1988: Back to the human world for a few years

Chapter 259 White Eggplant
"White eggplant?"

Hearing this term that was beginning to fade from their memory, the village party secretary and the village director looked at each other with a hint of suspicion on their faces.

Before the introduction of high-yield red eggplants in the 1980s, the old varieties of eggplants in China were quite diverse. The two common colors of eggplants, purple and black, had varieties with all kinds of strange shapes and characteristics, and green and white eggplants were not uncommon either.

That’s right, although the various varieties of white eggplants cultivated by the Kingdom of Judah in later generations were very popular in China, with their prices often being two to three times, or even three to four times, of ordinary eggplants, in fact, white eggplants have been available in China for a long time.

However, the country is still in a "survival" stage as all kinds of materials are still not abundant. No matter what the crop is, people are more concerned about the yield. Therefore, while red eggplants and various first-generation hybrid varieties have quickly become popular in various places, the traditional old varieties with not very high yields have been unprecedentedly cold-received by growers in just ten years.

and so……

Your drilling company invested so much money to let us grow white eggplant, which is considered a low-yield variety among the old varieties. Are you sure you are not kidding us?

Seeing this, Sun Jian just nodded and said, "Secretary Zhong, Director Xie, you heard it right. We are planting white eggplants... To be precise, we are planting the white eggplant variety of [White Hebao]... We will invest a lot of money and jointly establish a new agricultural cooperative with Houyu Village to jointly develop this project."

Inject capital to establish a new agricultural cooperative?
Isn't it a sales agreement?

After hearing this plan which was somewhat beyond their expectations, the two hesitated and couldn't help but turn their eyes to Qu Mingli.

Receiving the looks from the two, Qu Mingli asked without hesitation, "Manager Sun, I just want to know why you want our village to grow this obsolete thing? If you don't explain it clearly, even if the drilling company pays for it, it will be difficult to carry out the mobilization work!"

Sun Jian's attitude towards Qu Mingli, the middleman for this project, was undoubtedly much softer and more approachable, with no trace of his previous pretentiousness at all.

After smiling and sending out a bunch of Hongtashan cigarettes, Sun Jian finally spoke in Mandarin with an accent still lingering: "Old Qu, look at what you're saying... the thing that was eliminated?"

"We are a typical case of begging with a golden bowl in hand!"

Taking out a lighter and lighting the cigarette in his mouth, Sun Jian glanced at Qu Mingli who was a little puzzled. "Section Chief Yang once told me that we should not underestimate the wisdom of our ancestors, nor should we underestimate the taste and pickiness of our ancestors... If something can survive thousands of years of trials and tribulations, it must contain a lot of treasures."

"Although this white eggplant has rarely been seen in the market in the past two years, I believe that everyone has eaten this thing more or less before, right?"

The three of them nodded in unison. Eggplant is a plant with a wide range of adaptability. Although it was not very popular in the past due to its high oil absorption, fortunately the yield is relatively large, so they naturally eat a lot of it, and white eggplant is naturally indispensable among them.

Sun Jian shrugged. "Although the red and curved eggplants that are the mainstream in the market have a larger output and are more affordable, to be fair, do you still think that the white eggplants have a more delicate texture, a stronger flavor, and taste better?"

Qu Mingli nodded: "That's true. Although eggplants are big and cheap nowadays, they always taste a little off."

The village director at the side even laughed and joked: "It's not just that the taste is a little worse. In the past, white eggplants could be eaten as fruit directly after being broken off. Now the red eggplants have such thick skin and a bitter taste that they can't be eaten raw."

After taking the opportunity to reminisce about his childhood experience of stealing melons and dates, the village director changed the subject: "It tastes better, but the yield is not high enough! Even though we can occasionally see some people selling white eggplants, the price is more expensive than red eggplants, but overall, it is still far less cost-effective than growing red eggplants!"

This is the truth. Compared with the white eggplant varieties that the Kingdom of Judah spent a lot of time and energy to cultivate in later generations, the old varieties of white eggplants native to China are small in size, irregular in shape, low in yield, and have a long growth cycle of nearly a month. Therefore, even though they are more resistant to diseases and pests, their economic value is far inferior to that of the mainstream red eggplant and hybrid purple eggplant at present.

In fact, this was also the reason why the village director and the village party secretary hesitated before.

Although Houyu Village is not wealthy, thanks to its good geographical location, it has been living a decent life in the past two years by growing a variety of miscellaneous crops and vegetables... At least it is more profitable than growing the so-called white eggplant.

To be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that it was the Xialiu Sales Agency representing the drilling company that proposed this project, they might have walked away immediately... If you want to be a sucker and waste your money, that's your business, but don't drag our entire village into suffering!

Hearing the village director's advice, Sun Jian smiled indifferently: "Indeed, based on the current situation, growing white eggplants, which have no yield advantage in our country, is far less cost-effective than growing red eggplants and purple hybrid eggplants; but that's because the price can't be sold at a high price... But if the yield is increased and the price can be sold at more than two or three times that of red eggplants, do you think it's cost-effective to grow white eggplants?"

More than two or three times?
The three of them were stunned. At present, the price of red eggplants in Boshan is about 2 cents per pound. The price of purple hybrid eggplants is slightly higher, but the price is only about 2.2 cents per pound. If the price of white eggplants can exceed 5 cents...

Thinking of this, the village director's breathing quickened. You know, even if the yield of red eggplants has an advantage, it is definitely impossible for them to reach twice that of white eggplants. At most, the increase in yield is 30%~40%... In the field of agricultural products, a 10% increase in yield for each iterative variety is already a very remarkable number.

only……

The village director was still hesitating whether to speak, but Qu Mingli asked before him: "Twice the price of red eggplants? Manager Sun, you are not fooling us?"

Sun Jian was not angry at all about Qu Mingli's straightforward style, but laughed: "How could I possibly fool you?"

“I think you may have misunderstood one issue. Not many people in China are willing to grow white eggplants, not because of their taste, but because their yield is not superior to other eggplants of the same kind.”

"Unfortunately, the current situation in our country is that the masses are not wealthy and only consider having enough to eat, rather than eating well. Therefore, the white eggplants with better taste cannot be sold at a high price, and the disadvantage of low production is fully exposed;"

"But it's different abroad. Foreigners are rich and have no worries about food and clothing. They value quality!"

"Therefore, white eggplants with a more delicate taste and richer flavor will be very popular as long as they are presented in a way that they can accept... Foreign food tastes are different from ours. Many countries do not like to use too many seasonings, so the flavor of the ingredients themselves is very important;" "Currently, whether in Europe, America, Japan or South Korea, eggplant varieties are mainly hybrid eggplants. Although the output has increased, due to the variety and planting time, the flavor really cannot be compared with these old varieties in our country."

Sun Jian shrugged his shoulders and said, "As we all know, foreigners are very rich. The red eggplants that cost 1- cents a pound in our domestic market cost - cents a pound in their country, which is equivalent to several yuan... Even red eggplants are so expensive. They taste better, but the yield is lower. White eggplants that are more novel to them must be sold for dollar a pound, right?"

One dollar a pound?
Doesn’t that mean… six yuan per pound?

Hearing this extremely exaggerated number, the three felt a little suffocated.

"Well, according to what you said, white eggplants are so good, why don't those foreigners grow them themselves? Why do they have to buy them from us?" The frightened village party secretary was a little puzzled.

Sun Jian chuckled, "They do want to plant, but they need to have enough seeds... According to Chief Yang, many of the old varieties that are looked down upon by the public in our country are treasures that foreigners are desperate to get! If our country had not been cautious in dealing with the outside world over the years, do you think they would not have set their sights on this?"

"Hehe, experts from the Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences said that the flavor of livestock meat is about 60% to 70% determined by feed and feeding methods; and the taste of plants is about 60% to 70% determined by their variety... These old varieties of crop seeds that we don't value nowadays are treasures of inestimable value."

This is true. The period when the loss of domestic seed resources was most serious was from the early to mid-1990s to the mid-millennium. Before that, the situation was not prominent due to limited distribution channels.

In fact, this is why Yang Mo's first batch of projects will focus on old varieties with high potential, such as white eggplants... The essence of modern business is to capture the minds of consumers, so in addition to the time difference, he also needs to rely on his ancestors' capital and take advantage of the difference in crop resources.

Although they didn't quite understand why those foreigners were so eager for these seeds, since Sun Jian said so, they just believed it... They also learned from Shen Yong that the drilling company had been committed to exploring foreign trade channels for its tertiary industry projects this year, so they didn't doubt that they had a way to sell these white eggplants to foreigners at a high price.

………………

Now that there is basically no doubt about the prospects of the white eggplant planting project, it is time to discuss the basic framework of cooperation.

"In the new agricultural cooperative, Momo Baitou invested 200 million yuan, accounting for 33.4% of the shares, and Houyu Village held 4000% of the shares on the basis of providing 66.6 mu of vegetable planting base... Regarding this point, Section Chief Yang emphasized that it is recommended that the villagers of Guicun jointly establish a new village cooperative, each of which will invest in shares at a discount according to the land and manpower, and then this new village cooperative and Momo Baitou will jointly establish an agricultural cooperative."

"The 200 million yuan will be deposited into a special account to build simple greenhouses for these vegetable bases and to pay for the purchase of agricultural materials such as seeds, fertilizers, and medicines..."

"In order to avoid resistance from the villagers, the eggplant planting project will only occupy the land for five months each year, from the end of October to the end of March of the following year... During the rest of the time, the villagers can freely plant other crops without destroying the simple greenhouses, but they have to bear all expenses themselves..."

"After the white eggplants are harvested, they are currently mainly supplied to the Xixiangfeng Canning Factory in Zhua Town and two other food factories that have signed supply and marketing agreements. However, it should be noted that these brother units will only subscribe to 70% of the white eggplants for canning production, and the remaining 30% needs to rely on our own efforts to supply the market in the form of vegetables... This is not only true for our white eggplants, but also for any other planting projects. Section Chief Yang said that we must learn to walk on two legs and cannot just stick to the foreign trade line. As long as it is a good product, it should maintain the most basic voice and presence in the domestic market..."

"Regarding profit distribution, the New Farmers' Cooperative will distribute dividends once a year. After reserving the costs of planting, maintenance, and expansion for the next year, the rest will be distributed according to the respective shareholding ratios... But it should be emphasized that 5% of the annual profit will be deposited into a special account to maintain the daily expenses of the Hope Primary School in the village. This is the premise of everything. This part of the cost will be shared by both parties according to the shareholding ratio; and each village must make a written guarantee that under no circumstances will this cost be included in the village levy..."

………………

It took Sun Jian half an hour to put forward his own conditions, and then he spent another hour and a half to answer the questions of others one by one.

The final result was quite satisfactory. After Momo Baitou took the initiative to bear all the initial costs of the project and found a channel to support the consumption, although they were not very confident that they had to rely on their own efforts to consume 30% of the production capacity, all in all, this white eggplant planting project with huge investment is still very promising.

Come to think of it, you don't have to spend a penny, and you can sell the "white eggplant" whose yield is slightly higher than that of ordinary white eggplants at 6 cents per pound to several canning factories and food factories that have already negotiated. Not only do you get a simple greenhouse for free, but the mandatory land use period each year is so useless that it can be ignored for five months before and after the winter... Such a good thing, who would be willing to offer you such conditions!
In fact, it is precisely because of such low risk that the village party secretary and village cadres agreed to hold a mobilization meeting for this project in the village... They are not ordinary villagers. It is impossible for them to blindly agree to everything the drilling company does just because the drilling company donated a Hope Primary School out of friendship. They have to be responsible for these 4,000 villagers.

After the discussion, when Qu Mingli sent Sun Jian out of the courtyard as he was in a hurry to go to the next village to discuss cooperation projects, he finally asked the question that puzzled him: "Manager Sun, the eggplant planting project can be done anywhere. Although Houyu Village has some advantages in terms of geography and climate, the advantages are not great... Why don't we invest in a water celery planting base here? I think we may have more advantages in this area."

Sun Jian just smiled when he heard this, and after looking at the clean Xiushui River in the distance, he replied: "I know the water quality here is good, and the water celery you grow here will definitely be of good quality;"

"But the problem is..."

"Firstly, there is no habit of eating water celery abroad, and the domestic consumption range is also obviously limited to certain regions. In addition, this thing is not sold at a high price at present, so the overall market potential is not great... Of course, if the medicinal and health value of water celery is developed with the development of science and technology, that would be another matter;"

"The second, and most important point..."

"Water celery needs to be grown in clean, running water, but your village only has this section of Xiushui River, which can only accommodate two or three hundred planting units at most. If you invest in this project, how will the benefits be distributed among the villagers in your village?"

As he spoke, Sun Jian patted Qu Mingli's shoulder meaningfully: "Chinese people have always been worried about inequality rather than scarcity. Mo Mo Baitou is here to repay a favor, not to cause trouble for you!"

"So, for a village like yours with a relatively large population, Chief Yang's instructions are to prioritize scale and build up slowly... We have to eat one bite at a time. As long as the cooperation is pleasant, you don't think that your village only has this one project, right?"

Sun Jian said with a smug smile: "Besides, who told you that Houyu Village doesn't have much advantage in growing white eggplants... These days, everything depends on one's mouth. As long as your white eggplants start to be exported in large quantities, and then the domestic shipping price is set, it will be much more expensive than eggplants from other places. Don't ask, just say [this is the white eggplant produced in our Houyu Village, it's different]... At most three to five years, your Houyu white eggplant will definitely be a famous brand in China!"

Qu Mingli, who was originally deep in thought, looked at him blankly after hearing this, not understanding what this guy meant by his last few words...

(End of this chapter)