Chapter 221 New Products Arrival

Chapter 221 New Products Arrival

Chapter 221 New Products Arrival
at the same time.

As time went by, it was March.

Among the new varieties of bananas planted last September, the early-ripening Little Mike banana is finally ready for picking.

The Qiongzhou branch, which has been keeping a close eye on the farmers' planting conditions, immediately ordered the harvest to begin after discovering that the first batch of Little Mike bananas were ready to be harvested. Qiongzhou branch manager Zheng Siwen immediately ordered the harvest to begin.

The storage center, cold storage, pressing locomotive, and hemp processing plant, which had already been built, were soon put into operation quickly.

A small town in Qiongdong.

A large field of Little Mike bananas is cut down by growers or hired migrant workers while the skins are still green. During transportation, the bananas will produce ethylene, which accelerates their ripening.

In addition to the migrant workers who were cutting the banana fruits, there were several other migrant workers following behind, cutting the banana stalks from the roots above the ground and then cutting off the leaves on top.

A large banana stalk was carried onto a pressing machine not far away. As the straw was stuffed into the press mouth, most of the moisture inside the stalk was squeezed out instantly. The moisture was sprayed all over the field, leaving only the dry stalk to be spit out.

Soon 10 acres of bananas were harvested.

The purchasing team weighs and inspects the fruits and straw.

The big black fat man next to him had a nervous look on his face.

The team leader took a look at the data: "The total number of bananas is 58937 kilograms, 5 yuan per kilogram, 294685 yuan;"

As soon as he finished speaking, a team member next to him issued a commercial bill.

"25 tons of banana straw with a moisture content of 27 points, 800 yuan per ton, 21600 yuan."

The fat black man who received the two commercial bills asked nervously, "Captain Zhang, how do we use these commercial bills?"

"Just go to our company's designated location to exchange it. Isn't the address written on it? You can just go there. Remember to bring your ID card."

"Okay, thanks. I'll treat you to dinner later."

"Then forget it!" Captain Zhang knew very well that the company was wary of this kind of thing. If he just went to eat with the growers, he would easily be noticed by the people in the Supervision Department. He didn't want to bring trouble upon himself.

The big black fat man shook his head: "Your company is really strict!"

"No need to talk anymore. I have other families to recruit."

"See you."

In addition to the bananas purchased from growers, there are also 6 acres of bananas planted by the Qiongzhou branch itself. Since these bananas were planted earlier, they can be picked about half a month earlier.

However, Zheng Siwen, manager of the Qiongzhou branch, did not come to see the banana harvest at this time. He was in the hemp processing factory in Qiongdong.

As the self-operated farms and cooperative farms have entered the harvesting stage one after another, the factory is currently receiving more and more dehydrated banana straw every day. Half a month ago, it was receiving about 150 tons a day, and now the banana straw from the growers is also coming in.

"Director Wu, how is the production going?"

"Not bad." Director Wu is a middle-aged man in his forties, and next to him is a white-haired old man.

"Although the quality of this abaca hemp is not as good as Manila hemp, it is much better than ordinary jute." The old man is a technician at a domestic hemp processing factory. However, their factory's products cannot compete with the jute in South Asia. In addition, the scale of hemp cultivation by domestic farmers is getting smaller and smaller, which naturally leads to their factory's unsustainability.

Zheng Siwen asked with concern: "What is the current raw hemp production capacity?"

Director Wu replied: "The dehydrated raw material can produce 40% of raw hemp, which means about 1 kilograms per ton."

Several people came to the warehouse where the raw hemp was stored.

The raw hemp, after being rinsed and dried, has been baled and stacked in the warehouse.

The old technician gently stroked the raw hemp and couldn't help but exclaimed: "These are all good things! If our old factory had this kind of quality and output, we wouldn't have lost the market to India."

"Old Huang, is there any difference between our abaca and jute?"

In response to Zheng Siwen's question, Lao Huang smiled and said, "Generally speaking, jute fibers are shorter and softer, while abaca fibers are longer and harder. The main difference between the two is the difference in the content of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin."

"Although our abaca hemp is not as strong as Manila hemp, it is still stronger than jute flax. After being soaked in quicklime solution, its softness is better than jute. In addition, its long fiber characteristics make it suitable for use as a raw material for textiles."

"So that's it." Zheng Siwen suddenly realized.

Then the group came to the deep processing area next to the raw hemp warehouse.

The spinning workshop spins bales of processed raw hemp into yarns of different thicknesses according to the spinning process.

Huang pointed to one of the production lines and said: "We will spin the secondary raw materials produced during the combing process into thick threads, and then send them to the rope weaving workshop to make hemp ropes and sacks."

Then he pointed to another production line and said, "This is premium raw hemp, which can be used to produce carpets, home decoration linen, etc."

"The last production line uses premium raw hemp for the production of clothing linen."

Following these production lines, we arrived at the hemp yarn warehouse, followed by the hemp bag workshop, hemp rope workshop, hemp carpet workshop, and linen cloth workshop for further processing.

Zheng Siwen picked up a large piece of fine linen, which felt quite soft and had a light yellow luster. He pulled it hard a few times and found that it was very flexible and had good elasticity.

"Old Huang, isn't it said that linen textiles have poor elasticity?"

Old Huang smiled and explained, "Manager Zheng, this is a blended hemp and cotton cloth, so it naturally has good elasticity."

“How much cotton would that require?”

"If you want ordinary jute to make clothing textiles more comfortable, it must contain at least 70% cotton."

"What about our yellow banana hemp?"

"Our yellow banana hemp is naturally flexible and elastic, so we only need about 30% cotton to make the hemp-cotton fabric very comfortable."

Director Wu suggested: "Manager Zheng, let's go take a look at the finished product production workshop!"

"it is good."

Come to the finished product workshop.

Many female workers were making linen clothes.

"Manager Zheng, take a look, this is linen clothing."

"Let me try it." Zheng Siwen took off his T-shirt and put on a short-sleeved shirt. He moved around a bit and found that there was no noticeable friction. The clothes were soft and comfortable to wear. "Not bad. Is this the work uniform?"

"Yes, the headquarters asked us to produce a batch of employee uniforms. Linen clothes are suitable for summer wear. They are sweat-permeable, breathable, and moisture-absorbent. Especially in our Qiongzhou area, the weather is hot all year round, so it is better to wear linen clothes."

Zheng Siwen changed back into his own clothes: "Indeed, the southwest region is more suitable, as the air humidity there is relatively high. In addition to the company's orders, do you have any other ideas?"

"In addition to the work uniform orders from the head office, we have also put several types of linen and cotton clothing on the shelves in our specialty store. I was thinking whether we could give a batch of them to customers as gifts for trial?" Factory Director Wu suggested cautiously.

After hearing this suggestion, Zheng Siwen thought about it for a while and nodded: "I will go and coordinate with the physical business department and the e-commerce business department."

"For other products, we currently focus on four categories: tablecloths, curtain fabrics, carpets, and seat covers."

“Are there any clothing factories coming here to purchase?”

Director Wu nodded and said, "Some of my old customers came to see us. They really liked the high-count linen and cotton fabrics we produced and ordered quite a few products."

"How much is a square meter of high-count linen cotton cloth?"

"The market price is 30-35 yuan per square meter, but for large-volume orders, I offer an internal discount price of 25 yuan per square meter."

Huang added with a smile: "Our high-count cotton fabric has a 1:1 cotton-linen ratio, but its performance is better than other manufacturers' 7:3 cotton-linen fabrics, and the cost is much lower."

Zheng Siwen is very clear about the costs.

Currently, the price of high-quality jute raw materials is more than eight yuan per kilogram, and the price of imported jute from the Dongba area is around 7000 yuan per ton.

The price at which Hailufeng Company purchased abaca from the plantations, after processing, was an average of 5500 yuan per ton.

After deep processing, 1 ton of yellow banana hemp can produce 400 kilograms of premium raw hemp, which can be blended with cotton yarn in a 1:1 ratio to produce 5000 square meters of premium high-count cotton and linen cloth.

The raw material cost of these 5000 square meters of high-count cotton and linen cloth is about 1.8 yuan, about 3.6 yuan per square meter. The bulk of the raw material cost is still spent on purchasing long-staple cotton.

However, the real cost of high-count linen cotton cloth is actually in the processing stage. The cost of the entire production process is 12 to 18 yuan per square meter. This is mainly because the process of high-count linen cotton cloth is complicated.

Adding up the two costs of Qiongdong Textile Factory, the high-count cotton and linen cloth costs about 18 yuan per square meter.

The wholesale price is 25 yuan per square meter, and the gross profit is only 7 yuan.

A gross profit margin of 28% is already a good profit for the manufacturing industry.

After all, many domestic manufacturing industries are inward-looking, and their gross profit margins can be reduced to less than 5%. For the Qiongzhou branch, hemp products are just a by-product of banana production. At present, with 6 mu of self-operated farms and 8.7 mu of bananas from contracted growers, it is expected to produce about 1.5 tons of various raw hemp every month.

This production capacity can basically meet a large part of the domestic demand.

Of course, the premise is that the planting area in Qiongzhou area does not expand. Once the planting area is expanded, the annual production capacity will soon soar.

In order to avoid a severe impact on the domestic market, the Qiongzhou branch has recently been adjusting the scale of planting and striving to allow other domestic hemp producing areas to carry out industrial transformation as soon as possible.

In fact, there is no alternative but to transform.

With the increase in the production capacity of yellow banana hemp in Qiongzhou, yellow banana hemp, which has better performance and is more suitable for textiles, and is a by-product of banana production, directly crushes other hemp crops.

You should know that the current banana planting area in Qiongzhou has reached about 62 mu, of which the variety that can produce abaca has a planting scale of 14.7 mu.

If all of them were changed to hemp crops, the by-product raw hemp production at this time each year would reach more than 600,000 tons.

This is just the Qiongzhou area.

If we include traditional banana-growing areas such as Lingnan and Guangxi Province, there are 1.1 million acres of banana planting area in the country. If the average raw banana yield per acre is 1.2~ tons, it will be more than million tons.

You should know that India, currently the world's largest jute producer, produces only 200 to 250 million tons of jute each year.

This will directly devastate the global jute industry.

But it is certainly impossible without promoting planting.

Therefore, the country must adjust the relevant industrial structure as soon as possible to make it more suitable for large-scale production of abaca.

Just as Zheng Siwen was inspecting the factory, his assistant called.

Soon he reached the door.

Several minibuses were parked in front of the factory.

The inspection team from Qiongzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences also came over. They were invited to conduct the inspection and also accompanied us as technical consultants.

"Hello, Manager Zheng..."

"Give my regards to President Jiang."

Everyone exchanged greetings.

On the cargo access channel on the other side of the entrance, tractors transporting banana stalks were lined up in an endless stream, waiting to enter the factory to unload.

The president of the Domestic Textile Association and others who were invited by the Qiongzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences came to the raw hemp production workshop.

Looking at the hemp fibers soaked in quicklime solution after being drawn by the machine, one of the energetic old men asked:
"How many kilograms of abaca can your company's dual-purpose bananas produce per mu?"

"About 1100∽1300 kilograms." Lao Huang replied.

"Yield per mu?" The old man was a little shocked. Before coming here, he had consulted many relevant researchers at the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

“It’s the yield per mu.”

The president of the Textile Association raised his glasses, looked at Zheng Siwen and asked, "It's incredible. I remember that your variety only takes about half a year to harvest in Qiongzhou, right?"

"It's the Little Mike variety. The other two varieties need seven or eight months." Zheng Siwen explained the difference.

Another person asked, "Do you have any raw abaca products?"

Director Wu led the way for everyone: "Yes, everyone please follow me."

Come to the hemp combing workshop.

Everyone saw second-grade, first-grade and premium-grade hemp silk.

Then we saw that these linen silks and long-staple cotton silks were blended into cotton threads of different specifications.

Many of the guests of the Textile Association are professionals, and they can tell the content and specifications of these cotton and linen threads at a glance.

After getting started with cotton, linen and silk, I was able to get a rough idea of ​​its comfort, flexibility and elasticity.

"Good quality."

“High-thread-count cotton and linen cords are also very good.”

"President Liu, do you think Qiongzhou can develop a larger-scale industry using abaca?"

The president of the Textile Association nodded and said, "It's not a big problem. According to the abaca yield of the new banana variety, if you plant all the hundreds of thousands of acres of bananas in Qiongzhou, you will soon become the world's largest raw hemp production area."

However, a vice president of the Textile Association whispered: "Although the abaca industry has great potential, we still have to consider the market. The development of the Indian jute industry is the result of the manipulation of European and American companies. It is not easy for domestic abaca products to enter the international market."

Everyone walked around the production line.

They found that Hailufeng Company’s production line was very complete, covering the source, primary processing, deep processing and reprocessing.

Chairman Liu picked up a cotton and linen short-sleeved shirt and said with a smile: "Your company's production line is really complete, and this product is also very good. Is it your company's own work clothes?"

"Our workshop only supplies internal work clothes and the like. We don't have any plans to mass-produce clothes for the time being." Zheng Siwen shook his head and replied.

"I see." Chairman Liu put down his clothes and said, "The raw hemp market and related industries will definitely change accordingly. I wonder how Hailufeng Company plans to promote its cultivation?"

Others also stopped communicating and listened carefully, because this was related to the development of the entire industry.

Zheng Siwen replied calmly: "Our head office has already formulated a plan. It is estimated that it will be promoted throughout Qiongzhou in 3 years and nationwide in 10 years."

After hearing the promotion schedule, everyone started discussing it among themselves.

“3 years in Qiongzhou, 10 years in the whole country?”

"This time is quite suitable."

"It is indeed safer to promote it only within Qiongzhou within three years. If there is any accident along the way, it is easier to turn around as the ship is small."

The president of Qiongzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences was concerned about another matter. He came over and whispered to Zheng Siwen, "Manager Zheng, I wonder if your banana varieties are ripe? I want to bring someone to try."

Zheng Siwen immediately guessed what the other party was thinking. He was probably worried about the flavor of the bananas. He checked the time on his phone and nodded, "Okay, it's almost noon, let's go to the banana warehouse together!"

The banana warehouse is next to the abaca factory.

In addition to the green bananas that are shipped to the mainland by sea, a small portion is stored here and is ready to be sent to specialty stores throughout Qiongzhou for sale.

"Ah Zhou, there are some ripe bananas in the warehouse, right?"

"Yes, I'll get it."

After a while, Zhou, the warehouse management team leader, came over with several boxes of bananas on a cart.

These are due to untimely logistics and a small number of bananas that are too mature when harvested and cannot be shipped by sea.

Zheng Siwen squatted down, tore off the plastic wrap, and shouted to everyone: "Everyone, please don't be polite, try it and give a review."

The president of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and several researchers studying banana breeding immediately broke off a few half-yellow bananas.

The others followed suit and broke bananas.

After taking a bite, one of the researchers who studies banana breeding frowned, then took another bite and savored it carefully: "This tastes really like Big Mike."

The president of the Textile Association took a bite and was surprised: "This banana tastes different from other bananas. It tastes a bit like the banana candy we ate when we were children."

Another banana breeder asked nervously, "Manager Zheng, is this variety related to Gros Michel?"

Zheng Siwen knew what these researchers were worried about: "Yes, but we use brand new technology, so we don't need to worry about yellow leaf disease or the like."

"I see."

"I never thought that Big Mike would come back to life one day."

After the president of Qiongzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences ate the Little Michel banana, he knew that this variety would not be too bad. Although its flavor is not as good as the real Gros Michel banana, it is at least 70% similar and very sweet in the mouth.

After eating it, other people were also very surprised by the taste.

This sweetness, which is different from other bananas, is one of the core competitive advantages of the Gross Michel banana that dominated the world's bananas in the last century.

Now, everyone has more confidence in the new variety of bananas.

(End of this chapter)