Twenty years of cold chain

The prolonged delay in finalizing the fishing port logistics zone has gradually caused concern within the industry. The longer the battle lines are drawn out, the less favorable it is for companies from various regions to move in. However, people can only wait and see, powerless to stop the dozen or so giants that are aggressively moving in as a group.

The conflict at Panhu Fishing Port actually stems from two different cold chain transportation models. A dozen large companies are pursuing a "palletized distribution" model, focusing on turning Panhu Fishing Port into a super-large wholesale market for production areas, while the influx of numerous companies operating in the open-air style has transformed the fishing port into a large-scale aquatic product trading base.

It sounded like a good model, but it was quickly rejected by Hu Shutong.

Why are fish so expensive? Besides the distance, it's also because there are so many middlemen. Around the turn of the millennium, the fishing port economic zone was still a series of fishing villages. For example, if fish from Panhu Lake were to reach the tables of the people of Mingjiang, people from the county would have to buy fish from big merchants in the city, big merchants in the city would have to buy fish from Panhu City, and big merchants in Panhu would have to buy fish from the seaside.

With at least three resales and three price differences, plus high cold chain transportation costs and much artificial speculation, the price of a pound of fish can increase at least three or four times from the seaside to the dining table.

Furthermore, the lack of refrigerated transportation over the years has made fish hoarding a long-standing habit, and even though the cold chain has improved significantly today, this habit remains unchanged. When middlemen in the distribution channels have fish, their first reaction is not to quickly sell them in the market, but to hoard them and wait and see until the market price reaches the expected level or a major holiday arrives before releasing the fish.

If it remains a purely wholesale market at the place of origin and does not allow more businesses to get involved, this situation will continue and will lead to more and more layers of intermediaries.

In Hu Shutong's vision, the fishing industry on Panhu Lake would be like a hundred boats racing, with each enterprise acting as a vessel setting sail from here to transport the fish to more specialized markets. Just as he described in his previous planning proposal, there would be no cold storage facilities between the local people and the fishing port.

Without large-scale storage, artificial price control will be significantly reduced, placing the largest cargo owners in Panhu. Furthermore, with more companies participating, the timeliness of fish supply in the market will increase, weakening the hidden price leverage and naturally lowering prices. Some might ask, this inevitably leads to reduced profits for companies; which company would be willing to do such a thing?

This is precisely the focus of Hu Shutong's next argument: a comparison of the costs, profits, and final market prices between purchasing fish at the fishing port and sourcing fish from upstream suppliers. He will also demonstrate, for small and medium-sized enterprises that hoard fish, how much their profits can increase by reducing one warehousing step.

Hu Shutong was preoccupied with many related matters. Successfully conducting this demonstration would serve as a model for the cold chain logistics zone. In his view, the reason why Guo Xiangxu and the expert group were repeatedly deadlocked was that the so-called debates were all "empty arguments." One side spoke in a disorganized manner, and the other side blocked the channels. It was a matter of each side being sharper and sharper, which was completely meaningless.

Over the years, Hu Shutong's principles have never changed. No matter how eloquent one's words are, they cannot compete with real data. Once some things are calculated, they need no embellishment and no explanation.

If this matter is successful, the southern suburbs will also be connected to Panhu Fishing Port. No matter what happens in the process, it will not be considered a breach of promise by Qi Zhendong. The Yuncheng Transfer Center can then be put on the agenda. This is a great benefit that Tongxing cannot miss.

This also aligns with a recent discussion I had with my teacher about our alliance. This model can bring together more peers, and more emerging cold chain companies like Tongxing that have caught up with the exciting times but lack a solid foundation. Starting from a single point, we can expand to a wider scope, using tangible business to bridge the gap between our peers.

Hu Shutong doesn't seek a large-scale impact; he only hopes to make more colleagues realize the necessity of working together and to do their best, like his teachers and many scholars who have spared no effort in integrating the industry.

It is a consensus among practitioners and experts that the cold chain is lagging behind the times, but starting late is never an excuse. In this era of great rise, every industry faces challenges and difficulties.

Every industry should strive for excellence and make its mark!

Thinking of this, Hu Shutong was filled with energy.

This is an exceptionally complex matter, more complex than any plan Hu Shutong has ever undertaken before. Unlike specialized projects like cold storage planning, it involves data from all aspects of the cold chain, and the data must be authoritative.

But he is confident that he can do this well because he has many people around him who he can rely on.

Hu Shutong first called Luan Pingxin. In addition to its own data, Baileng also has a huge database of competitor information. From Baileng, one can obtain energy consumption data that covers almost the entire refrigeration equipment industry. This energy consumption data can be converted into monetary value.

Next, he obtained the core big data of Daye from Li Zhou, and more accurate fuel consumption data from the increasingly widespread cold chain logistics. After understanding his intention, Dr. Li personally prepared a plan, which provided a separate and detailed interpretation of the aquatic data within Daye's current business scope.

Regarding the layers of intermediaries, Panzhu, located over 200 kilometers away, has more authority to speak on this matter. Lin Xiang's strong push for cooperation with Tongxing stems from the fact that, through each layer of intermediaries, local fishmongers continuously drive down the purchase price. They simply state that this is the market situation, leaving the fishermen with no room for argument.

Finally, there was Qi Zhendong, who was unhappy.

He realized that Hu Shutong hadn't secured any fishing port territory at all, which was bad enough, but what was even worse was that he wanted to use the southern suburbs as a case study, intending to obtain some stockpiling data. Although Hu Shutong guaranteed it would be a positive example, saying that goods in the southern suburbs were never delayed, and that it had taken many years to develop such a transit capacity, demonstrating a strong foundation that was unmatched by ordinary enterprises.

Qi Zhendong would never have agreed to such a "parading through the streets" thing, but he had already mentioned the Yuncheng matter to the group, and now the senior management was considering and comparing it. The biggest consideration was whether the Panhu matter was reliable or not.

Hu Shutong spoke urgently, worried that not helping would really affect the situation later. But at the same time, he was determined that if he helped and still couldn't solve the problem, he wouldn't want to spend a penny and would even make someone else lose money.

Not to mention Yuncheng, I burned down that shameless Tongxing!

……

I've loved cold chain logistics for twenty years.