1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 434 A Fruit Stall That Meets the Requirements

On the way back to Huacheng from Sihui, Chen Jiazhi talked with Xue Jun about how to do fruit wholesale business.

To engage in fruit wholesale, one must have a market store or wholesale stall, as well as certain connections and experience in the market.

In the past two years, Kaopu Fresh has accumulated a lot of connections. Xue Jun had worked at the stall for a while and was not a complete novice. Moreover, Chen Jiazhi found that Xue Jun had his own insights.

The current lack of information, especially since most fruit-producing areas are located in mountainous regions, gives fruit wholesalers a lot of room to maneuver.

Xue Jun talked about the need to have a comprehensive understanding of the market conditions for various fruits each month, be familiar with weather trends, market entry fees, and to set prices based on the quality and quantity of one's goods and the desired profit margin.

For example, in May and June, when it's cloudy and rainy and the temperature is low, lychees, peaches, plums, and cantaloupes sell quickly, while when it's sunny and the temperature is high, watermelons become a hot commodity.

In addition, one must be familiar with the situation in each production area, including when it is appropriate to go door-to-door to purchase, and how to purchase, among other factors.

Chen Jiazhi was surprised, as he usually regarded Xue Jun as a driver and bodyguard.

He pondered for a moment and found a reason for Xue Jun's change. Xue Jun was often like a brick, moved wherever he was needed.

Xue Jun investigated the late-season cabbage in Zengcheng. When Li Cai took leave to go fishing, Xue Jun would often fill in for him. Occasionally, when the distribution center was too busy, Xue Jun would also go to help. He also participated in the construction of the Yuanmou, Pengcun, and Fanrong bases...

“We are currently short of fruit supplies, but we can do what we do with vegetables and cooperate with fruit agents in the production areas to buy fruit from farmers and then ship it to us.”

"Secondly, you can also source goods from large fruit distribution centers and then wholesale them to relatively small fruit markets, which is a secondary agricultural wholesaler model. This model is quite suitable for high-end and imported fruits."

"Another model is to refer to the vegetable cooperative base in Lianzhou, which involves long-term cooperation with farmers and long-term contracting of orchards, covering all aspects from planting to sales..."

Chen Jiazhi was driving, while Xue Jun continued to talk animatedly, saying that he had been living a very exciting life for the past year or two.

Although he had handled guns, Jia Zhi never treated him as a henchman. He had done all sorts of jobs and visited more and more cities.

The knowledge and experience gained in one or two years may surpass the accumulation of the past thirty years.

If Xue Jun hadn't known that there was a genuine shortage of manpower, he wouldn't have wanted to come out; instead, he would have continued to travel all over the country with Jia Zhi.

This kind of life is much more interesting than fighting and brawling.

Chen Jiazhi understood the three models Xue Jun mentioned and asked, "Which model do you want to use?"

Xue Jun smiled and said, "I think with the strength of Kaopu Fresh, we can try the last option: long-term contracting of orchards and participation in all aspects from planting to sales."

Chen Jiazhi: "Great minds think alike."

This model is suitable for large wholesalers with strong capabilities, and Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun both believe that Kaopu Fresh is qualified.

As for the second model, it is just a secondary agricultural wholesaler. Kaopu Fresh is used to being a primary agricultural wholesaler and is not very good at the refined operation of secondary agricultural wholesalers, and its scale is relatively small.

As for the other type of cooperation, which involves partnering with production area agents, this is the most common model for many small fruit and vegetable wholesalers in the future, and the scale is even smaller.

Moreover, there are significant differences between now and the future. In the future, transportation will be more convenient and information will be readily available, but competition will also be fiercer and risks greater. To make a profit, there can be no mistakes from receiving goods to selling them. One party alone cannot operate the business; cooperation is the only way.

The situation is completely different now. With limited access to information and transportation, even those who sincerely want to cooperate may encounter pitfalls.

Unsurprisingly, both Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun chose to lease the orchards long-term, aiming for a large-scale operation.

The ideal is very good. Although Kaopu Fresh's fruit business is still empty, Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun have already started discussing the specific business development.

From lychees in Zengcheng and Maoming, to tangerines in Sihui, and even tangerines in Baise, as well as blood oranges from my hometown, lemons from Anyue, durians from Thailand, and many more fruits that suddenly come to mind...

Chen Jiazhi felt as if another treasure trove had suddenly appeared in his mind.

Just as night fell, Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun arrived at the office building of Kaopu Fresh.

The trip was made in a minivan, with baskets of tangerines filling the back seat.

Chen Jiazhi rolled down the car window and yelled, "Time to eat fruit, two people come help me carry this."

Upon hearing the sound, Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu walked out of the office in unison.

"What fruit did you buy?"

"Satsuma mandarins." Xue Jun got out of the car first, opened the back door, picked up a basket of mandarins and walked inside. "Don't underestimate these small mandarins, they taste delicious."

Li Cai and Chen Zhengxu also came to help move things. At Kaopu Fresh, there was no rule that leaders couldn't do physical labor, and everyone had some strength in their hands.

Chen Jiazhi also brought in a basket and called out to the sorting workers who were still working, "Take a break, everyone, and have some fruit."

Nowadays, it's not common for ordinary workers to be willing to spend money on fruit, and even fewer have tried slightly more expensive fruits like tangerines.

In fact, like Zengcheng lychees, Sihui sugar oranges have long been a foreign exchange earning agricultural product.

Satsuma mandarins have always been a bestseller in Southeast Asia.

It is only in recent years, with the deepening of market-oriented reforms and the improvement of people's economic conditions, that domestic consumption has increased.

Li Xiu and Chen Jiaying were eating mandarin oranges for the first time. With a gentle peel, the flesh was revealed, and they finished one in a bite or two.

"So sweet."

"good to eat."

Almost every worker was immediately impressed, and then they ate a second and a third. Xue Jun reminded them, "Eat in moderation, or your pee will be orange-yellow later."

This immediately drew laughter from everyone.

Chen Zhengxu joked, "You know so much about it, have you already experienced it these past two days?"

Xue Jun didn't hide anything and readily admitted it, which made people laugh. Such slightly vulgar topics always have a market.

...

It's half past three in the morning.

Chen Jiazhi woke up on time as soon as he heard the alarm clock. When he arrived downstairs at the Spruce Hotel, Xue Jun was already waiting for him in the car.

Chen Jiazhi took out two cigarettes and said, "You seem to be in good spirits."

Xue Jun, with one hand on the steering wheel, said, "A businessman like me, how can he make money if he doesn't work from dawn till dusk?"

The peak season for fruit wholesale markets typically begins at four in the morning.

The two had arranged to visit the North-South Fruit Market on Nan'an Road in Liwan District last night.

Located at the intersection of Nan'an Road and Zengcuo Road, the Nanbei Fruit Wholesale Market and Jiangnan Market are not far apart.

However, the North and South Markets are located in the city center.

Once we got near the market, there were more vehicles, with Jiefang and Dongfeng trucks coming and going inside and outside the market.

Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun found a spot to park their car and chose to walk inside.

The North-South Market is slightly smaller than the South-South Market, but it is a professional fruit wholesale market with more than 250 fruit trading stalls.

Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun came here not only to understand the market, but also to find a stall.

The fruits sold here every day come from provinces such as Shaanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, and Xinjiang, as well as Gaozhou, Maoming, Luogang, and Meizhou in Guangdong Province. They also sell a lot of imported fruits from abroad.

The variety of fruits dazzled Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun; they estimated there were over a hundred kinds.

Because of the wide variety of fruits and their diverse origins, the quality of fruit stall operations varies greatly.

Chen Jiazhi and Xue Jun observed from 4 a.m. until 9 a.m., and initially classified the more than 250 stalls.

The next day, they further subdivided the area into three levels: excellent, good, and poor. Then they went to the market management to apply for subletting of the stalls.

In the 90s, the Huacheng North-South Fruit Market was commonly referred to by northerners as the North-South Big Market.

The word "big" reflects its status; it is currently the second largest fruit wholesale market in the Pearl River Delta in terms of fruit trading volume, second only to Buji Agricultural Wholesale Market.

This also makes the subletting fee relatively expensive, costing 10 yuan per room, but it's just a drop in the bucket for Kaopu Fresh.

Chen Jiazhi pays more attention to the location of the stall, that is, he wants to find a high-quality stall among those who are considering subletting.

It was early morning again, in the car.

Chen Jiazhi said, "There are five stalls that need to be sublet. We'll try to finalize them today. I'm going to Baise now, so I'll leave the contract signing to you."

"Okay, we should be able to finalize it today."

Xue Jun stared at the stalls on the list and said, "Three of these five stalls sell apples, and the subletting is out of necessity."

"Oh?"

“I talked with one of the owners for quite a while.”

Xue Jun pointed to stall number 113 and said, "The owner's name is Li Shenhai. He used to be a traffic policeman in Shaanxi. Later, he went into business and ran a food seasoning business in Pingliang, Gansu for a year. He neither made a profit nor a loss."

The following spring, he transported watermelons from Kunming, Yunnan and other places to the interior of China. He met several fruit merchants from the south and learned in conversation that Shaanxi apples were very popular in Guangzhou and that transporting apples could make a lot of money.

The following year, Shaanxi had a bumper apple harvest, and apples in his hometown were piling up and difficult to sell. So Li Shenhai borrowed money from relatives and friends to buy a Jiefang truck and rushed to buy 5 tons of apples. He went south to the Huacheng Fruit Market, and in less than 10 days, the 5 tons of apples were quickly sold out.

Since then, Li Shenhai's business has become increasingly successful. In 1994, he used the 50,000 yuan he had earned to open a stall in the North-South Market. Last year, business was also good; Shaanxi apples once sold for 3 yuan per jin (0.5 catties) at the wholesale price in the North-South Market.

After a pause, Xue Jun said with some regret, "But this year, Shaanxi suffered a severe drought, and Shandong apples suddenly surged in popularity, causing Shaanxi fruit merchants to suffer a Waterloo."

Xue Jun's account was roughly similar to what Chen Jiazhi knew, but Li Shenhai also concealed some details.

In the early 90s, apples from Baishui and Luochuan in Shaanxi Province were extremely popular in the southern market, and at one point they dominated the markets in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong.

However, when Shaanxi apples were selling very well, the company tampered with the packaging, failed to fulfill contracts, and arbitrarily changed standards, losing credibility and reputation. Among fruit merchants in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, rumors circulated that wolves from the Northwest were biting people.

This year's severe drought has also caused a major setback for Shaanxi apples, whose biggest reliance is on quality, resulting in a sharp drop in both marketability and quality.

This opportunity was seized by Shandong apples, led by Yantai, with Shandong fruit merchants directly proclaiming the slogan "Compete with Shaanxi apples and seize the southern market."

Li Shenhai, a rising star among Shaanxi fruit merchants, has suffered greatly from the decline in the quality of Shaanxi apples. However, this is also related to his own reputation and word-of-mouth. This year, several batches of apples have rotted in his hands.

The transfer of the stall was more out of necessity; the stall itself had no defects and met the requirements of Reliable Fresh.

(End of this chapter)