I See through Everything

Coming down from Yandun Mountain Farm.

He passed the feed factory. In early August, farmers had swarmed the place, bringing in their Egyptian Catfish for purchase. As time went on, however, the farmers had become more rational and no longer rushed over all at once.

Now, the factory’s purchasing department was only acquiring 70 to 90 tons of Egyptian Catfish per day.

Jiang Miao walked straight into the feed factory.

Fang Yi, the factory manager, wasn’t there. He was over at the second feed factory, which had just been acquired a few days prior.

The second factory wasn’t too far from the first. It was located about 1.3 kilometers north along the road from the main entrance.

The second factory was much larger, covering roughly 80 mu. The site had previously been a wooden furniture factory, and a portion of the land included forest and orchards that the former owner had leased.

To avoid any future complications, Jiang Miao had already tasked Jiang Haibo with handling the conversion of the agricultural land to industrial use as quickly as possible.

The task was relatively simple. After all, Hailufeng Company had significant influence locally, so the land management bureau wouldn’t give them any trouble.

When Deputy Factory Director Liu Hongjun heard the boss had arrived, he quickly sent someone to show him in, explaining that he was currently with some clients.

Liu Hongjun turned to his guests, looking a little embarrassed. "My apologies. Our chairman is here to inspect the factory. I’m afraid I’ve neglected you."

"Not at all, Factory Director Liu," said a ruddy-faced, middle-aged man. "In fact, I’d like to meet your chairman."

"Then please wait just a moment, General Manager Li."

"Of course," Li Jianye said with a smile, lifting his teacup for a sip.

Liu Hongjun hurried out to greet Jiang Miao.

Meanwhile, in the factory’s reception room.

Li Jianye crossed his legs. ’He hadn’t paid any attention to Hailufeng Company before, since their businesses had never overlapped.’

’It wasn’t until half a month ago, when a team leader from Hailufeng’s Beibu Gulf sales division personally visited him to pitch their crude fish oil, that he’d even heard of the company.’

’Normally, Li Jianye wouldn’t have given a small, door-to-door sales company the time of day, but the circumstances of the past few months had forced his hand.’

’Over the last few months, due to a major production cut at the Peruvian Fishery, global fish oil prices had skyrocketed, climbing from around 3,500 yuan per ton in ’24 to 5,300 yuan per ton.’

’In this climate, the price of domestic fish oil had also risen accordingly, reaching between 4,800 and 5,000 yuan per ton.’

’Oulaiti Company, which had long been in the fish oil deep-processing industry, could only respond to the soaring raw material costs by raising its own prices.’

’But Oulaiti Company had a major problem: it didn’t have its own crude fish oil production base. They had always relied on purchasing crude fish oil from external suppliers for their deep-processing operations.’

’Other domestic deep-processing companies had developed by leveraging local fishery resources. They were all located along the coast. Oulaiti Company, however, was the exception, situated inland in Guilin Green City, Guangxi Province.’

’This meant Oulaiti Company’s production costs were higher than those of its domestic competitors.’

’During this global price surge, the other domestic deep-processing companies had raised their prices, but not by much—only by about 10% to 15%.’

’This small margin of increase put Oulaiti Company in a very difficult position.’

’Imported, primarily-refined crude fish oil contained 22% saturated fatty acids, 46.5% monounsaturated fatty acids, and 24.3% polyunsaturated fatty acids.’

’During refinement, the saturated fatty acids had to be removed, while the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids needed to be separated. After a series of further deep-processing steps, the resulting high-concentration polyunsaturated fatty acids constituted food-grade fish oil.’

’For a typical food-grade fish oil, the combined content of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids had to be at least 60% to 70%.’

’To reach pharmaceutical grade, the polyunsaturated fatty acid content had to exceed 85%.’

’With the landed cost of imported crude fish oil at 5,300 yuan per ton, plus the costs of deep processing, their production cost for a ton of food-grade fish oil had ballooned to 12,000 yuan.’

’Yet the current domestic wholesale price for food-grade fish oil was only 15,000 yuan per ton.’

’This market price had thrown Oulaiti Company into a crisis.’

’The companies with their own domestic production bases seemed to be in unspoken agreement. They held firm, refusing to budge from the 15,000 yuan market price. Clearly, they intended to squeeze companies like his, which relied solely on imported crude oil, into bankruptcy.’

’And fish oil couldn’t be stored long-term at room temperature; it required cold storage.’

’But cold storage was expensive, and most companies only had small freezers for temporary storage of crude fish oil.’

’Faced with this situation, Oulaiti Company was in a state of panic.’

That was why, the moment he heard Hailufeng Company produced fish oil, Li Jianye had rushed over with his team to investigate.

「A short while later.」

"This way, Boss."

Jiang Miao followed Liu Hongjun into the feed factory’s reception room.

Liu Hongjun made the introductions, and the two parties got acquainted.

"General Manager Li, are you here to purchase fish oil?"

Li Jianye nodded and let out a bitter laugh as he aired his grievances. "I am! The price of imported crude fish oil is too high this year. My company is struggling to absorb the cost."

"If the price is right, we would certainly be willing to work with your company," Jiang Miao said with a smile.

Li Jianye replied with a helpless expression, "General Manager Jiang, to be perfectly honest, while your company’s quote is relatively low, it’s still more than we can afford."