I See through Everything

It had only been three days since the Yandun Mountain Feed Factory announced it was buying Egyptian Catfish.

In that time, they had already acquired over 1,200 tons of them.

If the factory’s two fish meal production lines were running at full capacity, they could process that entire amount in three days. However, to maintain continuous production, they had only activated one line, which was processing just over fifty tons of Egyptian Catfish per day.

To prevent a similar issue from arising with the feed production lines, Fang Yi had already decided to dedicate one of them to producing No. 4 Feed, the fattening feed for Egyptian Catfish.

Although the gross profit per ton of No. 4 Feed was only 1,000 yuan, they could still turn a profit by pursuing a strategy of high volume and low margins.

Now that the feed was being steadily produced, everything except for the one hundred tons of No. 2 Feed reserved for their own eel farm had to be prepared for sale.

The sales department didn’t find this task too difficult. After all, they already had a large client base of eel and Egyptian Catfish farmers.

First, they targeted the local Egyptian Catfish farmers.

Inside the purchasing office of the Yandun Mountain Feed Factory, several salespeople were already pitching to every farmer who came to sell fish.

One of the salespeople from Xinxiang said with a smile, "Uncle Dafu, don’t hesitate. This feed is the real deal. If you raise your fish according to our formula, you can get a harvest of around 15,000 kilograms per mu. Your costs will increase, but 15,000 kilograms will earn you a lot more money."

"Xiaoman, is that for real?" Jiang Dafu asked, still a little skeptical.

Jiang Xiaoman pressed her advantage. "Uncle Dafu, we’re all from the same area. How could I possibly cheat you? After all, the boss is from our village too. There’s a limited supply of this feed right now, so you don’t want to miss out. I’m making sure our own people get the first shot, which is why I’m offering it to you."

This explanation dispelled many of Jiang Dafu’s doubts.

After all, the Jiang family’s reputation in Magong Town was well-known. While they could seem a bit stingy when it came to funding village activities like sponsoring operas, ancestral rites, or public repairs, they were known to be very generous to local families facing real hardship.

Just last year, during the New Year, Jiang Dahai had given him a red envelope with 1,000 yuan to show support, since his wife was paralyzed and bedridden.

"Does one mu really need 2.4 tons?"

"Yes. Uncle Dafu, how many mu do you have?"

Jiang Xiaoman quickly followed up, "So for two mu, that’s 4.8 tons. Considering the shelf life, you should come get it every two weeks. That’s 0.8 tons each time. You can buy the other ingredients and fodder yourself according to the formula."

"So, should I pay now?"

"No need. We can just put it on a tab. When you harvest your Egyptian Fish, we’ll deduct the cost from what we pay you. Of course, you’re welcome to pay now if you prefer."

"Uh... of course I’ll have you deduct it then." Hearing this, Jiang Dafu naturally chose to take the feed first and have the cost deducted when he sold his Egyptian Fish.

This payment method swept away Jiang Dafu’s last shred of doubt.

In reality, this was equivalent to Hailufeng Company lending money to the farmers.

However, with this "loan," there was no need to worry about repayment. Barring any natural or man-made disasters, as long as the farmers successfully raised their Egyptian Fish, repayment was a foregone conclusion.

After all, no other companies in the area were buying Egyptian Fish on a large scale, so the farmers could only sell to Hailufeng Company. Under these circumstances, deducting the payment was very easy to enforce.

Soon, the other Egyptian Catfish farmers also began signing contracts to purchase the No. 4 Feed. Each of them also took home a copy of the technical manual on raising Egyptian Catfish.

To account for the farmers’ need to adapt to local conditions, the manuals didn’t contain just one formula, but five different ones.

For example, using peanut vines, corn stalks, and wild grass powder as substitutes for sweet potato leaves and pennisetum powder.

Additionally, if kitchen scraps and leftovers were used, the amount of No. 4 Feed could be reduced by around 15 to 20 percent.

These adjustments were all designed with the farmers’ diverse situations in mind.

Of course, since the farmers weren’t experts, they might not use the resources with maximum efficiency during the cultivation process, which could lead to yields falling short of expectations.

However, as long as enough No. 4 Feed was used, a minimum yield of 12,000 kilograms per mu could generally be maintained.

It all came down to whether the farmers were willing to learn the techniques. If they learned them well and managed their farms properly, reaching 15,000 kilograms per mu would be very easy, and possibly even higher.

「Meanwhile.」

The sales department, however, was running into some difficulty promoting the eel feed.

Fortunately, the company had anticipated this.

Although some of the eel farmers were skeptical, there were also quite a few who were willing to take a risk.

The sales department didn’t pressure its salespeople. It was, after all, a new product that needed time to be proven in the market. Once the farmers discovered the new feed’s benefits, they would come looking to buy it on their own initiative, no sales pitch required.

This was the advantage of a technology-based product.

Hailufeng Company’s feed didn’t need to compete head-on with the ordinary fish feed from other companies.

Besides, the Yandun Mountain Feed Factory could currently only produce 750 tons of No. 2 eel feed per month. In contrast, its production capacity for No. 4 Egyptian Catfish feed could reach about 9,000 tons per month.

Eel feed production was limited by the available supply of Egyptian Catfish Meal. Therefore, they had to gradually expand the scale of Egyptian Catfish farming.

Based on the current situation, to get the feed factory’s production lines running at full capacity, they would need to expand Egyptian Catfish farming by three to four times, to a scale of roughly 3,600 to 4,800 mu.

With the increased yields from the No. 4 Feed, this scale of farming could supply the factory with 21,000 to 29,000 tons of Egyptian Catfish per month. That, in turn, would allow them to reach their target production capacity of 9,000 tons of No. 2 eel feed monthly.