I See through Everything

After sending the professors from Lion Mountain Agricultural University to the high-speed rail station, Jiang Miao called for his business secretary, Liu Deming.

He had him contact Yang Hejun, the chairman of Chengyi Group, to schedule a meeting for the following week.

Since it was the end of the month, he also reviewed the work briefings from each department.

He focused primarily on finance and human resources.

Financially, the company’s revenue in November hit a new high, with the combined revenue from all sectors totaling 814.05 million yuan.

This included 401.37 million yuan from eel fry and 22.57 million yuan from processed eel products.

Also included were 2.64 million yuan from Tomatoes, 3.52 million yuan from Ginseng Fruit, 21.36 million yuan from White Truffles, 4.18 million yuan from strawberries, and 93.25 million yuan from tea oil seeds.

And finally, 24.27 million yuan from Egyptian Catfish Feed No. 4, 170.25 million yuan from eel feed, 15.71 million yuan from crude fish oil, 42.53 million yuan from fish balls, fish meat, and live fish, 8.99 million yuan from food and beverage services, and 3.51 million yuan from gold and silver jewelry.

After deducting production costs, the gross profit was 525.31 million yuan.

Jiang Miao wasn’t surprised by these revenue and gross profit figures. As various projects gradually became operational, it was only natural for the company’s revenue to surge.

However, looking at the costs, the main expenditure was still the procurement of Egyptian Catfish, totaling around 180 million yuan. All other costs combined amounted to just over 100 million yuan.

However, the derivative products from the purchased Egyptian Catfish were quite profitable, generating around 251 million yuan in revenue with a profit of nearly 50 million.

It also reduced the feeding costs for the eel farms.

Despite this income, the company’s overall finances didn’t show substantial profits.

This was mainly because Hailufeng Company was expanding its operations so rapidly that a significant amount of capital was being funneled into growth.

Examples included the redevelopment of the over 50,000-mu Durian Plantation, investments in establishing the Gannan Tea Oil Plantation Base and the Lu Ling Tea Oil Plantation Base, and funding for the Red Grass Town strawberry base and the Bamboo Mountain integrated hydropower project.

However, since the Bamboo Mountain project, the Xinxiang Headquarters Building, and the Xinxiang Dongtian Employee District were all loan-financed, the company only had to make monthly repayments of several tens of millions of yuan to the Shanmei Agricultural and Commercial Bank.

When the expenditures for other projects were amortized monthly, they also became manageable.

Jiang Miao saw that the company’s net profit for the month was still around 270 million yuan.

Even after investing in so many projects, Hailufeng Company’s cash reserves remained as high as 840 million yuan, showing no signs of liquidity problems whatsoever.

This gave him even more confidence for his northward expansion into Monan next year.

Money breeds confidence.

With such vast cash reserves on hand, plus the monthly revenue, Hailufeng Company could easily withstand the failure of its Monan investment.

He planned to invest in large-scale farms in Monan for a couple of reasons. First, the current international climate was unfavorable. Second, frequent extreme weather events worldwide were causing the prices of major agricultural commodities to climb steadily.

Take soybeans, for instance. The current landed price is typically between 4,300 and 4,500 yuan per ton, up from around 3,800 to 3,900 yuan per ton at the same time last year.

Some might think, ’Aren’t soybeans just used for producing soybean oil? Won’t Hailufeng Company’s upcoming large-scale promotion of tea oil replace a significant portion of soybean oil? Why worry about rising soybean prices?’

However, soybeans are not merely an oil crop; they are a commodity primarily geared toward animal feed. The soybean meal left after oil extraction is a critical factor in the cost of raising pigs, poultry, and some aquatic species domestically.

Essentially, the price of soybeans determines the domestic price of meat.

Therefore, it was imperative for Hailufeng Company to increase the nation’s bargaining chips.

Since the approval process for new varieties of staple crops like soybeans, wheat, corn, and rice is notoriously difficult and strict, Hailufeng Company would have to first demonstrate tangible results on its own if it wanted to achieve rapid promotion.

Otherwise, showing up with an unproven soybean variety and expecting official cooperation for its promotion was just wishful thinking.

Jiang Miao estimated that Hailufeng Company would need to plant several hundred thousand mu at once to truly demonstrate the new variety’s superiority.

Finding several hundred thousand mu of land suitable for large-scale mechanized farming was out of the question in the south and extremely difficult in the North China Plain. The only remaining options were the Northeast Plain, the grasslands and deserts of Monan, and the Western Regions.

Considering water consumption, the choice was narrowed down to the Northeast and Eastern Monan.

After all, even the most drought-resistant soybean variety requires a certain amount of rainfall. A place like the Western Regions, with an average annual precipitation of only a few dozen millimeters and an incredibly high evaporation rate, was completely unsuitable for growing soybeans unless it was near a river or reservoir.

And the areas near rivers and reservoirs had long since been claimed by local farmers, corporations, and production and construction corps.

Thus, the Western Regions were ruled out.

The Kerchin Desert in Eastern Monan, on the other hand, was perfectly suited for Hailufeng Company’s investment.

Jiang Miao had developed three new soybean varieties, all of which could adapt to the sandy conditions of the Kerchin Desert.

That’s right—the new varieties he developed could be planted directly in sand. The land just needed to be leveled, sown, and watered once. In about ten days, the soybean seeds would take root and sprout.

Once the soybeans took root and sprouted, they only needed to be watered twice more during the first week. After that, no further irrigation was necessary. This was because their root systems had genetically mutated to include special water-storage structures, and their leaves had mutated to develop the ability to collect dew at night. The water stored from the initial waterings, combined with the dew absorbed by the leaves, would be enough to sustain them for the rest of their growth cycle without any additional water.

Of course, increasing the water supply would significantly boost the yield per mu.