I saw everything

Chapter 87 The King of Oil (Medium Cup! More Updates!)
Jiang Miao and his group have just returned to Magong Town.

I received good news.

There is a trading company in Western Europe that specializes in high-end aquatic products. It came to us these days to seek cooperation.

Huang Jiahao, head of the International Trade Office of the Sales Department, briefed Jiang Miao on the situation.

"Boss, Aiken Company ordered 2.3 kilograms of glass eels from us at a price of 100 yuan per kilogram, and also signed a one-year long-term supply contract with us, requiring us to supply at least 200 kilograms of glass eels every month."

Jiang Miao was not too surprised by this number.

Because Europeans and Americans do not like to eat mature eels, but prefer to eat glass eel-grade eel fry directly. They consume at least several hundred tons of glass eels every year. However, the glass eels they consume are Atlantic eels, and the main production area is the Barracuda Sea in the North Atlantic.

In recent years, with global climate change, overfishing and environmental pollution, not only has the catch of wild Pacific eels decreased significantly, but Atlantic eels have also been unable to escape the clutches of humans.

As the catch of wild eel fry continues to decline, the price naturally rises year by year.

In this case, when we hear that an Asian company has developed artificial breeding technology for eels, it will naturally attract related companies to seek cooperation.

Jiang Miao estimated the company's current eel fry production scale.

The breeding base can produce about 6080 million glass eels every month, which is equivalent to about 6 tons in weight, and about 72 tons per year.

However, the indoor farms are being gradually renovated recently, and two layers of overhead breeding pools will be added to increase the production capacity density per unit area.

Through this transformation, by around August this year, Hailufeng Company's glass eel production capacity can be increased to about 18 tons per month.

This production capacity is just right, neither too much nor too little.

According to him, the planned monthly production of glass eels by Kagoshima Eel Company is not high, probably only about 1500 to 2000 million per month.

The reason why there are so few is mainly that the Kagoshima Eel Company is worried that once other companies imitate the technology, it will not be able to recoup the investment, so it dare not expand its scale blindly.

After all, the land, material, labor, water and electricity costs in Japan are relatively high, and blindly expanding investment would be too risky.

In fact, the Kagoshima Eel Company produces 1500 million to 2000 million eels per month, which is enough to cover about 70% of the market in Japan. After more than three months of sales, they have sold at least tens of millions of US dollars worth of eel fry.

Judging from the current situation, Kagoshima Eel Company is unlikely to choose to expand blindly before earning back 30 million in technology licensing fees.

After all, the Kagoshima Eel Company is very clear about its production costs and has no way to compete with the Hailufeng Company in the international market. Jun'ichi Watanabe feels that taking over 70% of the eel fry market in Japan is the limit of their company.

As for why it is not 100% of the market.

Of course, this is because there are farms that catch wild glass eels themselves, or purchase eel fry from Hailufeng Company.

This is also the reason why Jiang Miao was willing to grant technology authorization to Kagoshima Eel Company, because the other party had no way to threaten Hailufeng Company's international market.

As for Brown Company, they are still conducting technical verification recently and it is estimated that large-scale production will not be put into operation until the end of this year. The other party also informed Hailufeng Company of its planned production capacity, which is to produce 5 to 10 tons of eel fry per month.

As for why we don't increase production capacity, everyone knows it.

Because this production capacity is just right, combined with a portion of wild eel fry, it can just meet the demand for eel fry in various markets around the world.

If it exceeds this scale, it will inevitably lead to a major collapse in market prices.

Since we can maintain high prices with small quantities, why should we expand production capacity?
Are you asking for trouble?
Jiang Miao looked at the market research report in his hand and could clearly see the consumption of eel fry around the world.

去年全球一共消费了190吨左右的鳗鱼苗，其中北美地区33吨（食用）、欧盟地区76吨（食用）、其他地区8吨（食用）、东亚地区73吨（养殖）。

Among them, 7 tons were artificially bred and 183 tons were wild caught.

But this year, this situation is bound to be reversed, and the production capacity of artificially bred eel fry will soon exceed the scale of wild catches.

Hailufeng Company produces 18 tons of eel fry every month and 216 tons per year.

This production capacity is needed to meet the mainland's annual demand for 50 to 60 tons of eel fry, and this market is still growing; Ryukyu also needs about 5 tons of eel fry; in addition, the Japanese market also needs to purchase about 10 tons of eel fry from Hailufeng Company.

The remaining more than 100 tons of eel fry will all be sold to Europe and the United States, because they eat the eel fry directly and the consumption is even greater.

As for why European and American trading companies are willing to buy, the reason is naturally profitable.

In America, the retail price of glass eels can reach about 5000 US dollars per kilogram, equivalent to 3.5 Chinese yuan.

The retail price of glass eels in Western Europe is around 3500 euros per kilogram, equivalent to 2.7 yuan.

The continuous decrease in wild eel catches and the increasing animal protection efforts in Western Europe have caused headaches for many companies operating high-end aquatic products.

Now some well-informed companies have learned that Asia's Hailufeng Company has developed artificial breeding technology for eels, so they are ready to take action.

In fact, Brown Company also placed orders with Hailufeng Company, purchasing 500 kilograms of glass eels every month and directly airlifting them back to Western Europe for sale.

However, the production expansion was not completed in the first few months and the orders were not fully executed until June.

Jiang Miao knew that relevant companies in Europe and the United States would come to him one after another to order eel fry.

This made my brother-in-law, who was originally worried about overcapacity, feel a little relieved and continue to focus on expanding production.

Putting down the market research report in his hand, Jiang Miao knew that the domestic market was almost saturated. He raised his head and instructed: "Jiahao, your International Trade Office must take the initiative and focus on Europe and the United States. As for the Southeast Asian market, don't worry too much for the time being."

"Yes, boss. We have recruited a group of salesmen who can speak English, French and Spanish, and we are trying to find ways to open up the European and American markets." Huang Jiahao agreed with Jiang Miao's judgment.

Although there are eel farms in Southeast Asia, they mainly purchase wild eel fry or catch wild eel fry themselves, and the scale is less than one-tenth of that in China. This kind of market is really useless.

The Xiyuan Group of South Korea did send people to inquire about the price, but when they heard that Hailufeng Company was unwilling to lower the price, they turned around and left, preferring to purchase wild eel fry from the international market rather than buy eel fry from Hailufeng Company.

It seemed as if Hailufeng Company had lost their market and was about to go bankrupt.

In fact, Jiang Miao also looked down upon the Korean market. After all, the scale of breeding in South Korea was limited, only about one percent of that in China, and it could not purchase one ton of eel fry a year. It was simply wishful thinking to dream of getting a discount in such a tiny market.

When Jiang Miao thought of the Xiyuan Group, he remembered something else.

That is the Anye Aquatic Products Company that bribed my brother-in-law some time ago and secretly obtained the "confidential feed formula". It seems to have a close relationship with the president of the Xiyuan Group.

He knew that the two parties had a close relationship, and he found a secret hidden folder in Jiang Anye's mobile phone, in which he discovered the reason for the close relationship between the two parties.

Jiang Anye once saved the other person's son's life, and after so many years of cooperation, they maintained this relationship.

Thinking of this, Jiang Miao decided to take some time in the evening to investigate the Xiyuan Group. After all, the other party also had a high-end indoor farm specializing in eel breeding, and had a close relationship with Jiang Anye. Perhaps the two sides had some connection.

...

After chatting with Huang Jiahao for a while, his phone rang.

"Boss, you are busy. I will leave first."

"Ah."

Jiang Miao took out his phone and looked at the number. It was a familiar yet slightly unfamiliar number. Then long-forgotten memories came to his mind and he pressed the answer button:

"Hey, Mouse."

"Sanshui, I didn't disturb you, did I?"

"No! But you haven't contacted me for a long time. How have you been recently?" Jiang Miao asked with a smile.

The person on the other end of the phone also smiled and replied, "It's still the same as always. I'm working as an agricultural technician in the Agricultural and Rural Bureau in my hometown."

"You came to me suddenly. Are you in trouble? How much money do you need?" Jiang Miao asked very directly.

Because the two of them had a very good relationship and were close friends during college, he was hit by falling objects during his sophomore year and passed out. It was the other party who took him to the hospital, paid the medical bills, and took care of him for more than a week.

"Hahaha, you're rich now." The person on the other end of the phone laughed. After a while, he said, "I came to you this time because I have something to ask you, but it's not about money."

"Oh? What's that? You got married?"

"You are such a dishonest boy. You didn't even invite me to your wedding."

"Shuya doesn't want to trouble you. After all, you are so far away from each other."

"Okay, okay, let's get down to business."

"I'm listening..."

"Look, didn't you send me a few boxes of strawberries some time ago?" "That's right."

"I don't want to work in the system anymore and I plan to start my own business."

"Are you sure? Have you discussed this with your family?"

"not yet."

"So what are you going to do? Not agriculture, right?"

"Apart from agriculture, what else could it be? After all, my major is agronomy!"

"What about the direction?"

"Growing strawberries. Didn't you come up with three new varieties of strawberries? You should be able to sell the seedlings, right?"

"Strawberries? Are you planning to grow strawberries in your hometown, Lianhua County?"

"Yeah? Any problem?"

"I don't recommend it. My strawberries are priced high, and the core consumer group is in the Pearl River Delta. Your hometown doesn't have such a large consumer group. You can only go through e-commerce platforms, which is difficult to develop in the early stages."

"Uh... let me think about it!"

"Actually, I do have a suggestion. I wonder if you are interested."

"Sanshui, stop keeping us in suspense."

“Let’s plant tea leaves!”

"What is that? Oil-tea? Even dogs wouldn't grow this thing!" Haozi's words were full of disdain.

In fact, it’s no wonder that Haozi is so disrespectful of oil tea.

The main thing is that oil tea does have a lot of shortcomings.

To be precise, both the disadvantages and advantages are very obvious.

The advantage is that tea seed oil squeezed from tea seeds is a top-grade vegetable oil that is better than olive oil. It is rich in nutrients, relatively durable in storage, has a relatively high smoke point, and has a better oleic acid composition.

Long-term consumption of tea seed oil is beneficial to prevent or improve cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

The disadvantages are equally obvious: the oil tea planting cycle is relatively long, the yield per mu is very low, and the oil yield of tea seeds is also relatively low.

This may not be intuitive enough.

Taking an oil tea garden also in Jiangxi Province as an example, an enterprise called Shengke Ecological Agriculture has a 1500-acre oil tea base in Huangsha Town, Xiushui County: the specific planting scale is 37 acres of oil tea (already bearing fruit), and 1.8 kilograms of fresh fruit can be harvested each year, producing kilograms of oil.

If calculated based on 1500 acres, the yield of fresh tea oil fruit per acre is about 250 kilograms, and each acre of tea oil produced can only produce 12 kilograms of tea seed oil.

Even though the wholesale price of one kilogram of tea seed oil can reach hundreds of yuan, the value per mu is only a pitiful one thousand yuan.

In addition, oil tea is difficult to mechanize and must be picked manually. After deducting the costs of fertilizers, pesticides, land rent, equipment depreciation, etc., the value of the yield per mu is only more than 1,000 yuan, which is definitely a huge loss.

If not managed, the semi-wild tea oil trees can only produce a maximum of 100 kilograms of fresh fruit per mu. In a bad year, there may even be no harvest at all.

No wonder no one is interested in tea oil cultivation.

As for those posts and videos online that boast that the yield per mu can reach 50- kilograms and the oil yield of tea seeds can reach %, just take a look at them. If you really believe them, you will be in big trouble.

For example, one post described a large tea oil grower that produces 300,000 tons of tea seed oil annually.

You should know that the total annual production capacity of tea seed oil in China is only over one million tons. You alone produce 300,000 tons? Do you really think everyone is a fool?

The emergence of such exaggerated content is naturally due to the seed companies behind the scenes fanning the flames.

Those big farmers who were deceived into growing tea oil plants are better off. After all, they are all rich people who can afford to lose millions. In addition, there are subsidies for growing tea oil plants in some areas.

And those small farmers are the ones who have been really cheated.

Of course, for some oil tea gardens that use excellent varieties, have fertile soil, and adequate water and fertilizer management, it is indeed possible to achieve an output of 300 to 400 kilograms of fresh fruit per mu after entering the fifth year of the peak fruit-bearing period.

Jiang Miao, who was on the phone, continued with a smile and said, "Haozi, I have a new variety of oil tea here. If you are interested, you can consider it."

"New species? Is it true?" Haozi was a little surprised.

"It's a wild large-fruited tea oil tree. I feel it has good potential, so I did some research and hybridization. If you are interested, you can plant a dozen acres of it first." Jiang Miao said confidently even though he did not have any new varieties of tea oil trees.

"An experimental variety?"

"Well, don't quit your job yet. Anyway, growing tea oil doesn't require much management, and there are local subsidies. It will be more convenient for you to work in the Agriculture and Rural Affairs Bureau. You can grow crops and work at the same time, and register the plantation under your parents' name. When there is profit in the future, it won't be too late to quit your job."

"Okay then! I'll think about it."

"Well, when you've made up your mind, just call me."

"Okay, you go ahead and do your work!"

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Miao picked up the landline and called Wang Feng from the purchasing department, asking him to purchase a batch of common varieties of tea oil fruits as soon as possible, with at least five tons of each variety.

In fact, oil tea has great potential.

Especially Jiang Miao is in the hands of such a cheating player.

The current shortcomings of tea oil varieties are mainly in yield.

Don’t be fooled by the high-yield oil-tea varieties, which can produce up to 50 to kilograms of fresh fruit per mu and have a tea seed oil content of up to %. In fact, they are of no use.

Because only about one-tenth of every kilogram of fresh tea oil fruit is tea seeds.

In other words, the yield of tea seeds per mu is only 50 to kilograms, and the oil yield is %, so only about to kilograms of tea seed oil can be squeezed out.

Therefore, his direction in selecting tea oil varieties is very clear, that is, to select variant varieties with a higher seed content, and secondly to select varieties with a higher fresh fruit yield.

As long as the tea seed yield per mu can reach more than 100 kilograms, oil tea cultivation will become profitable.

Of course, Jiang Miao will not only select high-yield and high-seed varieties, but also need to take into account oil quality, growth cycle, cold and drought resistance, disease resistance, dwarfing and other characteristics.

This is an excellent oil tea variety.

As for the inconvenience of harvesting, it is because the yield of tea oil per mu is not high enough, and the relevant agricultural machinery companies have not invested funds to develop relevant harvesting machines.

If a high-yield tea oleifera variety really appears, we can entrust the relevant agricultural machinery companies to develop a tea oleifera fruit harvester.

A vibrating and shaking harvester similar to that used for pistachios can be used for harvesting tea oil fruits after some modifications.

As long as there is profit and market, agricultural machinery companies will even take the initiative to develop related equipment.

Developing new varieties of tea oil was not a sudden whim of Jiang Miao, but he had always had such a plan but had not spoken it out before.

Although the current domestic supply of grain and edible oil is relatively sufficient, a large part of the production capacity relies on raw materials from the international market to achieve sufficient supply.

And there is one thing many people don’t realize.

That is, vegetable oils are also divided into different grades, especially the type of oleic acid, the proportion of various oleic acids, trace elements, vitamins, etc. Each type of vegetable oil is different.

Among vegetable oils, tea seed oil is the king and olive oil is the queen.

However, pressed peanut oil, canola oil, avocado oil, and sunflower oil are basically in the middle, not too good, but not too bad either.

Soybean oil, coconut oil, palm oil and linseed oil are relatively inferior oils.

Why is flaxseed oil, which seems to be healthy, listed as one of the worse ones?
The reason is that flaxseed oil can easily go rancid, and its low smoke point makes it unsuitable for high-temperature cooking.

Therefore, Jiang Miao already had a plan in mind to develop high-yield tea oil varieties so that domestic people can eat tea seed oil that is cheap, good quality and good for health.

At present, the country needs 3800 to 4000 million tons of edible oil every year, while the annual output of tea seed oil is only 100 million tons, which cannot meet the national demand at all.

If the production capacity of tea seed oil can be increased 10 times, it can basically squeeze out a large part of the soybean oil market.

(End of this chapter)