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Chapter 652: Chapter 642 Welcome the Visiting Group (Part 1) (Extra Chapter 8 for Haixuelao)
Time flew, and it was already early October; the watermelons and muskmelons in the fields were ripe.
More than thirty acres of watermelons and twenty acres of muskmelons were planted, and there were definitely more than they could consume by themselves, so Shen Yunfang started to look for sales channels.
At this time of year, as long as you have goods, there’s no worry about not being able to sell them. However, she was now short-staffed. Everyone on the farm had responsibilities of their own and couldn’t spare the time to sell watermelons, so Shen Yunfang went directly to Director Bai for help—and of course, she brought gifts, several 20-kg-plus green-skinned large watermelons.
Thus, it wasn’t long before the farm’s watermelons and muskmelons found their buyers, being consumed directly by various government offices in Z City.
Shen Yunfang only needed to deliver the watermelons to these organizations, then wait to collect the money.
This time, the more than thirty acres of watermelons yielded almost 200,000 kg, with each watermelon weighing more than 20 kg. After accounting for the melons kept for their own consumption and those given away, there were more than 7,000 large watermelons remaining. It might seem like a lot, but it wasn’t too much to distribute amongst a provincial capital’s government offices.
The yield of muskmelons wasn’t as high as the watermelons; each acre produced about 2,500 kg, and twenty acres yielded 50,000 kg in total.
After all these were sold, Shen Yunfang brought back 14,000 yuan. Deducting the cost of hired transportation, the profit should be around 11,000 yuan.
Thinking about the nearly 3,000 yuan spent on transportation costs, Shen Yunfang felt a pang of heartache. She immediately decided that as soon as she had time, she would buy a truck. This time it was a lack of experience; having no truck on hand meant she had to hire one, but come winter, when the greenhouse vegetables were ready, she couldn’t afford to waste this kind of money.
Unexpectedly, her act of approaching Director Bai to sell watermelons had directly secured a sales route for her greenhouse vegetables.
It happened like this: after hearing Shen Yunfang’s request, Director Bai, considering the alluring face of the massive green-skinned watermelons, immediately went to the Mayor and brought the watermelons with him.
The Mayor was also a watermelon aficionado, so the issue was resolved promptly. Seeking benefits for the staff didn’t count as a breach of principles.
Later, the Mayor became interested in Shen Yunfang’s newly established farm and invited the Governor and several deputies from the city to supervise the watermelon harvesting one day.
This farm was an emerging enterprise in Z Province, which provincial and city leaders took very seriously. Watching the workers tirelessly picking melons, they praised them highly, and then Yunfang, as the owner, led the officials on a tour.
The workers’ dormitory was, of course, a must-see. The Governor was pleased with the cleanliness and order of the building and showed great interest in the employee rules and regulations posted at each stairwell.
After visiting the dormitory, they proceeded to the breeding area. After September, Zhang Bin had reassigned the workers from the city to this location. Both the breeding farm and greenhouse were under construction, so now behind the dormitory, five breeding houses had been erected.
Once the leaders understood what this place was, they joked, "This is great. If you haven’t found seedlings yet, I can help you find a source."
Upon hearing this, Yunfang quickly grasped the underlying offer and expressed that they were still looking for seedlings and were quite troubled by it. If the officials could indeed solve this for them, it would be a tremendous help.
The leaders smiled like the Buddha himself, nodding at Yunfang, thinking that this Xiaoshen was quite agreeable. 𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒑𝒖𝒃.𝙘𝙤𝒎
Later, through Director Bai, Yunfang learned that the official who had offered to help her find seedlings was a leader from R City, in charge of R City’s economic development. Two years ago, he responded to the national call to open up the economy and started organizing a project to establish a seedling factory. But whether it was due to marketing issues or problems with the project itself, the factory had disappointing returns despite operating for two years. If it were a private enterprise, it might have closed down under such circumstances, but the seedling factory remained standing in R City, indirectly proving the leadership’s strength above.
Now that the leader had offered to help Shen Yunfang get in touch with seedling suppliers, it was also a way to drum up business for his own enterprise.
Yunfang didn’t care about his hidden motives, as the saying goes, "It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white, as long as it can catch mice, it’s a good cat." Yunfang was in that frame of mind—she didn’t care who made the money, as long as she could get quality seedlings at a fair price.
So privately, she got the telephone number of the seedling factory from the leader and waited to contact them later. She couldn’t haggle with a leader, after all.
After visiting the breeding farm, the group moved on to the vegetable greenhouses.
Seeing the neatly arranged dozen or so vegetable greenhouses, the provincial governor called Shen Yunfang over again to express his satisfaction and praise her.
His comment on her was that she was very courageous and had a great mind. Z Province needed private entrepreneurs who dared to think and act.
Shen Yunfang smiled modestly, then gestured for the leaders to visit inside the greenhouses.
"This is an eggplant, right? I know it. I used to grow a lot of them when I went to the countryside." The governor walked into the greenhouse, squatted down in front of a seedling, and examined it carefully.
"Wow, Governor, you really have a discerning eye; this is indeed an eggplant," said a leader whose official rank was unknown, flattering him.
Shen Yunfang stood aside, minding her own business, playing the part of the backdrop; she really couldn’t chime in on this.
"Heh, Xiaoshen, I see your greenhouse is quite large," the governor stood up and looked forward, the rows of young vegetable plants stood bright and fresh, bringing a smile to the face.
It was at this time that Shen Yunfang stepped forward to answer, "Yes, the standard size of the greenhouses here is two hundred meters long and ten meters wide, covering more than three acres."
"I saw from the outside just now, and there must be about a dozen greenhouses in this row," the governor continued deeper in.
"Yes, currently there are fifteen, and one more is under construction; it will be completed in a day or two and then can be immediately put into use," Shen Yunfang had decided to construct these sixteen greenhouses this year.
"Oh? That’s quite a lot. What have you planted?" Although he had already seen them, he was still shocked by Xiaoshen’s grand scale when he heard there were actually so many.
This investment was not small at all, at least tens of thousands of yuan.
"Mainly string beans, eggplants, hot peppers, persimmons, cucumbers, and celery, the usual vegetables," Shen Yunfang briefly introduced them.
In fact, in these sixteen greenhouses, she had planted eleven types of vegetables. String beans, eggplants, cucumbers, persimmons, and celery were each grown in two greenhouses. Then cowpeas, large hot peppers, small hot peppers, leeks, and spinach were grown in one greenhouse each. These were all specifically planted for the New Year celebration, so they were all common vegetables that people eat regularly.
"Hmm, that’s already quite a variety of crops. Our main goal in growing vegetables is to enrich the common people’s vegetable basket. Seeing your greenhouses, I can imagine how rich the dinner tables will be for our people this winter," the governor expressed his gratification.
