Chapter 387 - 183: Inducement

Chapter 387: Chapter 183: Inducement

Liu Zhiben retorted with a look of astonishment, "Are you talking about the Tianzhu that exports tens of millions of tons of rice every year?"

"Er... but that doesn’t change the fact that there are hundreds of millions of poor and hungry people in Tianzhu. Your technology could change that. I believe any conscientious company would publicize this technology without a second thought," the BBC reporter scrambled to argue.

"I think the reporter should go to Tianzhu and stop those tens of millions of tons of rice from being exported. That would directly alleviate the hunger of a hundred million people. Then we can discuss other matters." Liu Zhiben then moved directly to the next topic.

"The fifth question is from a reporter at ABC, regarding whether there are any food safety risks with Immortal Soybeans."

His expression was calm. "If the ABC reporter believes there’s a problem with Immortal Soybeans, they are free to have them tested. There’s no need to waste time asking questions here."

"The sixth question, from a reporter at the Xing Island Daily: In the future, will the soybean oil produced by Hailufeng Company enter the international market?" The moment Liu Zhiben saw the question, he understood their hidden agenda. He calmly replied:

"Our company has no plans to export soybean oil at this time, because we intend to use the soybean oil we produce to refine biodiesel."

Clearly, the reporter’s question was a deliberate attempt to sow discord. They wanted him to state that Hailufeng Company would export soybean oil in the future.

And why did they want that answer from him?

The reason was to create a sense of crisis for the two major palm oil exporting nations in Southeast Asia, thereby turning them against Hailufeng Company and Cyrus.

While Hailufeng Company did indeed have plans to export soybean oil in the future, there was no way Liu Zhiben was going to reveal that to a foreign reporter.

He answered a dozen more questions in a row.

With that, Liu Zhiben concluded the Q&A portion of the signing ceremony.

But Hailufeng Company’s signing ceremony in Zhelimu City wasn’t the only event happening today.

United Mining Company also officially signed a memorandum of understanding with the local government for the comprehensive development of the Hunshandake Desert. At the same time, it subcontracted the development of the Tengger Desert to Beidahuang Group and the Badan Jiling Desert to COFCO Group.

This flurry of announcements was a clear signal of the government’s official stance on desert development and utilization.

According to the officially released planning report.

It had already been planned to develop 120 million mu of high-standard farmland and 80 million mu of high-standard pastureland by 2030.

By around 2035, this figure was set to increase to 350 million mu, with preparations in place to expand by another 100 to 200 million mu of high-standard farmland at a moment’s notice.

At the same time, soybean production capacity was to be increased to a substantially high level by around 2030. The exact figure would depend on external factors and changes in domestic demand.

This was essentially a message to all other grain-exporting regions of the world: if you want a share of Cyrus’s import market, you’d better come to the negotiating table.

Many powerful interests had already caught on and were starting to book flights to come and negotiate.

Even the ABCD companies were forced to make a difficult decision.

Huang Changqing, who had been laying low in Peng City for a day, received a notice from his head office.

He breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently, the head office wasn’t firing him immediately. Instead, they had instructed him to use the network of contacts he had previously built to minimize the company’s losses as much as possible.

A vice president in charge of the feed business looked at the email from corporate headquarters with a peculiar expression. "General Manager Huang, headquarters wants us to negotiate with Hailufeng Company? To sell them our operations in South America?"

"Yes." Huang Changqing’s expression was calm.

Although the humiliation he had suffered at Jiang Haibo’s hands yesterday still stung, in order to carry out his orders from headquarters, he could only swallow his pride.

At the headquarters in Magong Town, Jiang Haibo was briefing Jiang Miao on several matters.

Suddenly, an assistant knocked and entered, holding a document.

"Boss, General Manager Jiang, we just received an email from Bunge Company. They say they want to cooperate with us to jointly develop our business in South America."

Taking the document, Jiang Haibo glanced at it before handing it to Jiang Miao.

Jiang Miao gave it a casual look, then shook his head and smiled. "Still up to their old tricks."

Jiang Miao’s words made Jiang Haibo realize. "It’s likely a trap. They want to lure us into South America, then use their local pawns to deal with us."

Jiang Miao instructed the assistant, "Reply directly and tell them to get lost!"

"Understood!"

Hailufeng Company hadn’t even finished establishing its domestic operations. Rushing to expand abroad now would clearly be unwise.

Compared to COFCO Group, which had been building its international presence for years, Hailufeng Company was still too green. Besides, if the ABCD companies were willing to use underhanded tactics against a giant like COFCO Group, they would have even fewer scruples with Hailufeng Company.

In South America, the ABCD companies’ home-turf advantage would be too great. They had countless ways to deal with Hailufeng Company.

For example, they could deliberately sell Hailufeng Company some prime farms. Then, after Hailufeng had invested heavily, they could secretly incite the locals to stir up trouble, or even directly fund rebels to carry out an armed confiscation.

A few years ago, Zijin Mining had several tons of gold stolen in South America. Behind the scenes, it was European and American financial interests secretly funding armed groups to orchestrate the whole affair.

Jiang Miao was not so arrogant as to think that Hailufeng Company could expect smooth sailing abroad. At this stage, going overseas was too dangerous.

He did not want his employees to come to harm overseas. If something like that happened, the blow to the company’s morale would be severe.

Therefore, he unhesitatingly rejected Bunge Company’s poisoned chalice.