America: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 330 Procurement

Zhang Ailun drove his Wrangler to the town of Verola. After asking the locals for directions to the cannery, he drove there and parked at a nearby intersection.

Looking at the factory's logo and buildings, I realized it had been around for quite some time. The exhaust fans were humming loudly, and there were delivery vans parked outside, with workers unloading boxes of canned goods and loading them onto the vans.

Zhang Ailun immediately took out his phone and called the factory manager to inform them that he had arrived at the cannery in the town.

The person in charge told them to wait a moment, and soon came out of the factory with his men.

Upon seeing the conspicuous car parked on the side of the road, a middle-aged white man wearing glasses and a suit quickly walked over to greet him.

"Hello, sir, are you the customer who booked online to come and view the goods at our facility?"

"That's right, it's me." Zhang Ailun shook hands with him.

The other person introduced himself, saying, "I am the owner of the Verola Ranch Cannery, as well as its investor and manager. You can call me Fos Verola."

"Hamburg Juan King. This is my friend, Sig Comprey." Zhang Ailun nodded and woke Sig in the car.

"Boss, have we arrived?" Sig opened his sleepy eyes, stretched, and after a few seconds, immediately got out of the car.

Zhang Ailun locked the Wrangler with the car keys and followed Volkswagen to the factory. He also asked, "Mr. Verola, isn't your boss here?"

"Mr. Kim, this is our family business. The current owner of the cannery is my father. The Verola Ranch Cannery was originally established in the early 20th century by my grandfather and then passed on to my father. We also provided aid to the Pacific War, supplying food and military supplies to a large number of Allied troops. You should be able to find relevant information about this online. We can guarantee that the canned goods produced in our factory are safe and have undergone professional food safety monitoring," Fox said.

"However, my father wasn't exactly a business genius. Compared to making and selling canned goods, he was probably more interested in playing golf and horse racing, which meant the cannery's business had always been lukewarm. Fortunately, many residents of the small town were used to eating our canned goods, and they were also available in discount supermarkets in the surrounding areas, as well as supported by many online shopping orders, which kept us afloat. Now my father is getting a bit old, and he's handed over many things about the cannery to me, but obviously, I'm not a genius either, so all I can do is offer discounts to boost sales." Fox smiled helplessly.

"The reason we chose your canned goods is because of your favorable prices and the quality of your food," Zhang Ailun praised.

After finishing his speech, Fox led the two into the interior of the cannery for a tour. They could see that the factory covered a large area and had many assembly line workers and canning equipment. Although the equipment looked to be from the last century, everything seemed to be in good order.

However, only a portion of the assembly line equipment could be seen producing finished canned goods. Rows of processed cans were neatly arranged on the platform. Workers, wearing work clothes, masks, and rubber gloves, placed the cans in cardboard boxes printed with the factory logo, then sealed and packaged them on trolleys.

Then other workers push carts to transport the goods to bread trucks outside for delivery. Whether it's transporting them to nearby supermarkets or mailing them home, it's a smooth and efficient process.

The processing of products like chicken, beef, and luncheon meat is done in secret in a factory behind the scenes, and it's impossible for ordinary people to visit.

Unless quality inspectors from relevant departments bring some permits, they won't be allowed to open inspection channels. Otherwise, what if competitors come in and cause damage, and find things like rat heads and duck necks inside? They'll just smash the signboard to pieces.

The company went bankrupt after being reported by a customer, resulting in millions in compensation.

Fox also had his staff bring over canned goods, opened them on the spot, and took out tableware for the leader and Sieg to taste and eat.

"Our main canned goods are beef, chicken, and luncheon meat made from whole pork hind leg meat without any minced chicken breast. We add potato starch, corn, peas, and carrot pieces to ensure a high meat content and rich flavor while providing essential micronutrients. Mr. Jin, you mentioned earlier that this is supplies for mercenary teams, right? Are you in the arms industry or with PMC?" Fox asked with concern.

Zhang Ailun tasted several canned foods and found that they were surprisingly good.

The beef was tender and juicy, the chicken was smooth and tender, and the luncheon meat tasted great. There were also some subtle fruit and vegetable pieces. Although it contained potato starch, it tasted just like real pork.

The flavor is more like Russian ham, with meat inside, rather than starchy sausage.

What's even more infuriating is that some countries produce starch sausages that actually contain fake starch!

You can use all starch to pass off inferior products as superior ones, at most selling them cheaper, or you can use more zombie meat to sell them for a higher price.

But you can't advertise meat sausages or starch sausages while simultaneously adding all sorts of advanced technology and rudimentary techniques to them.

That bite wasn't starch or pork. It was all carcinogenic additives! This stuff is made so consumers might die young!

If the Beggars' Sect disciples had been able to eat such good canned food when they were begging on the streets, they wouldn't have had to suffer from hunger.

While the meals provided by the Los Angeles shelters and street food trucks are free, nutritious, and provide ample food and drink, there's still a queue. The meat quality isn't great either, consisting mostly of zombie meat and leftover frozen meat, but since it's free, there's not much to complain about. It's still better than those suckers who pay for refurbished food; these are already very conscientious businesses!

In terms of taste and quantity, Verola Cannery is a very good and conscientious cannery. No wonder it has not gone out of business for so long. Although it does not make a lot of money, it can keep the cannery running by word of mouth and has consumers who are willing to support it.

Just as Sieg was about to say it was for orders from Africa, the Grand Master interrupted him, explaining, "I have a private island in the waters between California and Mexico, where more than a hundred people are stationed. Although there are cold storage facilities to ensure the food is fresh, it's also a good option to occasionally get some ready-to-eat canned goods to change things up and have as a late-night snack."

Fox was quite surprised upon hearing this. "You own a private island? You must be a billionaire!"

"No, no, the island doesn't have much money, just a few hundred million dollars," Zhang Ailun said, waving his hand.

"..." Fox was speechless. "I don't think I asked you how much it cost, did I?"

Who asked you!

But he didn't pay too much attention to such small details. What he cared more about was how to establish a long-term partnership with the leader and promote his canned goods.

"Your canned food tastes good."

The leader nodded and said, "But a can of food costing fifty cents is barely profitable, considering the current prices of beef and pork. With such high-quality ingredients and so much meat content, you'd even lose money selling it at that price."

"We usually sell to supermarkets for $1.8 to $2.2. Only discounted and wholesale prices are below one dollar," Fox explained. "You're buying so many cans at once, 50 cents is the discounted price!"

"May I inquire about the source of your meat?" Zhang Ailun asked. "I passed by your ranch before and noticed that you didn't raise many cattle, so you probably can't provide much raw material for the cannery. I need to find out more; after all, I can't let my soldiers eat meat of unknown origin, can I?"

Fox was surprised that they had even noticed this, and immediately nodded and said, "Because the livestock business on our ranch isn't doing very well, we have indeed been buying beef and pork from outside. When my father ran the cannery, we were self-sufficient in meat from our own ranch, but after sales increased, we sold a few plots of land, and we couldn't guarantee that we could supply the cannery with enough meat. So we chose to get our meat from the street or other channels, just like other canneries, which is much cheaper."

"But I can guarantee that the meat is definitely not from animals that died of disease."

Fox then led the two into the cold storage room and the meat processing room.

You can see a lot of beef and pork, as well as whole chickens, inside. The staff cut and deboned them, removing the less desirable parts, and then put them on the assembly line machine for chopping and processing.

On the other side, after cooking and seasoning, and with the addition of fruit and vegetable granules, they are categorized and sealed in a large pot for stewing. A pile of canned meat is cooked in a high-temperature pressure cooker and becomes mushy in just a few minutes.

The cooking time was also just right, because any longer and it would have simmered away completely.

It's like cooking chicken in a popcorn machine; when you open it, there's nothing but smoke—everything evaporated.

Then it is put into the production line pipe for rapid cooling, accurately weighed and placed in canned food boxes, sealed, and then it can be freshly baked.

This is considered a relatively slow production line, and many of the devices are old things from the last century.

"You buy all your meat from street vendors?" Zhang Ailun glanced at the meat and was surprised to find that it was all relatively fresh cold cuts, slaughtered no more than two months ago.

It wasn't some World War II pork, but an old cow from the Qing Dynasty.

Such good quality meat, yet it's selling for such a low price. The leader has real reason to suspect that these are animals that died accidentally in the slaughterhouse, but judging from the color of the meat and the safety inspection stamps, it's all meat that meets food safety standards, which is really strange.

Sieg reminded him, "Boss, have you forgotten? Back then, the Irish in the sewers, their leader was in the pork smuggling business, and there was also that cold storage company that got shut down."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Ailun suddenly realized what it meant; so that's the type of meat.

That is, the kind of beef and chicken that street drug smugglers hang on refrigerated trucks as a cover for smuggling drugs.

After the smuggled drugs were sold, the remaining meat also needed to be processed, so they simply sold it off at a low price to meat processing plants that needed it.

But that's all normal, edible meat. It either ends up in supermarkets, canneries, or is simply thrown into cold storage. Smart drug dealers, to save money, will wait for the next batch to come out before using it as a prop. They're all seasoned actors.

If the police seize the refrigerated truck, they will confiscate the drugs, and the meat will be thrown directly into the kitchen.

Besides, you're already eating canned food, so why would you care about additives? There aren't any real leaves growing on it anyway.

Zhang Ailun nodded and said, "Now that we know where your meat comes from, there's no problem."

Fox was surprised by their knowledge and readily admitted, "Of course there's nothing wrong with the quality of this meat. We've processed it. The price is cheaper through street channels because some meat is smuggled and can't be processed, resulting in a large stockpile that ends up being sold to canneries."

"Since there are no problems, let's sign the order contract as soon as possible. I want 50000 boxes each of luncheon meat, beef, and pork canned goods," Zhang Ailun said.

"Okay, Mr. Kim, you will need to pay us a total of $75000." Fox was overjoyed and quickly had his staff bring out the order contract for him to sign.

He then asked, "Will you be paying the deposit in cash or through an online payment method?"

"Deposit? Full payment, please."

Zhang Ailun said matter-of-factly, "There's no need for that. I happen to have enough cash with me."

He immediately had Sieg retrieve the cash from the car and paid the remaining balance directly.

"Including our previous canned goods inventory, we can have these 15 cans sorted out by noon at the earliest. Where would you like them delivered to?" Fox put away the money, his smile incredibly bright.

"You can discuss these matters with my assistant, Sig." Zhang Ailun directly handed over the receiving task to Sig. After all, the other party also needed to deliver military supplies. They should be able to find a fast sea freight ship or air freight to send the supplies to Central Africa. The task should be completed by the evening at the earliest.

After touring the factory facilities, he asked, "Are you considering selling your cannery?"

Fox paused for a moment. "I did have that idea before. Because business competition is so fierce these days, our cannery has a small market share, is poorly managed, and has a debt to the bank. But right now, this order from you is enough to keep us going for a while. I'd like to give it another try. If it really doesn't work out, I'll have to sell it."

"Okay, if the response to this batch of canned goods is good, I'll consider placing another order. If the cannery is interested in selling, they can also contact me," Zhang Ailun said with a smile. Seeing that the other party wasn't particularly keen on selling, he didn't press the issue.

The two sides chatted for a few more minutes, and after Sieg finished negotiating the follow-up delivery arrangements with the staff, he turned around and left the factory.

Volkswagen escorted them all the way out of the factory gate, and the leader got into a Wrangler.

After chatting for a few more minutes, he let Sieg drive, waved goodbye, and drove straight away from the town.

On the drive back to Los Angeles, the Grand Master also received a message from Madison. He opened it and saw that it was about Silver Island.

Madison: I've already helped you contact some Colombian government officials and negotiated a deal. They're willing to sell the sovereignty and development rights of Silver Island, but some contractual terms still need to be signed offline, and you need to pay them $2000 million. Only then will the bill on the transfer of island sovereignty take effect, and they will also issue an official statement announcing the transfer of Silver Island.

Zhang Ailun: Do you need me to take some people to Colombia?