1994: Vegetable farmers strike back

Chapter 104 Frustration and Pride

Tianhe District, a medium-sized restaurant.

The diners left one by one after another, satisfied with their meal and drink, and the restaurant business was very good.

The boss Chen Zhenbang smiled when he saw his son Chen Ze walk in.

"Son, you worked so hard buying goods this morning, why don't you get a little sleep? Dad can handle the store!"

"I want to learn more from you, Dad. Besides, it's already past six o'clock, I've had enough sleep."

"A-zai, you've been doing pretty good lately. You've been helping me a lot."

Chen Ze asked in confusion, "You scolded me for being clumsy a few days ago, so why are you in the mood to praise me today?"

Chen Zhenbang smiled and said, "The water level has risen recently, so it's hard to buy vegetables. The two nearby stores ran out of vegetables the day before yesterday, and they're still out today."
Some diners came to our restaurant and were very satisfied with the taste of our vegetables.

A-zi, you did a great job. Others didn’t buy good vegetables, but you did.

Keep it up later."

Chen Ze smiled. It turned out that this was the root of the problem. It was worth it for him to run a lot of distance every day to find Chen the vegetable farmer to get vegetables.

"Dad, I want to cooperate with a vegetable farmer for a long time."

Chen Zhenbang pondered and said, "You want to send the restaurant's vegetables to him to cook?"

"No, just leafy vegetables. He's a vegetable farmer. I've been to his vegetable fields and they're pretty good. If he does well in the future, I think we can consider long-term cooperation."

Chen Zhenbang thought for a moment.

In fact, distribution should be left to wholesalers, but he didn't want to discourage his son's enthusiasm.

"Okay, just do it if you think it's a small matter. I'll leave the purchasing to you anyway."

"Okay, Dad."

Chen Ze entered the restaurant. The hall was almost full and business was booming.

Some of them come for the vegetables.

The heavy rain caused a complete loss of vegetable harvest and traffic disruption, which had a great impact on the vegetable supply in the city.

Because the supply of goods cannot be imported, many wholesalers have no vegetables to sell.

Some vegetables rotted on the road, causing even vegetable production bases to be reluctant to ship them to Huacheng.

A combination of factors has caused vegetable prices in Huacheng to skyrocket.
But for restaurants, the price is not a problem; what matters is that the food is available.

You don’t make much money from a serving of vegetables, but it can attract diners and make the restaurant more popular.

This is why the restaurant's business is booming.

Through this incident, Chen Ze also realized the limitations of wholesale stalls.

Although Chen Cai Nong is small, he has always had choy sum, and later also has similar types of kale and mustard greens, which gives him an indescribable feeling.
After thinking about it for two days, he finally understood it this morning when he was buying vegetables at the market.

Apart from being small in scale, Chen Cai Nong seems to be more professional than the wholesalers at the stalls in every other aspect.

Dedicated categories, unified standards, and stable supply~
As for most stalls, what vegetables they sell every day is basically up to fate.
As a result, even though he had been buying vegetables for several months, he was more impressed by the old vegetable farmers whom he had only contacted for less than 10 days.

At the beginning, Chen Cainong proposed long-term supply, he just felt that there was an opportunity for cooperation.

But in the past two days, he has changed.

When he mentioned this matter to Chen Zhenbang, he also said that he wanted to cooperate with Chen Cainong, not that Chen Cainong wanted to cooperate with the restaurant.

...

Meanwhile, at the Spruce Hotel, Xu He's situation was completely different.

The vegetables from Jiangxin Vegetable Market are also out.

At this moment, he was in the office of purchasing manager Liu Xiaoying.

"Can't we wait a few more days for the choy sum? Farmer Chen's choy sum is obviously better quality!"

Liu Xiaoying said expressionlessly, "But Jiangxin Vegetable Farm is Yunshan's contracted supplier. Everyone else has to take a back seat."

"It's just 80 kilograms of choy sum."

"Gou Tao meant that not even a kilogram would be enough, and everything that belongs to Jiangxin Vegetable Market must be given to Caixin Vegetable Market.

After all, Chen is just a small vegetable farmer, and his momentary success doesn't mean anything. In the long run, Jiangxin Vegetable Market is more reliable."

After a pause, Liu Xiaoying continued, "A vegetable base of several hundred acres is not as good as a small vegetable farmer. How many people do you think would believe it if you told them that?"

Xu He was speechless. He wanted to refute but didn't know where to start. It felt like he was playing the lute to a cow.

Liu Xiaoying had never seen the prestige and stability of Chen the vegetable farmer in the market, but instead went to see his scattered vegetable fields.
Xu He said, "It's okay to wait a day. I placed an order today, and I have to inform Chen the vegetable farmer in advance. If the Jiangxin vegetable market runs out of vegetables again one day, I will have to ask him for help."

"Haha~"

Behind me, I heard the sound of talking and laughing. Two men walked in. One of them said, "It seems that Mr. Xu doesn't trust our Jiangxin Vegetable Market."

The person who spoke was Liu Feng, the manager of Jiangxin Vegetable Market.

Next to him was the hotel's vice president, Gou Tao.

Gou Tao smiled and said, "Director Liu, Jiangxin Vegetable Market is a large market, with hundreds of acres of land. Ordinary small vegetable farmers are not qualified to compete with it. Only some people regard it as a treasure."

Liu Feng smiled and nodded, obviously agreeing with what was said.

"Mr. Xu, Jiangxin Vegetable Market has a lot of vegetables in the fields right now, so there's no problem ensuring the supply of spruce."

Xu He turned around and said thoughtfully, "It's better to be prepared. As of today, Jiangxin Vegetable Market has been out of vegetables for 28 consecutive days, almost a full month, not to mention the shortage in April and May.

In the past 28 days, I have run around all the surrounding wholesale markets for the supply of the hotel.

It’s so hard to establish a stable purchasing channel. If you stop taking goods without saying anything, it will be difficult to get vegetables next time when they are out of stock.

Mr. Liu, can you guarantee that there will be no shortage of goods in the next one or two months?
As long as you can promise to write it down in black and white, I can cut off other channels tonight and hand everything over to you!"

The old matter was brought up again, which obviously touched Liu Feng's sore spot, and his face darkened for a moment.

"No one can guarantee that. It's almost dog days, and no one can guarantee there won't be any accidents."

"Then it's over. You can't guarantee it, so I definitely have to stabilize other channels. Vegetables are hard to buy lately. Some restaurants can't even sell vegetables even if I beg for mercy. How can I just turn my back on you?"

"That's the truth, but it shouldn't be for small farmers either. Heavy pesticide use in the past two months has made it very easy for leafy vegetables to suffer from pesticide damage."

"Haha, I feel like other people's choy sum tastes better than yours~"

"Mr. Xu, do you know how to grow vegetables?"

"I don't understand, but I know who has always had choy sum, and who has been out of stock for 28 consecutive days!"

"You~that's a natural disaster!"

“It’s the same natural disaster, why can others grow vegetables?”

"What can one example prove? It's just good luck!"

"What good luck? It's just that your skills are not good!"

"Fuck~ Who are you calling bad at?!"

The two of them started arguing in the office. It was mainly because Xu He was angry. Every word he said was so sharp that it hurt people's throats, which also made Liu Feng angry.

You can say that someone who works in agricultural production management is old-fashioned and pedantic, but you cannot say that he lacks skills.

That's the guy who eats.
The two of them were on edge in an instant.

"Okay, what's there to argue about!"

Liu Xiaoying yelled.

She noticed that Gou Tao was watching the show calmly from the side, obviously wanting to see the purchasing department embarrass itself so that he could report it to the board of directors.

After the quarrel, she figured out the reasons and made a decision.

"Jiangxin Vegetable Market will definitely resume direct supply, but Xu He's channels have recently contributed to the hotel's supply chain. I'll give you one more day to communicate with them one by one."

Liu Xiaoying glanced at Gou Tao, then looked at Liu Feng:
"Manager Liu, Jiangxin Vegetable Market needs to tighten its management. We can't keep running out of vegetables. This is causing chaos in the hotel's purchasing management. Mr. Gou has raised the purchasing department's issues numerous times at meetings." Liu Feng complained, "Manager Liu, the weather in Flower City has been so unpredictable over the past six months. Batch after batch of vegetables have died, and the surrounding vegetable markets are all struggling!"

Liu Xiaoying pointed at Xu He and said, "Last time he took me to a small vegetable farmer, and they've had vegetables for over a month."

Liu Feng looked at Xu He.

Xu He raised his head and said, "I'm the small vegetable farmer you look down upon. I started buying vegetable hearts from him on the 2nd of this month, and it's been 20 days now. I've had vegetable hearts every day!"

"His vegetables are growing day by day, steadily reaching several hundred kilograms, or even a thousand kilograms!"

“Every day there are a lot of people waiting to buy his vegetables at the market!”

"There's a vendor in the market who's been selling his choy sum since the beginning of May. For 40 to 50 days now, he hasn't run out of choy sum even for a single day. So what if you have hundreds of acres of land? Is that a big deal? Can you guarantee a steady supply of choy sum?!"

Looking at Liu Feng's gradually surprised and even solemn expression, Xu He suddenly felt relieved.

"Oh, he only has a dozen acres of land, which is nothing compared to the hundreds of acres of vegetable farms invested by shareholders."

Liu Feng was still digesting this information and was actually a little surprised.

But facing Xu He's sarcasm, I can't give in.

"There's a fundamental difference between managing a large-scale base and managing a small retail operation with a few acres or even tens of acres. The most important thing is a complete range of products and a stable supply..."

"Are you as stable as him? You have no nerve to talk about stability after 28 consecutive days without food?!"

Liu Feng was so angry that his face turned green.

After retorting to Liu Feng again, Xu He felt relieved and waved to Liu Xiaoying.

"I'm leaving first, Manager Liu."

After going out, Xu He saw a familiar figure at the corner of the corridor, the hotel's general manager Xu Wenxiang.

Maybe she heard what was said just now.

Just hear it.

He didn't care. He was telling the truth. A large vegetable market covering hundreds of acres couldn't produce as much vegetables as a small vegetable farmer?

It's really ridiculous.

Shareholders have so much money they can't find a place to lose it, right?!

Moreover, Liu Feng couldn't guarantee that there would be food in the next month, and no one could guarantee that there would be no accidents.

Haha~
You don't dare to guarantee it, but he thinks someone else dares to guarantee it.

Early the next morning, Xu He came to the familiar corner again, and the cabbage heart was as beautiful as ever.

The price offered by the Spruce Hotel is very high.
Therefore, after Jiangxin Vegetable Market has vegetables, even though there is no problem selling them in the market, it also wants to give priority to restoring the supply of spruce.

However, when facing his order cancellation, Chen Cainong looked very calm, without a trace of emotion.

He could only silently settle the 280 yuan bill for today. "It's been a pleasure working with you. I may have to trouble you again in the future."

Chen Jiazhi smiled calmly and said, "There will be a chance."

Qi Yongfeng loaded the portioned vegetables onto a cart and waited for Xu He to set off.

Xu He took two steps and turned back: "By the way, can you guarantee that there will be food every day for the next one or two months? Will there be any accidents?"

This is a strange question.

Chen Jiazhi raised his eyebrows.

"I promised you, so you'll just keep taking my food?"

"No."

"Then why should I promise?"

Xu He was choked by his breath and could only leave silently and go to the next place where he often got food to say hello.

Chen Jiazhi didn't care much.

There are only 700 kilograms of Chinese cabbage today, and we have never had trouble selling it.

It is normal for customers to jump back and forth. Some stalls will also use various means to grab high-quality customers, such as giving gifts and kickbacks.
But it's just a small path after all.

What he needs to do now is to stabilize this path and then evolve step by step.

If you do your job well and persist for a long time, customers will come naturally. There is no such a big deal.

This is the most brilliant business war.

Therefore, the source of everything is still the planting at the base, and we must do the details well.

For example, the current hidden dangers of pests and diseases~
Although there were disappointments today, there were also joys. I lost the monk's order, but Chen Ze brought good news.

Chen Ze promised that as long as he could have a stable supply of Chinese cabbage, kale and mustard greens, the restaurant's leafy vegetable supply would be gradually handed over to him.

Chen Jiazhi naturally dared to agree.

He is now planning to rent a stall. He will have his own vegetables as a base, and will grow other leafy vegetables as well. If there are not enough, he will buy them from outside.
The business was done.

It's a very simple thing.

I processed orders from several customers and sold out about 700 kilograms of Chinese cabbage.

Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang next to them have not sold out yet.

Wormholes appeared on the leaves of the three people's vegetables, which were caused by flea beetles.

There is a shortage of vegetables now, and there are not many wormholes, so Yi Dinggan and the other two can still stabilize the vegetable prices.

While the three of them were selling vegetables, Chen Jiazhi was also counting the money. He earned 2362 yuan tonight.

not bad.

Including the money at home, I should have more than 6000 yuan, but there is no rush to deposit it in the bank.

The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and Li Xiu was about to give birth, but she still went to the fields every day.

However, Chen Jiazhi also discovered a pattern. When the family had more money, Li Xiu was not so greedy for farm work.

So he planned to save the money for a few more days.

after awhile,

Yi Dinggan and the other two finished selling their vegetables and went to buy meat. When they were about to go back, the rain started to fall again.

It rained heavily for a while, then it subsided. After waiting for an hour at the vegetable market, the rain stopped again.

Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang chatted and laughed as they went to take a shower. Chen Jiazhi looked at the dark night and felt like cursing God.

This short period of light to medium rain is the best time for adult flea beetles to mate.

How suitable is it for mating?
One flea beetle can reproduce up to 200 flea beetles in 3 days.

The question is, how many times a day does it mate?
Chen Jiazhi doesn't know how to answer this question.

I only know that when leafy vegetables encounter flea beetles, they bite a hole in them. When they are taken to the market to be sold, they don't make a sound.

Along with flea beetles, there are also aphids and cabbage worms, as well as the breeding of various pathogens.
Nowadays, vegetable farmers generally lack knowledge about these diseases and pests, and basically only take measures to prevent and control them after problems arise.

Very few people know how to prevent it.

Even Yi Dinggan, Li Mingkun and Guo Mancang, who knew that the vegetable fields were infested with pests and diseases during the day, did not realize at this moment that the situation might be even more serious.

While taking a shower, Yi Dinggan was still chatting and laughing about his income.
From time to time, I would talk about Chen Jiazhi, saying, "Brother, I envy you. You make two to three thousand dollars a day and bought a tricycle. When are you going to change to a van?"
Chen Jiazhi wiped his body silently.

Let them laugh and joke.

Laugh enough.

After a while, I won’t be able to laugh anymore.

(End of this chapter)