Chapter 441: Industrial Extension 2

The oranges that passed through the sorting machine were automatically labeled on a conveyor belt.

The label read:

[Special Grade Gannan Navel Orange]

[Produced by Hailufeng Agricultural Technology Company—Contracted Grower (ID No. 200853), Growing Region…; Harvest Time…; Sweetness…; Acidity…; Initial Inspection: No Pesticide Residue Detected; Fruit No. 200853-0000001]

The reason for these labels was twofold: first, to facilitate traceability, and second, to prevent non-contracted growers from mixing their own oranges in through their connections with contracted growers.

Li Gensheng’s navel orange orchard covered an area of 50 mu. After accounting for the new trees, 40 mu were left for harvesting. Once the substandard fruit was removed, the yield was about 2,200 jin per mu, so the orchard produced a total of roughly 88,000 jin of navel oranges.

What Old Song mentioned earlier about applying the labels was based on this estimated yield. Every single orange had to be labeled, so the number of labels was calculated in advance.

Huge profits were at stake.

This was because the purchase price offered by the Hailufeng Company was three yuan per jin. In previous years, the price for navel oranges around Ren Tian Town was only one or two yuan per jin. Only the best orchards in the core production area of Gannan Navel Oranges could fetch a farm gate price of three yuan per jin.

This price difference created the potential for enormous profits.

Although the company had already contracted for 15,000 mu of navel orange orchards in Ren Tian Town, after excluding some new orchards, there were still about 5,000 mu of established orchards that were not under contract.

These non-contracted orchards were either already contracted to other buyers, managed by farmers who ran their own e-commerce businesses, or were simply holding out for a better price.

With a price difference of over one yuan, it was highly likely that some people would be tempted to take risks.

That’s why the company directly implemented the labeling system, giving each orange its own “ID card.” The labels also had a QR code. After being sent to the temporary purchasing center in town, they had to pass through a sorting machine again, which had a special QR code reading system, making them impossible to counterfeit.

As the oranges were labeled one by one, Li Wenlong quickly loaded them basket by basket onto a three-wheeled vehicle. Once it was full, he sped off to the temporary purchasing center in town.

The navel oranges in all of Ren Tian Town were primarily the Newhall variety, which is the main cultivar of Gannan Navel Oranges. They typically ripen and hit the market in early November.

They could be harvested continuously for three to four months, but for quality reasons, the harvest period was effectively limited to two and a half months.

With 15,000 mu of navel oranges, an average of about 200 mu had to be harvested each day.

For these two and a half months, the purchasing team would be stationed in Ren Tian Town.

Li Gensheng’s family only had five laborers. To ensure the harvest was completed today, he had to hire people from the village to help. In fact, these people also grew navel oranges themselves. They came to the Li family’s orchard today to earn a little money, but in a few days, they would have to pay others to help with their own harvests.

「Around 4:30 in the evening.」

Li Gensheng and his son, Li Wenlong, arrived at the temporary purchasing center on the edge of town, hauling the last two cartloads of navel oranges.

“Captain Zhan, these are the last two loads.”

Zhan Kaiwen, who was talking to another grower, called out, “Xiaoshan, take care of this.”

“Okay.”

A little while later, Zhan Kaiwen finished his conversation and came over to settle the payment with Li Gensheng.

“The total is 88,719 jin. Substandard oranges account for 3,687 jin, so the accepted weight is 85,030 jin. You can take the substandard ones back with you. The total payment is 255,090 yuan. This is a payment voucher. Take it to the finance office next door to get your money.”

Taking the payment voucher, Li Gensheng was a little confused. “Captain Zhan, I can just take this voucher over there and get paid?”

“Yep. Get your money, then come back and pick up the rejected oranges,” Zhan Kaiwen said casually before turning to attend to another grower.

“Okay.”

The father and son hurried to the finance office next door.

They soon received a bank transfer notification.

Immediately afterward, they loaded up the more than 3,000 jin of oranges that had a poor appearance or showed signs of dehydration.

Just as the two of them were driving out of the purchasing center, they were stopped by someone.

A middle-aged man in a flat cap asked in a low voice, “Brother, are these all the rejects from inside?”

“They are! You want them?” Li Gensheng had just been wondering how to deal with these rejected oranges. He turned, picked one up, and cut a slice for the man in the flat cap. “They’re all good oranges, just with some blemished skins and such.”

The man in the flat cap took a bite. The taste was indeed excellent, almost as good as Gannan Navel Oranges from the core production area. He immediately said, “I’ll take them for one yuan a jin.”

Li Wenlong shook his head. “One yuan? That’s not a fair price…”

“One-point-two yuan. They’re rejects, after all,” the man in the flat cap said, reluctantly offering a new price.

Li Wenlong didn’t believe this was the man’s final offer. “They just have a few blemishes. We need at least one-point-five.”

“My friend, I can’t make a profit at one-point-five! Let’s both give a little. How about one-point-three?”

The father and son discussed it quietly for a moment and accepted the price.

Having secured the three thousand-plus jin of rejected oranges, the man in the flat cap led Li Gensheng and his son’s vehicle to a private residence in town, where they unloaded the oranges into the courtyard.

Having earned another five thousand-plus yuan, Li Gensheng decided to go to the market to buy some meat and vegetables to have a nice dinner that night.

Meanwhile, the temporary purchasing center, which had taken in nearly 450,000 jin of navel oranges today, had already arranged for the company’s dedicated trucks to rapidly transport them to the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Capital Region.

As for the local market in Gan Province, apart from a few specialty stores in the northern part, none of the other specialty stores stocked the navel oranges. After all, this was the production area, and the competition was simply too fierce.

The retail price set by the Hailufeng Company was five yuan per jin. This price was neither high nor low in the general market, but when compared only to oranges of the same quality, it was actually quite low.