Chapter 388 - 183: Enticement

Chapter 388: Chapter 183: Enticement

Huang Changqing and his team, still in Peng City, had braced themselves to be humiliated by Jiang Haibo once again. However, they didn’t expect that he wouldn’t even agree to meet them, completely foiling Bunge Company’s little scheme.

When Huang Changqing saw Hailufeng Company’s reply email, his face flushed red.

[Our boss says to get lost!]

The assistant, not one to shy away from trouble, had sent Jiang Miao’s exact words.

After composing himself, Huang Changqing felt humiliated again, but surprisingly, he didn’t feel much anger. Perhaps it was because he had grown accustomed to Hailufeng Company’s rudeness, or perhaps his mindset had subtly shifted after the ABCD companies took a heavy blow.

He calmly drafted an email back to headquarters, reporting that Hailufeng Company had refused to cooperate.

Since Hailufeng Company didn’t take the bait, Bunge Company could only instruct Huang Changqing to approach COFCO Group and other companies.

The other three ABCD companies were also trying everything to sell off a portion of their South American assets. It was partly a move to cut their losses and survive, and partly a trap to lure someone in.

Of course, COFCO Group wasn’t afraid of them. They had already been establishing their presence in South America for many years and had a solid foundation of power there.

Now, holding the trump card that was Immortal Soybeans, if the other side dared to cause trouble, COFCO Group could simply cut off the region’s import quota and throw their industries into chaos.

Hailufeng Company didn’t accept this sugar-coated poison pill because they lacked the strength to swallow it, but COFCO Group was a different story.

However, Jiang Miao wasn’t concerned.

He and Jiang Haibo were listening to Zhang Xinyi’s report.

Zhang Xinyi was beaming. "Due to the impact of yesterday’s news, registered users for our specialty store app surged by nearly 5 million. We now have a total of 36,130,000 users."

"Sales should have increased, right?" Jiang Miao asked, looking at the report from the Qiongzhou Branch.

"The strawberry, Ginseng Fruit, and Tomato products are constantly out of stock—they’re basically snatched up the moment we list them. As for the fish products, honey, and the recently launched Hero Pure Milk, yesterday’s sales were 10 to 15 times higher than usual."

Jiang Haibo, who often handled daily management, understood the problems in the e-commerce division even better than Jiang Miao. "Xinyi, what’s the inventory pressure like for our fish products?"

"Currently, our monthly inventory isn’t large. The wholesale channel can sell 20,000 to 30,000 tons of fish products per month, while the retail channel only sells one or two thousand tons a month," Zhang Xinyi answered truthfully.

"I saw your feedback report. Some customers have mentioned they’d like us to add more variety to our fish products. Based on your suggestions, the aquaculture division came up with a few proposals yesterday. I’ve looked them over but haven’t decided which one to go with yet. You should take a look too." Jiang Haibo handed three proposal documents to Zhang Xinyi.

Zhang Xinyi sat down and carefully looked through the contents of the proposals.

It was true that Hailufeng Company’s line of fish products was not particularly diverse.

Canned fish: four varieties.

Fish balls: four varieties.

Plus fish floss, fish sausage, fish tofu, fish cakes, and fish-skin dumplings.

That was only thirteen products in total.

"The first proposal is to introduce new flavors, like spicy ones. I think that’s worth considering, but it would be best to have product samples first."

"The second proposal is to develop whole new product categories, like fried fish skin or fish-skin jelly, which would require adding new production lines."

"The third proposal is to produce ready-to-cook fish-based meals. This would also require adding new production lines."

Zhang Xinyi thought for a moment. "For the first proposal, as long as we finalize the product, we can use our existing production lines. I think we can move forward with that one first. For the other two, we should develop the products first and then decide whether to add new production lines based on how they turn out."

"Alright, I’ve noted down your thoughts," Jiang Haibo said, writing her ideas in a notepad.

Just then, Jiang Miao looked up. "Xinyi, I want you to go back and research the possibility of sourcing and retailing third-party agricultural products."

Zhang Xinyi asked in surprise, "Third-party agricultural products? You mean listing products that our company doesn’t produce ourselves?"

"Yes. We would buy agricultural products from the areas surrounding our various branches, package them, and then sell them to customers through our platform."

"This would require coordination with the purchasing department."

"Discuss it with Wang Feng and come up with a viable proposal."

"I can do that."

This idea occurred to Jiang Miao mainly because he had just overheard the conversation between Zhang Xinyi and Jiang Haibo. He knew they couldn’t just ignore the problem of having too few product categories in their online store.

At this stage, Hailufeng Company couldn’t produce every type of agricultural product, nor would it be possible in the future. Therefore, bringing in products grown by ordinary farmers would be a necessary supplement.

For example, products from around Hailufeng Company Headquarters like lotus root, daylily buds, amla fruit, and green plums.

Or from near the Gannan Branch, things like Gannan Navel Oranges, Bamboo Shoots, blueberry, Guangchang White Lotus Seeds, and Taihe Silkie Chicken.

And all kinds of tropical fruits from the region where the Qiongzhou Branch is located.

Hailufeng Company certainly wasn’t going to produce these items themselves, but the local farmers didn’t have many sales channels. Hailufeng Company could leverage its own channels to sell their products.

Of course, sales were one thing, but they couldn’t relax on the quality control for these agricultural products.

For instance, take the matter of using de-acidifying agents on citrus fruits. Many farmers can’t resist the temptation, and under the lure of profits from distributors, they choose to use these agents simply to get their fruit to the market earlier.

You couldn’t blame the farmers for being greedy; it was the distributors who disregarded the market in pursuit of profit.

Although the de-acidifying agents used nowadays have been replaced with safe, non-toxic versions, that doesn’t mean they can be used frequently.

What Hailufeng Company needed to do was break the channel monopolies held by the local "fruit kings" and "vegetable barons," bring better profits to farmers, and supply consumers with high-quality, affordable agricultural products.

He hadn’t launched this line of business before because Hailufeng Company didn’t have its own online channels. Another reason was that the company wasn’t yet strong enough to suppress the local bosses.

For example, look at why Pang Donglai could never expand beyond Xinxiang.

It was because the vested interests in other places were too entrenched; they did not welcome Pang Donglai’s arrival.

With Jiang Miao’s current power and influence, those local bosses wouldn’t dare to cause trouble.

After all, they were just a bunch of small-time players in the fruit and vegetable industry. Faced with a giant like Jiang Miao, if they dared to cause trouble, they would be wiped out in an instant.