeze makes those working or taking a walk feel extremely comfortable.

When they walked back, Chen Shaochang followed along, and Dou Dou sat on her father's shoulders again.

Chen Jiazhi walked behind, observing.

Dad has a buzz cut, and his hair is already a bit gray. DouDou can't grab his hair, so she can only grab his ears.

But DouDou would occasionally dare to let go of her hands, or gently place her hands on her father's head.

After watching for a few more minutes, Chen Jiazhi discovered the trick: his father walked very steadily, and even when he was occasionally hurt by a scratch, he still walked very steadily without any ups and downs.

After a while, DouDou felt safe and naturally stopped using so much force.

After arriving home, my mother and Li Xiu began preparing a meal.

Li Xiu had been in charge of personnel work for a while, but as her residence changed, this responsibility faded away.

Aside from actual farm work, Li Xiu felt intimidated by any written work.

Chen Jiazhi didn't arrange any other work for her, so she could do what she liked and learn slowly.

Yi Long and Yi Hu, the two students, also returned home from school. The two families rented houses next to each other, sharing a courtyard, and they still ate together. At this moment, the two brothers were doing their homework, very conscientiously.

Because Yi Dinggan would come back to check on them from time to time, if the two of them were not studying, they would be sent to the fields to do farm work.

This was Chen Jiazhi's suggestion in private, and Yi Dinggan adopted it. In his previous life, he had let Yi Long play with it for several years.

Now, perhaps feeling a sense of hope or sensing the potential for outstanding students in the family, they have given the two brothers an epic boost in their education.

Chen Jiazhi also looked at the homework written by Yi Long and Yi Hu, and both of them had made great progress.

He praised the two of them and told them to keep it up.

As long as they can concentrate on their studies, given their current family circumstances, they can study for as long as they want.

It wasn't until dark, after dinner was prepared, that Yi Dinggan and Chen Jiafang returned together.

Yi Dinggan's face showed no signs of fatigue; on the contrary, he was radiant. As soon as he entered the door, he told Chen Jiazhi that they were going to harvest vegetables on a large scale and put them on the market before National Day.

Of the 3000 mu of land, 300 mu will be used to transplant late-season bok choy, while the other 2700 mu will be planted with various leafy vegetables.

According to Yi Dinggan's plan, approximately 60 to 70 mu of various leafy vegetables were sown every day in the early stages.

The variety is also much richer, including choy sum, kale, lettuce, romaine lettuce, Shanghai bok choy, baby bok choy...

It covers almost all the mainstream leafy vegetable varieties.

However, once harvesting begins, the daily yield can reach 70 to 100 tons, and the daily yield will only decrease when the temperature drops in mid-to-late October and cold-resistant varieties are gradually replaced.

This really tests your sales skills.

Chen Jiazhi poured wine for Yi Dinggan and his parents, and said, "Don't worry about sales, we can handle 100 tons of vegetables."

Yi Dinggan asked, "Chicken heart mustard is also on the market now. With the addition of Jiangxin vegetable market, the daily vegetable supply must be 160 to 170 tons, which can last for at least 20 days."

"Is there that much food?"

In families where people grow vegetables, the topic of growing vegetables is always a frequent topic of conversation at the dinner table.

But upon hearing the number, the family members were taken aback.

Chen Jiazhi said, "There are at least 5000 mu of land. Is it strange that we have this kind of output?"

"Where are you going to find 5000 mu of land?"

As soon as Li Xiucai asked the question, he was slightly taken aback, as if there really was a 5000-mu base.

Yi Long and Yi Hu also started calculating their accounts.

3000 mu in Zengcheng + 900 mu in Jiangxin vegetable market + 1000 mu in Pengcun base, that's 4900 mu.

"There's also the prosperous vegetable market, and we have cooperative bases in Lianzhou as well."

"This is more than 5000 mu of land."

The more they calculated, the more surprised they became. Peng Guozhen murmured, "How did this become a big landowner?"

After calculating the area, whether the vegetables could be sold out became a point of concern for everyone.

Chen Jiazhi also felt pressure, but he still appeared very confident in front of his family, and talked about the sales channel consisting of stalls, distribution, supply to Hong Kong and exports.

It was a pleasant meal.

After the meal, Yi Dinggan took Chen Jiazhi outside for a walk under the pretext of smoking.

The moon is very round tonight, hanging in the night sky, as if it is bewitching the soul.

Yi Dinggan said, "I heard from Yongfeng that you have been deliberately suppressing the vegetable market's export orders recently."

"Yes, that's true. The main issue is controlling exports to Southeast Asia; I'm worried about not getting paid."

Chen Jiazhi was well aware that the company still faced sales pressure; after all, 160 tons of vegetables a day was no easy number.

But the risks of exporting to Southeast Asia do exist, and he feels this increasingly strongly.

Yi Dinggan initially wanted to offer some advice, but upon hearing that the money might not be recovered, he fell silent.

He didn't even bother to ask why; Jia Zhi had already proven his keen sense of smell with facts.

Will those vegetables sell out?

“No problem.” After thinking for a moment, Chen Jiazhi added, “But don’t rush to harvest the vegetables at the beginning. Communicate with the market and give them a buffer.”

"learn."

The two stood in the courtyard watching the moon, enjoying a moment of tranquility.

With National Day just days away and the Mid-Autumn Festival falling before it, Chen Jiazhi postponed his trip to Yuanmou by a few days.

Vegetable farmers rarely enjoy the joy of holidays; holidays are their busiest time.

The current short holidays are just the beginning. In two years, with the addition of the May Day and National Day holidays, this trend will become more pronounced, and vegetable prices will surge every May Day and National Day.

Chen Jiazhi still remembers writing down this important information in his notebook.

Looking back now, the government extended holidays every two years in order to boost consumption and stimulate the economy.

Considering the current booming economy in Southeast Asia and the thriving export situation of Chinese vegetables to Southeast Asia, Chen Jiazhi became increasingly convinced that this trend was unsustainable.

Southeast Asian countries now have imports far exceeding exports, and their trade deficits continue to widen. They can only rely on borrowing foreign debt, which mainly flows into real estate and the stock market.

This is roughly equivalent to a family whose income is far less than their expenses, living on loans and credit cards, and who will inevitably face financial ruin sooner or later.

At that time, Southeast Asian economies may face serious problems, with exchange rates plummeting, which would then affect domestic exports and the economy. This is why China extended the holiday to boost consumption and expand domestic demand.
Vegetable exports to Southeast Asia are booming right now, but the situation could reverse at any time.

As Chen Jiazhi gazed at the moon, his eyes grew deeper.

At this moment, all the information came together, making him even more certain of his judgment.

This is a crisis, but if we can withstand the hardship, it may also be an opportunity.

(End of this chapter)