Chapter 200 The sun is fading

Chapter 200 The sun is fading

Chapter 200 The sun is fading
Meilong Town.

Shizhou Village.

Although it is already the end of November, the daytime temperature in the Lingnan region still remains at 23-25 ​​degrees Celsius, and the temperature is only slightly lower at night.

This temperature does not affect agricultural production.

The dry land that was transformed in August this year has been planted with soybeans, corn and wheat in September.

After two and a half months of growth, the soybean field is lush and green. The short-slender soybeans are interplanted with rows of corn. The corn is growing very well. The soybeans are growing relatively slowly because some of the sunlight is taken away by the corn. It took nearly seventy days to enter the flowering period.

Today a pickup truck came to the collective cooperative in the village.

"President Zhang."

Zhang Dashan, who happened to be at the door, took off his straw hat and said, "Technician Lin, Technician Gu, welcome to our Shizhou. Please come in and have a cup of tea first."

Gu Mancang shook his head and said, "No, we are here to collect soil and crop samples. We have to go to another cooperative in the afternoon and we are in a hurry."

"So urgent?" Zhang Dashan stopped.

"This is our job. Please lead the way, President Zhang!" Lin Yuan said while looking at his watch.

"Wait a minute, I'll go get something." Zhang Dashan hurried into the cooperative's office building and took out two packs of Zhonghua cigarettes and two bottles of Dongpeng Special Drink.

After coming out, Zhang Dashan quickly handed the things to the two people: "Technician Lin, Technician Gu, have a cigarette."

"No, I don't smoke." Gu Mancang just took the Dongpeng Special Drink.

Lin Yuan didn't take the cigarette either. He took the drink and put it in his backpack, then stuffed the cigarette back into Zhang Dashan's hand: "President Zhang, don't make things difficult for us. Forget about the drinks, but you really can't take the cigarettes."

The reason why the two refused cigarettes was mainly because Hailufeng Company has a regulation that accepting things from customers or cooperative farmers with a value of more than 50 yuan is considered bribery.

The two of them earn tens of thousands of yuan a month, so there is no need for them to break the law for a pack of cigarettes.

If someone takes a video and posts it online, or reports it to the Supervisory Department of Hailufeng Company, it would really be a waste of time and effort.

Zhang Dashan reluctantly took back the cigarette, then said awkwardly: "Your company is too strict."

"It's better to be stricter. This is good for everyone." Gu Mancang shook his head again. He used to be a technician in the Agricultural and Rural Bureau in other places. He had seen too many strange things. It was because he couldn't adapt that he chose to give up his job as a civil servant and came to Hailufeng Company to work as an agricultural technician.

The three of them chatted as they walked towards the nearby farmland.

The cooperation between Shizhou Cooperative and the Agricultural Cooperative Division of Hailufeng Company is counted as one household because the contract is signed by a collective cooperative.

The cooperative mainly supplies vegetables.

The entire cooperation supplies three kinds of vegetables: broccoli, green peppers and eggplants.

Gu Mancang and Lin Yuan came here to collect samples of green peppers and broccoli, as well as soil samples from their farmland.

After walking for more than twenty minutes, we arrived at the broccoli field. A total of 200 acres of broccoli were planted, but the broccoli was planted in the areas between the Senzu soybeans.

However, in these transformed farmlands, broccoli, green peppers and eggplants are not grown in separate plots of land, but are cross-distributed.

The reason for this arrangement is mainly to increase the biodiversity of farmland, which can effectively reduce pests and diseases.

Gu Mancang looked at the broccoli that he had planted first. The flower heads had already swelled to the size of two fists. He estimated that it would be ready for harvesting in a dozen days.

He squatted down, took out the test tube and sampler and started taking samples.

Lin Yuan looked around and said, "President Zhang, the first batch of broccoli should be ready for harvest in about ten days. How many are there?"

"About 20 mu." Zhang Dashan replied with a smile: "We plan to start harvesting on the sixth of next month."

"Has the report been submitted?"

"Yes, your company has approved it."

"Then I guess I'll have to do it again on the 6th."

Zhang Dashan said with some discomfort: "Your company is too strict. In fact, we have not violated any regulations. In fact, there is no need to come to check every few days."

"Just because you don't have it doesn't mean others don't have it. The company can't afford to take the risk." Li Yuan doesn't believe that everyone will be so honest. The company does this to create a high-pressure attitude so that no one dares to act rashly.

If someone still finds ways to violate regulations under such high-pressure control, then he should be kicked out of the supply chain system as soon as possible.

"Hehe..." Zhang Dashan laughed dryly.

Lin Yuan didn't say anything, but squatted down, broke off a broccoli leaf, put it in a fresh-keeping box as a sample, and wrote the date, place and name of the cooperative on the box.

These broccolis are growing very well, with basically no insect holes, yellow leaves, black spots or rot.

Hailufeng Company sent agricultural technicians to provide special guidance on the use of pesticides and fertilizers, as well as the secondary soil improvement in the early stage.

Lin Yuan stood up and said, "Judging from the swelling of the flower bulbs, the yield per mu is estimated to be around 2400 kilograms."

Gu Mancang, who also collected a soil sample, labeled the test tube and placed it in a special test tube box. Then he stood up and brushed the sand off his hands.

Just now.

Not far away, a small truck was driving along the cement road beside the field. Suddenly, the truck stopped. After the window was rolled down, a bald middle-aged man looked at Zhang Dashan who was wearing a straw hat.

"Dude, are you selling broccoli?"

Zhang Dashan turned around and asked with a smile, "How much is one pound?"

The bald man jumped down from the truck: "8 cents, with two leaves."

"Haha, I won't sell it." Zhang Dashan refused without even thinking.

"Huh?" The bald man was choking on his words before he could finish them. Then, with a sly look on his face, he took out a cigarette and handed it over: "Brother, 80 cents is already the highest in the area. Others charge 60 or 70 cents. I only gave you 80 cents because your broccoli is better."

"Our broccoli has been ordered by a customer." Zhang Dashan took a cigarette with a grin.

"Uh..." The bald man cursed the old man in his heart for making fun of him and wasting his cigarette, but he still asked tentatively: "How much are you selling it for?" Zhang Dashan smiled and lit up the Furong King, took a puff and said: "Huh... a little higher than 80 cents."

"There's nothing we can do, brother. If you have broccoli or other vegetables to sell next time, you can call me." After saying that, the bald man handed over a business card.

"Haha, I'll consider it." Zhang Dashan put away the business card.

Wait for the bald man to drive away in the pickup truck.

Lin Yuancai, who was not far from Zhang Dashan, came over with a smile.

"Could it be that President Zhang really wants to sell these broccoli secretly?"

"How is that possible? Old man, I'm just old, not stupid. I was just asking about the market and trying to get some cigarettes." Zhang Dashan replied ambiguously.

Lin Yuan smiled but said nothing.

He knew Zhang Dashan's little thoughts, but he was not worried that the other party would go back on his word. On the one hand, there was a penalty limit, and on the other hand, Hailufeng Company's purchase price was very high, 3.6 yuan per kilogram, or one dollar and eighty cents per catty.

No vegetable vendor will be willing to buy at this price in the near future. Perhaps they will be willing to buy when the market is better.

When the market conditions are good, the purchase price of broccoli at the farm gate can reach four or five yuan per catty, or even seven or eight yuan per catty, but this situation is basically rare.

Most of the time, the price of broccoli is less than two yuan per pound, and sometimes even a few cents per pound.

For example, recently, the purchase price at the farm gate is only 60 to 70 cents per pound.

But the retail price is not much lower, generally maintaining at around six yuan per catty.

Hailufeng Company plans to unify the retail price at three yuan per catty. After deducting operating costs, it can make a profit of about fifty or sixty cents per catty, focusing on small profits but quick turnover.

Of course, this price is only limited to areas near the production area, such as eastern Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta. Other areas can only enjoy this price after Hailufeng's layout extends there.

Many vegetables and fruits are very demanding on logistics and transportation distance. If the distance is too far or the transportation time is too long, the cost will increase.

Hailufeng Company has signed contracts with 50 local vegetable cooperative growers, all of which are actually rural cooperatives. The area of ​​each cooperative grower is generally around 500-1000 mu, and some have a planting scale of over a thousand mu.

As a result, many vegetable vendors have found that they can no longer order vegetables recently.

This is actually very normal.

Vegetable vendors do not have any advantages, especially when facing the direct sales model of Hailufeng Company. Apart from using tricks like those on the shelf, they have no way to defeat Hailufeng Company through other normal means.

In essence, the profits made by Hailufeng Company's Agricultural Cooperative Division are the dividends of middlemen. After cutting out the middlemen, farmers actually make a lot of profit, consumers also get to eat cheap and high-quality vegetables and fruits, and the company also makes money from it.

The groups that were hit were the middlemen and vegetable stalls in the wet markets.

In fact, this kind of thing is not only done by Hailufeng Company. For example, several e-commerce platforms and food delivery platforms are quietly planning direct retail of agricultural products. Those low-priced vegetables and fruits are infiltrating through these channels.

However, compared with Hailufeng’s strategy, the e-commerce platform chose to take over everything, using its size advantage to lower the purchase price, while using online channels and various discounts to continuously attract consumers.

However, the strategies of e-commerce platforms are destined to prevent farmers from benefiting much, and they may even be controlled by the platforms.

Compared with the scattered middlemen, the platform is too large. Once a monopoly is formed, it means it is difficult to escape the platform's control.

The emergence of this development trend is actually closely related to the vegetable market vendors' own actions.

Situations such as short weight, inflated prices, and mismatched goods are common in the vegetable market, which leads many people to dislike going to the vegetable market to buy things.

Sometimes I would rather go to the supermarket to buy things than be cheated at the vegetable market.

Internet companies have seen this weak link and are planning to replace the wet markets.

Many people may think that those big Internet companies are daydreaming, and that the vegetable market still has a huge customer base that is difficult to replace.

However, many people fail to notice that there is a clear age gap between those who shop on the Internet and those who go to the wet market to shop.

The group of people who often go to the vegetable market to shop are generally older and belong to the sunset group. These people will gradually get older, which means that there will be fewer and fewer consumers in the vegetable market.

The new generation has been influenced by Internet shopping for more than ten years. Even if those in their thirties and forties are old, their preference for Internet shopping will not fade, and may even become worse.

Just like televisions, they will become marginalized electrical appliances in the near future.

The wet market will also become a marginalized industry in the future, because the consumer group that supports this industry is dying out, and as the consumer group becomes smaller and smaller, the wet market will have to decline.

There is no way. The vegetable market industry has long been in the trend of the times and has been eradicated by various forces.

On the one hand, the rents for stalls in vegetable markets are getting higher and higher. Taking the Shanmei city area where Jiang Miao is located as an example, the annual rent for a stall of two or three square meters is over ten thousand yuan. In some popular markets, the rent is even tens of thousands of yuan per stall.

The high rent eats up a large portion of the vendors' profits.

On the other hand, the management of the vegetable market is very chaotic. Basically, they help with money but not with justice. After consumers are cheated by some vendors, many of them just let the matter go.

This situation has exacerbated consumers' negative emotions towards street vendors. Many people have been cheated once or twice and will definitely not be fooled all the time, which has led to a continuous loss of customers.

If Internet shopping had not emerged, perhaps the vegetable market could still rely on its monopoly position to force consumers to accept the situation.

However, with the rise of Internet shopping, the monopoly of vegetable markets has been severely impacted.

On the one hand, they still continue to cheat consumers.

On the other hand, we are facing the market share being taken over by Internet shopping.

It is equivalent to continuous blood loss without any new replenishment, and can only die out little by little.

The market judgment of major Internet companies entering the vegetable selling industry is based on this logic.

Therefore, even if Hailufeng Company does not enter this market, the vegetable market will still be taken over by major Internet companies. This is why Jiang Miao chose to enter without hesitation.

If you don't eat it, others will eat it anyway.

If Jiang Miao doesn't take action, the vegetable market will not be able to survive.

(End of this chapter)