Back to 2008: I Helped My Dad Become the Richest Man

The pigs in the pigpen have grown from piglets weighing a dozen pounds to over a hundred pounds, each one plump and strong.

Luo Xinde patrols the fence every day, often leaning against the railing when he has nothing to do, watching his whimpering little darlings with a wide grin. This is all money!

That afternoon, Grandpa Liu checked everything in his notebook and then said to the Luo family, who were doing the accounts, "That's about right. The average weight of these pigs is 180 pounds. If we keep raising them, they'll just eat feed but not gain weight, which isn't worthwhile. They can be sold now."

"Ready for slaughter!" Luo Xinde's eyes lit up at the words, and he rubbed his hands together, saying, "Great! We've finally waited for this day! I'll contact the slaughterhouse in town tomorrow and have them send a truck to pick up the pigs!"

The town's slaughterhouse is the village's old way of selling pigs, and the price is entirely determined by the slaughterhouse. In the past, Luo Xinde would have been grateful if he could just turn a pig into cash.

"Dad, we can't sell it to the slaughterhouse in town."

Luo Xiyuan's voice came from in front of the computer, interrupting Luo Xinde's excitement.

"If we don't sell to them, who else would we sell to?" Luo Xinde was taken aback and asked, puzzled. "Don't we sell all the pigs from these surrounding villages to them?"

"The price they offered is too low." Luo Xiyuan turned around from her computer, her expression serious. "I just checked online. The current purchase price for live pigs in the city is generally between 8.2 and 8.5 yuan. I asked Uncle Chen about the price the slaughterhouse in town would offer our village; the highest they could give is 7.6 yuan. That's a difference of 0.6 or 0.7 yuan per jin (0.5 kg). A pig weighs nearly 200 jin, that's a difference of over 100 yuan. We have 200 pigs here, that's a difference of over 20,000 yuan!"

More than 20,000!

This figure sent a chill down Luo Xinde and Li Minxia's spine. They had painstakingly raised the child for almost half a year, working from dawn till dusk every day, constantly on edge. If they were to be swindled out of more than 20,000 yuan for no reason, it would be more painful than having their flesh cut off.

"Then...what should we do?" Li Minxia asked anxiously. "We can't just haul it to the city to sell ourselves, can we? We don't have a car, and besides, we don't know anyone in the city. Who are we going to sell it to?"

"Exactly." Luo Xinde frowned as well. "Do you think the city's large slaughterhouses would even consider our two hundred pigs? They buy thousands at a time. With our quantity, they wouldn't even bother to talk to us."

This is the most pressing issue. Small farmers have absolutely no bargaining power when dealing with large distribution channels.

"Who said we were going to sell them to slaughterhouses?" Luo Xiyuan's lips curled into a smile as she uttered a statement that surprised everyone: "Our pigs are going to be sold directly to people who eat pork!"

"Sell directly to people who eat pork?" Luo Xinde was even more confused. "Wouldn't that be retail? We'd be slaughtering pigs and selling the meat ourselves here? How long would that take?"

"Dad, what are you thinking?" Luo Xiyuan was amused by her father's expression. "What I mean is, we need to skip the slaughterhouses and pork vendors and go directly to the end consumers."

"Large-scale clients?"

"Yes!" Luo Xiyuan pointed to the computer screen. "Look, this is the information I found online these past few days. It includes the city's largest hotel chains, large canteens, and food processing plants."

"Their daily demand for pork is very high, and they have very high requirements for the quality of pork. Especially those high-end hotels, they prefer to purchase pork from us that they know well and that is raised using scientific methods, and they are willing to accept a slightly higher price."

She paused, then continued outlining her plan: "My idea is that we proactively contact them. We tell them we have a modern family farm that raises high-quality pigs, feeding them no random things, and the meat is definitely better than ordinary pork on the market. We can provide them with samples so they can try it first. As long as they approve of our pork, we can sign a long-term supply contract with them."

Luo Xiyuan's words were like a boulder thrown into a calm lake.

Skipping middlemen, directly connecting with major clients, signing long-term contracts... these high-sounding terms left Luo Xinde, Li Minxia, ​​and even Master Liu standing nearby completely bewildered.

"Find buyers on...on that TV box?" Li Minxia pointed at the computer, still finding it a bit unbelievable. "Is this reliable? Could it be a scam?"

"Mom, we live in the information age, this is called e-commerce," Luo Xiyuan patiently explained. "City people now buy things and find partners mostly through the internet. It's much more efficient than us wandering around aimlessly like headless flies."

Grandpa Liu remained silent, stroking his chin in deep thought for a long time before slowly speaking: "The girl's idea is bold, but not without reason. The pigs we raise are indeed of high quality. They're a good breed, the feed formula is scientific, and we haven't used any prohibited drugs throughout the entire process, so the meat quality is definitely going to be excellent. If we can really sell them for a good price, it will be worth all the hard work we've put in over the past six months."

He looked at Luo Xinde: "Xinde, I think we can give it a try. Selling it to the town's slaughterhouse is a last resort. We've worked so hard to build such a good pig farm and raise such good pigs; we can't just sell them off so cheaply."

Even if Master Liu said so, Luo Xinde's mind began to shift. Although he didn't quite understand what his daughter meant by "e-commerce" and "middleman," he understood one thing—doing it this way could earn him an extra 20,000 yuan.

"Then... shall we give it a try?" He looked at his wife, seeking her opinion.

Li Minxia was also filled with anxiety, but she now had a blind trust in her daughter. From selling vegetables to running a pig farm, every decision her daughter made ultimately proved to be the right one.

"I...I'll listen to Xiyuan," Li Minxia said softly.

"Alright! It's settled then!" Luo Xinde slapped his thigh. "Xiyuan, you tell me what to do, Dad will listen to you! Who should we contact? How should we contact them?"

Seeing that her family had agreed, Luo Xiyuan breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that convincing them to accept this advanced sales model was the first and most crucial step in the plan.

"I've already shortlisted a few clients who are most likely to cooperate," Luo Xiyuan said, pointing to a spreadsheet she had prepared on her computer screen.

"The first one is the 'Golden Bay Hotel' in the city. It's the most famous five-star hotel in the city, and their Chinese restaurant has extremely high requirements for ingredients, especially high-end pork, such as black pork and wild boar. They purchase these at high prices all year round. Although our pigs are not black pigs, they are of good quality, so you can try your luck."

"The second option is the student cafeteria at the No. 1 High School in the city. The No. 1 High School is a key high school with several thousand students, and the cafeteria consumes a very large amount of pork every day. Moreover, the school attaches great importance to food safety, so they should be interested in farms like ours with clear sourcing."

"The third one is a food processing plant in the south of the city called 'Meiweijia'. They mainly produce sausages and cured meat. Their demand is the largest, but they are probably the most sensitive to prices as well."

Luo Xiyuan analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of these clients very clearly.

"Which company should we contact first?" Luo Xinde asked.

"Golden Bay Hotel," Luo Xiyuan said without hesitation. "We need to position ourselves highly first. As long as we can secure Golden Bay, even if it's just a small portion of their supply, our 'Luo's Farm' pork will be labeled as 'high-quality.' Then, when we negotiate with others, we'll have more confidence."

"Okay! I'll do as you say!" Luo Xinde was now full of enthusiasm. "So, how do we contact them? Shall we go to the city to find them tomorrow?"

"No need." Luo Xiyuan picked up the telephone receiver from the table and handed it to her father. "Dad, let's make the call first."

"Make...make a phone call?" Luo Xinde held the phone, feeling it was heavier than a shovel. "I...what should I say?"

"Just say that you are the head of the Luo Family Farm and want to discuss a pork supply cooperation with their purchasing manager. This is the script I wrote for you; just read it." Luo Xiyuan handed over a piece of paper with her prepared speech.

Luo Xinde looked at the paper, then at the phone in his hand, and took a deep breath.