Chapter 95 - 86: Respect Another’s Destiny
Chapter 95: Chapter 86: Respect Another’s Destiny
「The next day.」
Early in the morning, just as dawn was breaking.
Jiang Miao acted nonchalantly as he prepared to visit a local Durian Plantation. However, he didn’t have Ah Ming and Ah Yi accompany him, letting Zheng Siwen lead the way instead.
On the way to the plantation, Jiang Miao reviewed the files Zheng Siwen and his team had compiled.
The introduction of durian cultivation in the country could be traced back to the 1950s.
Specifically, from 1956 to 1961, Qiongzhou Agricultural Reclamation imported tropical fruit trees, including durian, from countries like Java, Malaysia, and Kampuchea. These were brought in over 82 batches for trial cultivation. Durian farming has existed in the country ever since, but the scale has always been very small, with most of the planting done by agricultural research institutions.
It was only in the last two decades that the durian cultivation industry on Qiongzhou Island began to show some signs of life.
Although Yuecheng is located in the northern part of Qiongzhou Island, it’s still possible to grow durians there. Several local companies and more than a dozen independent growers were involved in their cultivation.
The companies operated on a relatively large scale, with farms reaching several thousand mu. In contrast, the durian plantations run by the independent growers were smaller; the largest was only about 230 mu, while the average size was a few dozen mu.
The plantation they were visiting was one of the smaller ones, run by an independent grower. It covered an area of 57 mu and contained a total of 814 durian trees, averaging about 15 trees per mu. More than half of them were mature trees, over eight years old.
Jiang Miao glanced at the breakdown of the varieties and saw that the plantation grew a mix of four types: Musang King, Black Thorn, Monthong, and Ganyao.
The breakdown was 124 Musang King, 71 Black Thorn, 484 Monthong, and 135 Ganyao trees.
Jiang Miao turned to Zheng Siwen, who was in the front passenger seat, and asked, "Siwen, what’s the story with this grower? Why is he selling the plantation?"
Zheng Siwen quickly explained, "Boss, this grower is a friend of one of my clients. The main issue is his health. He was diagnosed with heart disease this year, so he can’t do any strenuous physical labor. His son runs a seafood restaurant in Yuecheng and doesn’t have the time to manage the plantation, so he’s decided to sell it."
"And there are also two hundred mu of pineapples and one hundred and twenty mu of mangoes?" Jiang Miao asked, continuing to read through the documents.
"What’s their asking price?"
Zheng Siwen summarized the situation concisely. "The lease on this plot of land has about 27 years remaining. Due to his poor health this year, the pineapple fields have a severe pest problem, so he’s not asking for any money for those two hundred mu. The land transfer fee is 3,000 yuan per mu, but he wants us to pay a separate acquisition fee for the mango and durian trees."
"What’s the annual rent on his lease?"
"It’s 1,800 yuan per mu per year."
Jiang Miao did some quick calculations in his head. ’The total area is 377 mu. The transfer fee is 1.131 million yuan, and the annual rent is 678,600 yuan.’
"What are they asking for the mango and durian trees?"
"There are 4,323 mango trees in total, all of the Tainong variety, and most are between six to eight years old. The owner is asking 500 yuan per tree," Zheng Siwen continued. "The asking price for the durian trees is higher: 3,000 yuan each."
Hearing these figures, Jiang Miao once again did the math in his head.
’814 durian trees at 3,000 yuan each comes to 2.442 million yuan. 4,323 mango trees at 500 yuan each comes to 2.1615 million yuan.’
’The cost to acquire the trees plus the land transfer fee totals 5.7345 million yuan, plus an annual rent of 678,600 yuan.’
Jiang Miao found the cost acceptable.
After all, it was around the market rate, and it even included a slight discount.
If the plot weren’t so remote, other local agricultural companies would have likely considered acquiring it.
Of course, Jiang Miao’s reason for buying this plantation wasn’t simply to grow fruit. He planned to use it as a nursery base.
After all, most of the Lingnan region was unsuitable for growing native durian trees. Moreover, the genetically modified grafting technique he was developing required mature, fruit-bearing branches from old durian trees as source material.
If he were to purchase branches from Malaysia or Siam, his suppliers might not pay much attention at first. But once Hailufeng Company’s durian business took off, they would surely grow uneasy and deliberately restrict the export of branches from mature trees.
Therefore, since the Qiongzhou Region was one of the country’s primary durian-growing areas, it was imperative for Hailufeng Company to establish its own nursery here.
At the same time, Jiang Miao’s preliminary research also required a steady supply of mature durian branches for his experiments.
As he was lost in thought.
The pickup truck turned off the main road onto a county road, which then twisted and turned multiple times.
「Half an hour later.」
The truck stopped in front of a series of low hills.
Gazing at the lush, green hills in the distance and the large, poorly-maintained pineapple field at their base, he knew they had arrived.
Zheng Siwen quickly made a call to inform the plantation owner of their arrival.
Everyone got out of the truck. Even though it was morning, June in Qiongzhou was already very hot. Thankfully, it hadn’t rained in the last few days. Otherwise, the humidity would have made the heat feel even more oppressive.
Jiang Miao stood under a large banyan tree by the side of the road.
He subconsciously used his appraisal panel to observe the surrounding hills.
’I previously tested the maximum range of the appraisal panel,’ Jiang Miao recalled. ’It’s about a 1,360-meter radius. I can’t get any information beyond that distance. This is probably the coverage area of that dimensional fragment—a radius of about 1,360 meters.’
’Huh? What’s this?’
Jiang Miao looked at the three-dimensional geological cross-section generated by the appraisal panel and discovered a dense concentration of gold inside the hillside to his left.
By quickly expanding the analysis through several branching paths, he finally obtained more detailed information.