Chapter 407: Deep Processing

Chapter 407 -190: Deep Processing

After the harvest ceremony for the Immortal Soybeans at Tamin Chagan Base, Jiang Miao stayed for another three days.

During that time, he held a series of discussions with several academicians, as well as representatives from various domestic research institutions, universities, and colleges, ultimately signing a number of scientific research cooperation agreements.

Among these, Northeast Agricultural University agreed to partner with Hailufeng Company at the Tamin Chagan Base to establish a comprehensive research institute for cold and temperate zone crop breeding. At the same time, the company recruited 60 recent graduates from the university majoring in agriculture and bioengineering.

In addition to Northeast Agricultural University, a significant number of recent graduates were also recruited from other agricultural universities in the Northeast and the North China Region.

The Monan Research Center now comprised five research institutes: the Biomining Research Institute, the Microbial Energy Research Institute, the Advanced Crop Processing Research Institute, the Cold and Temperate Zone Crop Breeding Research Institute, and the Cattle and Sheep Breeding Research Institute.

In total, the Monan Research Center had 226 researchers.

Jiang Miao had no intention of personally handling tasks like the further development and refinement of the Immortal Soybeans. Instead, he delegated them to the Monan Research Center.

He would offer guidance when he had time, but otherwise, the researchers would have to be self-reliant.

In truth, this work wasn’t that difficult. After all, Jiang Miao had already completed the hardest part.

With the foundation laid, it wouldn’t be too difficult for others to conduct secondary R&D.

Take the protein extraction process for Immortal Soybeans, for example. Since the three varieties of Immortal Soybeans had different protein contents, their extraction processes had to differ as well. The goal of researching these processes was to further reduce costs and increase efficiency.

For instance, there were huge differences in protein content between native domestic soybean varieties, genetically modified American Soybeans, and Immortal Soybean No. 3.

Genetically modified American or Brazilian soybeans generally have a protein content of 34–35%.

Native domestic soybeans generally have a protein content of 40–45%.

Immortal Soybean No. 3 has a protein content of around 52.7%.

Plant protein producers would definitely prioritize Immortal Soybean No. 3, followed by native domestic soybeans, Immortal Soybean No. 1, and Immortal Soybean No. 2. Their last choice would be genetically modified American or Brazilian soybeans.

Extracting protein from these different soybeans required research into using the appropriate sodium hydroxide solution or proteolytic enzymes.

Currently, the plant protein extraction process Hailufeng Company used was enzymatic extraction.

Jiang Miao chose enzymatic extraction over the more mainstream alkaline extraction. The reason was that Hailufeng Company’s core competency was biotechnology. Furthermore, the enzymatic method didn’t require as many chemical solvents, which reduced the difficulty of wastewater treatment.

Further upstream along the Yangxumu River, about ten kilometers west of the Tamin Chagan Breeding Base, Jiang Miao was inspecting the new soybean deep-processing facility with Liu Zhiben. Construction was proceeding around the clock.

The base was massive, sprawling over an area of nearly 5,000 mu. It included a soybean oil extraction plant, a soybean protein extraction plant, a soybean meal feed mill, a wastewater recycling facility, and a thermal power plant.

“The complex we’ve planned will be able to process 15 million tons of soybeans annually, producing 3 million tons of soybean oil, 4 million tons of soybean protein, and around 8 million tons of soybean meal.”

Clearly, the base was designed to service the 30 million mu of farmland throughout Zhelimu City.

After hearing Liu Zhiben’s description, Jiang Miao shook his head slightly. “Just producing raw materials will leave us facing immense competitive pressure down the line.”

“Boss, I know that,” Liu Zhiben said with a helpless look. “But the secondary deep-processing market for soybean products is also fiercely competitive right now.” He had already done his homework and even had the market research department conduct an industry analysis.

Jiang Miao was, of course, well aware of this.

In many domestic industries where the technical barrier to entry was low, the competition was bound to be cutthroat. If anyone can do it, a flood of competitors will naturally enter the market.

Whenever a technological breakthrough allowed for domestic production in any given industry, prices would tend to plummet. This was also why many companies in Europe and America had come to resent Chinese enterprises.

Of course, for the average consumer, this cutthroat competition was a relatively good thing. Otherwise, everyone would be stuck with all sorts of high-priced products.

Jiang Miao could already see the potential crisis looming over the soybean deep-processing industry.

As domestic soybean production skyrocketed, the oil could be diverted to make biodiesel. However, besides its use as animal feed, the soybean protein could only be used for food products like plant-based meat, tofu, dried tofu, and protein powder, or to produce rayon.

Hailufeng Company alone would be producing 4 to 5 million tons of soybean protein annually. Factoring in other companies, the market would soon be facing a production surplus.

A genuine glut.

After all, the domestic livestock industry used about 80 to 90 million tons of feed protein annually. This protein came from plant-based sources like soybean meal, rapeseed cake, corn, wheat, and sorghum, as well as animal-based sources like fishmeal.

Even if per capita consumption of meat, eggs, and dairy were to double, the annual demand for feed protein would only reach 160 to 180 million tons.

However, Jiang Miao wasn’t optimistic about the prospect of per capita meat, egg, and dairy consumption doubling.

For one, the median per capita income wasn’t expected to rise very quickly. Therefore, even with lower prices, it was unlikely that the resulting increase in meat, egg, and dairy consumption would double within ten years.