Chapter 183 Moisturizing things silently

Chapter 183 Moisturizing things silently

Chapter 183 Moisturizing things silently

Half a month has passed since the global food futures flash crash in mid-August.

During this period.

ABCD ceded a large number of industries in South America and were replaced by COFCO Group, China National Agricultural Group, Beidahuang Group and New Hope Group.

However, Hailufeng Company has no intention of going overseas and has been advancing its domestic layout step by step.

As ABCD sold a large part of its industries in South America at low prices, the official finally issued a relevant announcement, stating that in order to achieve the carbon neutrality goal, it will actively promote the import of genetically modified soybeans from around the world to extract biodiesel, and the scale of imports will increase year by year.

However, after this announcement came out, the soybean futures price did not soar much, and still fluctuated between 2800 and 2900 yuan per ton.

Fortunately, more people were interested in taking over the contracts. Although ABCD suffered heavy losses, it still sold some of the high-priced contracts at low prices.

As market expectations were locked in, the landed price of physical soybeans also fell from around 3900 yuan per ton to around 3100-3200 yuan per ton.

The domestic soybean purchase price also dropped accordingly. The current soybean field purchase price in Northeast China has been reduced a lot. Among them, the purchase price of non-GMO 45% protein soybeans is only 3100 yuan per ton, or 1.55 yuan per catty.

This price is unacceptable to soybean farmers.

Fortunately, the authorities patched the problem in time, and on this basis, they will give subsidies to soybean farmers at 0.5 yuan per kilogram, which barely allows soybean farmers to break even.

Of course, this subsidy is only limited to this year. Starting next year, there will be no relevant subsidies for domestic soybeans.

The reason for this arrangement is that Senzu soybeans will be promoted on a large scale for cultivation next year.

By then, the annual yield of soybeans planted in Northeast China and the Loess Plateau will be 500-600 kilograms per mu; the annual yield in the Huanghuai and Haihe plains will be stabilized at 600 kilograms per mu.

The purchase price at the farm gate basically remains at around 1.5 to 1.6 yuan, and the income per acre of soybeans is basically around 1700 yuan, which seems to not be much profit.

But don't forget that Senzu soybeans can be mixed with wheat and corn. Without increasing the fertilizer cost much, it is equivalent to harvesting 500 kilograms more soybeans per acre, which is pure profit.

As for whether foreign soybean prices will continue to drop, this is obviously impossible.

Even Brazilian beans, which are known for their low cost, cost US$250 per ton to grow. Adding transportation costs and a 3% export tariff, the average cost per ton is US$340, or RMB 2414 per ton.

The planting cost of U.S. soybeans is slightly higher than that of Brazilian beans, at about US$270 per ton. Other costs are similar to those of Brazilian beans. The total cost is US$360, equivalent to RMB 2556 per ton.

Originally, the gross profit per ton was only 500-600 yuan.

If we lower the price further, we will end up losing money.

And at this time, Seris is not afraid of soybean dumping.

After all, for farmers, Senzu soybeans are a low-cost by-product of fertilizing the fields. Many farmlands that originally only grew wheat and corn can be planted with them.

In other words, the production cost of domestic Senzu soybeans includes not only the patent fee of 10 yuan per acre paid to Hailufeng Company, but also the harvesting costs and pesticide costs. The fertilizer costs beyond this have been covered by the fertilizers for corn and wheat.

The production cost of Senzu beans per ton is about 500 yuan (excluding land rent).

This is also the key point why ABCD had to give up the South American soybean industry and part of the corn industry.

If you don't give up these industries, you will lose everything, even your underwear.

...

Beijing.

Xinfadi vegetable market.

As the capital's leading large-scale wholesale market, it sells a wide variety of agricultural products and foods, naturally including meat.

Various meat wholesalers in the market quietly changed their wholesale prices.

9月11日的鸡肉最高价10.6元/公斤，最低价9.1元/公斤，大宗价8.8元/公斤。

The average price of pork is 17.5 yuan/kg, the average price of beef is 51 yuan/kg, and the average price of mutton is 39 yuan/kg.

Following the sharp drop in seafood prices in March this year, the prices of chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle and sheep also showed a trend of sharp price drops.

However, this big price drop was not due to the impact of low-priced imported meat from abroad, but rather to the reduction in feed costs brought about by Senzu soybeans.

At present, major domestic feed manufacturers have lowered the wholesale price of feed, especially pig feed and poultry feed with high grain and soybean meal content, with a drop of about 20%.

The most obvious among these are white-feathered chickens and yellow-feathered chickens, which have a breeding cycle of only about 42 to 70 days and are the first breed to be affected by the sharp drop in feed prices.

This is in addition to the previous reduction in fish meal costs.

At present, the breeding cost of domestic white-feather chickens when they are marketed has dropped to 6.3 yuan per kilogram. When converted into chicken meat, the cost is 7.7 yuan per kilogram (including processing fees).

The market was bustling with people.

"Lao Lin, 5 pieces of Grade A chicken breasts, plus 3 pieces of Grade A chicken wings..."

Meat wholesaler Lao Lin was recording the order with a smile: "Boss Du, business is booming! Business is good recently, right?"

"Haha, if the price of chicken can be as low as it has been in the past half month, business will naturally be better." Boss Du continued: "Oh, and 10 more chicken racks."

"You want A-grade goods?"

"of course."

"As usual, send me to the store this afternoon."

"no problem."

Boss Du came to a frozen fish and meat wholesale market opposite.

As soon as he came in, the wholesaler with the Mediterranean hairstyle handed him a Panda cigarette with a big smile on his face: "Boss Du, business is booming."

Taking the cigarette and putting it on his ear, Boss Du said hurriedly, "Boss Huang, give me 10 pieces of Hailufeng Egyptian fish fillets and 3 pieces of Hailufeng Egyptian fish skin."

"10 pieces of fish fillets and 3 pieces of fish skin? No problem. The address is still at Yunxiao Road Food Street?" Boss Huang asked while writing the invoice.

Boss Du quickly reminded him, "Well, don't make a mistake. My shop is called Happy Chicken Steak. Last time your guy sent it to the Coke Fried Chicken next door."

"I know, I'll explain it clearly." Boss Huang looked a little embarrassed.

"That's it, see you later."

"Walk slowly."

Boss Du then went to purchase shortening for fried foods and found that the price of soybean oil-based shortening had dropped to around 11 yuan per kilogram.

Soybeans have a huge direct or indirect impact on the food industry and catering industry.

Especially for fried foods and fried restaurants, their operating costs are closely related to soybean prices.

After purchasing the shortening, Boss Du went to purchase various condiments and then drove back to the store on Yunxiao Road Food Street.

When I came back, the employee of the fish product wholesaler Lao Huang had already delivered the fish fillets and fish skins.

"Dad, how is the market today?" Du Xiaoming, who was thawing fish skin and fish fillets, asked with concern.

"The wholesale price of chicken is a few cents lower than yesterday. The fish meat and fish skin are still the same, but the shortening has dropped by three yuan."

At this moment, a middle-aged woman walked in with a somewhat unpleasant look on her face: "Old Du, you're back. The Coke Fried Chicken shop next door is having a promotion again. Buy one get one free."

"Don't worry, honey. They do their thing and we do ours. Who's afraid of who?" Boss Du said through gritting his teeth.

"If the wholesale price of chicken and fish hadn't dropped, this business would really be impossible." Tang Like looked helpless.

Du Xiaoming shook his head: "There is no other way. Everyone is lowering their prices, so we can only follow suit."

While chatting, the family was busy preparing the food, preparing cheese chicken steaks, spicy chicken steaks, fried chicken racks, New Orleans grilled wings, boneless chicken fillets, fish and chips, and boneless fish fillets. The last step of frying would not begin until the guests arrived.

Originally, they had no plan to keep the store open. The store is 20 square meters in size, with a monthly rent of 1.5 yuan. Adding water, electricity, gas, and other miscellaneous expenses, the fixed cost is around 2 yuan.

This means that their store’s daily turnover must reach 1500 yuan just to break even.

It’s just that Du Xiaoming came back from studying in Great Britain last year. Since he couldn’t find a job, Mr. Du and his wife had to continue running the shop. They also asked their son to help out in the shop to prevent him from having any unplanned thoughts.

Du Xiaoming had no choice but to stay and help, while thinking about how to improve the business conditions of his own store.

In June, after some research, he imitated the fish and chips he had eaten while studying abroad, and based on the characteristics of boneless chicken fillets, he developed boneless fish fillets, which allowed the store's daily turnover to reach around 2000 yuan.

By September, as chicken prices fell, surrounding fried chicken shops also lowered their prices, and Du Xiaoming's chicken products had no choice but to follow suit.

However, there is some good news amidst this huge price cut. Sales have increased by 3-4%, bringing their store's daily turnover to around 3000 yuan.

As the sun sets.

Customer traffic in the food court is also increasing rapidly. "Boss, give me a large portion of fish and chips," a middle-aged man who had also studied in Great Britain shouted while riding a shared bicycle.

"Okay." Du Xiaoming quickly wrapped the seasoned fish in batter and put it directly into one of the special fryers.

Sizzle...

The middle-aged man parked the car and complained about the past with his colleagues: "I haven't eaten this for more than ten years. When I was at the University of Edinburgh, besides cooking for myself, I could only eat fish and chips and hamburgers. At that time, I almost collapsed from eating so much."

"Have you ever eaten Stargazing?" his colleague joked.

"No, there's really not much good food in Great Britain. French and Chinese food are terribly expensive, and Indian curry is barely edible."

Du Xiaoming raised his head and said, "Brother, are you studying abroad at the University of Edinburgh? I also studied abroad in Great Britain, but I went to a fake university."

"Which one does the boss study? London South Bank? Bolton? Or Birmingham City?"

"Birmingham City."

"This one is really worse."

"Yeah! It's hard for me to find a job now, so I can only sell fried chicken here." Du Xiaoming shook his head in self-mockery, and then put the fried fish fillets and French fries into a brown paper bag: "Brother, do you want ketchup, or chili sauce? Or yellow mustard sauce?"

“Ketchup.”

"how much is it?"

"Twenty dollars."

"Sweep it."

“15 yuan received via WeChat…”

The guy and his colleague shared the fish and chips at a roadside bus stop and ate them while they were hot.

"Whoosh..."

"It tastes pretty good, Lao Zhou. Is there any difference between this and what you ate in Britain?"

Lao Zhou took a big bite and said, "Of course there is a difference. The fish and chips in Britain use cod. The fish in this restaurant is definitely not cod, but the seasoning is good."

"It turns out that British fish and chips are made with cod! My wife bought imported cod fillets from Hippo some time ago, and a box cost 150 yuan. It's so damn expensive." His colleague picked up a small bag of ketchup and squeezed it on the fried fish.

"But this fish fillet tastes great, and there's no obvious earthy smell. It should be sea fish." Lao Zhou picked up the French fries and dipped them in ketchup.

While eating, his colleague analyzed what kind of fish it was: "15 yuan is enough to buy a pound of fish. What kind of sea fish is so cheap?"

The wholesale price of these mass-produced Egyptian fish fillets that Hailufeng Company gives to distributors is 8.6 yuan per kilogram, and the retail price in online stores is 9.9 yuan per kilogram.

When wholesalers sell it to restaurants, the price is generally 9.9 yuan per kilogram.

The large portion of fish and chips that the two of them were eating at this time contained one pound of fish. Together with the fries, flour, seasoning, ketchup, brown paper bag and other costs, the cost of one portion was about 7 dollars, and they could make about 8 dollars.

The gross profit margin of catering should be at least 30%∽60%, otherwise you won’t make much money.

Lao Zhou and his friend finished their fish and chips in no time.

Du Xiaoming's family is already very busy, and migrant workers from Beijing who get off work come to the food street in an endless stream to find food.

Happy Chicken Steak focuses on value for money.

"Boss, a C set meal!"

"Okay, wait a moment." Tang Liko picked up the disposable lunch box, put in one-third of a piece of fried fish, two New Orleans chicken wings, a dozen pieces of golden and crispy fried fish skin, a large pile of French fries and a spoonful of mashed potatoes, and then put half a tomato and a handful of cabbage shreds cut as thin as hair.

Pack well.

"Alipay received 12 yuan."

"Scan it." The young man said, holding up the phone screen.

"All right, young man."

This cheap fast food was also Du Xiaoming's idea.

Even though this fast food meal can make a person full, in fact, it only costs more than six yuan, and the gross profit is more than five yuan.

This is also one of the hot-selling products in their store recently. They can sell more than a hundred pieces every evening, and the sales volume is still increasing.

A fast food meal containing fish, meat, vegetables and fruits, which is rich in protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, fiber and minerals, only costs 12 yuan. For a city like Beijing where every inch of land is valuable, this is undoubtedly a boon for migrant workers.

Of course, there are similar cheap fast food restaurants in other parts of Beijing.

The price level in major cities in China is actually a relative concept.

For example, food in wet markets and cheap fast food may even be cheaper than in third- and fourth-tier cities. This is because the supply chain is more complete and market competition is fierce.

On the contrary, the prices of vegetables, fruits and fast food in third- and fourth-tier cities are sometimes not much cheaper than those in first-tier cities.

However, this time the retail prices of seafood, chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle, sheep, eggs, milk and cooking oil across the country have generally dropped by 10-15%, which has had an extremely huge impact on society.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) in August this year fell by 2.3% year-on-year.
It is expected to decline further in September.

Food and drink have become increasingly cheaper in China.

If you don't pursue mid- to high-end agricultural products such as cherries, strawberries, and white truffles, ordinary people can cook for themselves and eat well for only three or four hundred yuan a month.

If you want to be more extreme, you can also learn from Brother Zao in the forum and grow your own spirulina as food. You can survive on a dozen dollars a month.

However, growing spirulina as food requires certain skills and hands-on ability, and you must pay attention to bacterial contamination of the spirulina.

In fact, you can also solve the food problem by buying large bags of milk powder and soy protein powder. These life-sustaining meals cost only a few cents per meal, but the taste is difficult to adapt to.

For example, on the A B platform right now, there are people teaching strategies.

If you buy Egyptian fish fillets from Hailufeng Company online, the wholesale price for a 20-kilogram package is only 172 yuan.

The meat of the Egyptian catfish is high in protein, fat, and various vitamins. If combined with potatoes as the staple food, a person only needs more than 200 yuan a month to basically meet the nutritional needs of the human body.

Fortunately, the number of people who rely on life-sustaining meals has begun to decrease as the economy recovers.

Especially in Hebei and Henan provinces, a large number of migrant workers with experience in agricultural machinery operation were recruited by Hailufeng Company, United Mining, COFCO Group and Beidahuang Group to work in the south of the desert.

In addition, many migrant workers in civil engineering also go north to work.

The south of the desert suddenly became a hot land.

The Mo'nan branch of Hailufeng Company alone has recruited more than 2,000 people from all over North China, and will continue to expand next year.

After all, to manage 3000 million acres of land, even if it is large-scale mechanized high-standard farmland, plus employees for various supporting facilities, it will require more than people.

And the local population in Mo Nan is definitely not enough.

Take Jirim City, where the Mo Nan Branch is located, as an example. Its population is only about 280 million. Excluding the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled, if the working-age population is calculated at 60%, there are only 168 million people.

After deducting government agencies, public institutions, state-owned enterprises, individual business operators, breeders and growers, as well as the young labor force that has left the area, there is basically not much labor left.

Fortunately, there is a large pool of labor in the North China Plain. In addition, a large number of migrant workers in the infrastructure industry were semi-unemployed, so it is relatively easy to recruit people to work in the south of the desert.

Although the real estate industry is still in a half-dead state, it is a foregone conclusion that the southern part of the desert and the northwest will become the next economic hotspot in the country thanks to the emergence of Senzu soybeans.

Senzu soybeans are not only related to food security, but also have revitalized a large number of related industries.

For example, agricultural machinery, engineering machinery, fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural consumables will add 2 to 3 million acres of arable land in the future, requiring massive manpower and material resources.

This has provided the country with excess production capacity, created a large consumer market, and saved the precarious market confidence.

Sometimes, market confidence is really important.

If people lose confidence in the market, their spending power will shrink rapidly, and many people will subconsciously reduce their spending and choose to hold on to their money and wait and see how the market develops.

Recently, the government has been planning to launch a new agricultural development plan with a funding of one trillion yuan, focusing on promoting desert transformation in the south and northwest of the desert, and forming a large number of large farms, ranches and supporting related industries.

If everything goes well, the southern part of the desert and the northwest region can probably directly employ nearly three million people, and indirectly drive the employment of nearly ten million people.

This will also trigger a chain reaction, allowing the North China Plain and the Guanzhong Plain to gain a larger economic hinterland, further stimulating rapid economic growth in the north.

Whether it is to reduce the unemployment rate or to balance the north-south and east-west economies, this one trillion investment is worth it.

(End of this chapter)