Chapter 209: Premium Mushroom Sales Crisis

An embarrassed expression flashed across Dong Guojiang’s face. He felt a little uneasy that a problem had cropped up so soon after he took over.

Still, he immediately explained the problem the company was facing.

“Here’s the situation: the batch of mushrooms we’re currently growing is so high-quality that we haven’t been able to find a suitable sales channel.”

????

Li Xiao was completely baffled by Dong Guojiang’s problem.

He couldn’t quite process it. ‘What does he mean, the quality is too good to find a sales channel?’

In his mind, good products always sold themselves.

Li Xiao asked in confusion:

“What do you mean, the quality is too good, so you haven’t found a suitable sales channel?”

Dong Guojiang immediately explained:

“If they were just ordinary mushrooms, we could easily sell them through regular wholesale markets.”

“But the quality of this batch is extremely high—it’s nearly on par with wild mushrooms.”

“And that means we can’t possibly sell this batch at the price of ordinary mushrooms.”

Li Xiao understood his point.

You couldn’t sell a Mercedes for the price of a Kia; that would be just plain stupid.

Dong Guojiang continued his explanation.

“Once I confirmed how high the quality of our mushrooms was, I immediately raised their pricing.”

“But we’re a startup brand, after all. Our mushrooms don’t have enough name recognition in the market, and many potential customers don’t understand their unique value. The distributors just won’t accept the price I’ve set.”

“And if we lower the price arbitrarily, it will seriously hurt our future brand value. It would be incredibly difficult to raise the price again later on.”

“So, the company is in a very awkward position right now.”

After hearing the explanation, Li Xiao immediately understood the company’s predicament.

They could certainly sell out their stock by selling cheap, but they would take a huge loss.

After all, while this new mushroom variety had improved flavor and texture across the board, its yield was actually lower.

Considering the company was using more expensive, higher-quality substrate bags, selling these mushrooms at the same price as regular ones would mean losing a ton of money.

But if they tried to sell at a high price, the buyers wouldn’t agree to it.

Just then, Dong Guojiang cautiously made a suggestion:

“Boss, I’ve tried these mushrooms before. They’re delicious. The texture and flavor can even rival some wild mushrooms.”

“What if… we adjust our brand’s strategy and direction and market them as wild mushrooms?”

“The market price for wild mushrooms is quite good right now.”

“Given the quality of the mushrooms we’re producing, an ordinary person would have no way of telling whether they’re cultivated or wild.”

“Plus, our production volume is stable, which gives us a massive advantage over true wild mushrooms. After all, the wild mushroom supply is highly dependent on climate and luck, making it extremely unstable.”

“As long as our company uses the ‘wild-harvested’ gimmick, it won’t take long for our brand to gain a foothold in the market.”

Li Xiao fell into thought at this suggestion.

‘Old River’s suggestion was indeed a good one.’

The price difference between cultivated and wild mushrooms is massive due to the significant disparity in flavor and texture. For some more extreme varieties, the prices can differ by a factor of ten or even twenty.

‘If their company’s mushrooms could be passed off as wild, selling them for a high price would be incredibly simple.’

However, he quickly shook his head and dismissed the tempting idea.

‘Although the quality of their mushrooms was indeed very close to that of wild ones, cultivated was still cultivated. There was still a difference between the two.’

‘Someone who knew what they were doing would still be able to taste the difference.’

‘Besides, passing off cultivated mushrooms as wild, while you could argue it’s a marketing tactic, is essentially just deceiving people.’

While Li Xiao didn’t want his company’s high-quality mushrooms to be overlooked, he wasn’t willing to stoop to deception just to make a quick buck.

‘But if he wasn’t going to lie, how could he sell these premium mushrooms?’

Mushrooms themselves have a very short shelf life. Once they reach maturity, if they can’t be sold within two or three days, their fibers will rapidly age, and both the texture and flavor will quickly deteriorate.

Seeing that Li Xiao wasn’t saying anything, Dong Guojiang reminded him, pressing the point:

“The matsutake we produce are by no means inferior in quality to some wild matsutake.”

“After all, with environmental pollution being so severe these days, the flavor and texture of some wild matsutake aren’t actually that good.”

Matsutake??

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck Li Xiao. He recalled a dish he had eaten before, and then, a person came to mind.

He pulled out his phone and scrolled through his contacts. Soon, a name appeared before his eyes.

[An Chongwen – Jiuhe Garden]

If he recalled correctly, Jiuhe Garden used mushrooms in quite a few of its dishes, and high-quality ones at that.

The 5J Ham with Pine Needle Crab Braised Rice he ate last time used wild matsutake.

Also, high-quality mushrooms were an excellent ingredient for making soup.

After a moment’s thought, he pressed the call button for the contact.

Meanwhile, An Chongwen, who was resting in his office, looked at the caller ID on his phone in surprise.

Of course, he remembered the name Li Xiao.

The man had found two serious problems in a single meal, which at the time had made him so ashamed he wanted to find a hole to crawl into.

How could he forget such a sharp memory?

Pressing the answer button, An Chongwen asked with a smile:

“Mr. Li, long time no see. What brings you to call me today? Are you looking to make a reservation for tonight?”

Li Xiao chuckled.

“It has indeed been a while since I’ve eaten at your restaurant.”

“However, I’m not calling to make a reservation today. I have a business matter I’d like to discuss with you, Executive Chef An.”

An Chongwen was a little surprised to hear this.

He wasn’t sure what kind of business he could possibly have to discuss with him.

Still, he replied with a smile:

“You must be joking, Mr. Li. I’m just an ordinary chef, what business could I possibly discuss with you?”

Li Xiao got straight to the point.

“I have a mushroom cultivation company.”

“Right now, I have a batch of exceptionally high-quality mushrooms, and I was wondering if you might need any?”

It dawned on An Chongwen. ‘So he wants to talk about supplying ingredients. No wonder he called me.’

As the restaurant’s executive chef, he did indeed have the authority to decide what ingredients to purchase.

However, he had very high standards for ingredient quality, and his current supply channels were very stable, consistently providing excellent products. As long as they didn’t run into any problems, he wouldn’t even consider changing suppliers.

Just as he was about to refuse, Li Xiao continued:

“Executive Chef An, don’t be so quick to refuse. I’m local, my company is right here in Yangcheng, and I have a batch of fresh mushrooms on hand right now.”

“I can provide a batch of mushroom samples for free, for you to try out, Executive Chef An. If you think they’re suitable, we can discuss a supply arrangement then.”

Since Li Xiao had gone this far, An Chongwen swallowed the refusal that was on the tip of his tongue.

“Alright. Since you have so much confidence in your own product, Mr. Li, I’ll give them a try. If they’re suitable, choosing to use the mushrooms from your company isn’t out of the question.”

The words sounded nice, but the subtext was clear: if the mushrooms weren’t up to snuff, there would be nothing more to discuss.