Chapter 440: Industrial Extension

Gannan, Ren Tian Town.

As November drew to a close, the local navel oranges were ready for a bumper harvest.

The entire town had 23,000 mu of orange groves, making it a sizable production area.

Three days ago, the mobile acquisition team from Hailufeng Company’s Agricultural Cooperative Division arrived in Ren Tian Town, bringing their equipment and core technical staff. The town government had previously approved a dedicated plot of empty land for their use.

A small team that used to build scaffolding for rural opera stages in the Shanmei Region had been poached directly by the company. They spent two days on the roughly three-mu plot of land, erecting three large sheds. Combined with a dozen or so RVs, this formed a temporary factory and residential area.

Of the 23,000 mu of navel orange groves in all of Ren Tian Town, 15,000 mu had been contracted by the company.

As for why they didn’t contract groves in the core production area for Gannan Navel Oranges, it was mainly because most of those orchards were already under contract. The Agricultural Cooperative Division had to settle for the next best thing.

On a 50-mu navel orange orchard in Ren Tian Town.

The orchard’s owner, Li Gensheng, and his family were extremely anxious.

His family’s oranges were the ripest, so their orchard was among the first batch to be purchased. Early this morning, the mobile quality inspection vehicle had already arrived near his orchard.

At this moment, five quality inspectors were carrying various instruments, conducting sample tests on the orchard’s soil, leaves, weeds, and fruit.

A little over two hours later.

The quality inspection team leader held a simple report and handed it to the head of the harvesting team. “Old Song, the soil pollution levels aren’t over the limit. Pesticide residues on the leaves and weeds are below the threshold. We found no issues with the fruit. The sweetness and acidity are both fine.”

“I’ll keep a copy of the report. You guys can continue sampling the other orchards.” Old Song took the report and stuffed it into his satchel.

“I understand,” the quality inspection team leader nodded.

The company’s quality inspection operations had only been established for two months, but their rules and regulations were already very thorough. This left no room for the inspection teams, acquisition teams, or growers to play any tricks.

This current spot check at the orange orchard was called the preliminary inspection. It only tested for items that could be checked quickly, which were also the most critical ones.

Next, these samples would be sent quickly to the Gannan Branch’s testing center for a secondary inspection. This round of testing would be more precise and in-depth, and would also cover the items not included in the preliminary inspection.

But if that was all, there would still be some loopholes.

Thus, there was a tertiary inspection. The testing center responsible for this third check was not a subordinate agency of the Agricultural Cooperative Division. Instead, it was jointly managed by the Brick-and-Mortar Division, the E-commerce Division, and the Sales Division.

The tertiary inspection’s main purpose was to test products currently being sold. In other words, they would directly sample products from various stores and warehouses. If they discovered a problem, they would descend directly on the production site without letting the preliminary or secondary inspection personnel conduct a re-test.

Three inspections, by testing agencies from three different departments. If something could still slip through the cracks, it wouldn’t be a minor issue.

Such strict testing ensured the products would not have any problems with agricultural residues, contamination, or disease.

In fact, in addition to the three inspections conducted as the agricultural products neared market, there were also unscheduled spot checks for various items during the growing season. This had already greatly reduced the problem of improper pesticide use and illegal chemical agents during cultivation. The final three inspections were just an extra layer of insurance.

…

Seeing the inspection report was out, Li Gensheng quickly asked, “Team Leader Song, how will the price be set?”

“Don’t worry! It passed. We’re just waiting for the labels,” Old Song said with a chuckle. He used a small knife to cut open a navel orange, took a bite of the pulp, and handed the other half to Li Gensheng. “Our company’s tech is pretty good, isn’t it?”

“That’s good, that’s good.” Li Gensheng took the slice of orange and bit into it. “Your company’s technology is truly amazing. I’ve been running this orchard for five or six years, and the fruit has always been on the sour side. The flavor couldn’t compare to the oranges from Xinfeng County.”

The Agricultural Technician responsible for providing guidance on orange cultivation peeled an orange and explained, “Soil quality and organic fertilizer have a huge impact on the quality of navel oranges. This is the reason why your production area can’t compare to the core production area in Xinfeng.”

“Technician Liu, can this technology be used in other places?” Li Gensheng’s son, Li Wenlong, asked curiously.

“No, because the soil is different everywhere. Even within the cultivation areas in your town, the soil is divided into three different types. To ensure the best possible flavor, we have to create a customized soil improvement plan and supplement with specific organic and chemical fertilizers for each soil type.”

Just then, a female employee hurried over carrying a case.

“Xiaoqin, are the labels ready?”

“They’re ready,” Xiaoqin nodded, her face flushed.

“Then let’s get started!” Old Song turned his head and said, “Old Li, you all can begin harvesting!”

“Alright.” Li Gensheng, who had been waiting impatiently, turned to the elderly men and women sitting by the fruit trees not far away and shouted, “Everyone, let’s start picking!”

Having been trained on a few things beforehand, these elderly folks from the village only picked the fruits that met the standards.

Fruits with mottled peels, or that were too big, too small, too light, or had insect holes were all rejected.

Soon, the first batch of standard navel oranges was brought over by Li Wenlong on his three-wheeled vehicle and taken to a temporary sorting machine by the roadside.

Xiaoqin and another employee worked with Li Wenlong to pour the fruit into the simple sorting machine, which sifted out the ones that didn’t meet the size requirements.