Chapter 376 - 179: Talk of a Bountiful Year (Part 3)

Chapter 376: Chapter 179: Talk of a Bountiful Year (Part 3)

In this environment, although fifteen small fish product factories had opened locally, they had no choice but to fall in line under the dual pressure of Hailufeng Company and the Food Safety Bureau.

In truth, the owners of those small factories knew the severity of the situation.

After all, many of them were locals.

If their factories were to impact the Egyptian Catfish farming industry, the farmers would likely be murderous. Especially the large-scale operators with tens of acres—they would definitely mobilize the villagers to cause trouble.

The stakes involved were too high.

This wasn’t something that could be smoothed over with a few million, or even tens of millions; this was a matter of billions.

The owners of those small factories were not only constantly on-site, but they also paid to have their products tested. Fortunately, Jiang Miao had no intention of profiting from their product testing. The fee for standard tests was typically set at a roughly 10% premium over the comprehensive cost.

In the testing industry, a 10% premium was practically the same as not making any money at all.

Hailufeng Company didn’t want to increase the operating costs for these small factories. After all, it had already made a fortune off them from the surimi, and the profit margins for these small fish product factories were not high.

The best-performing enterprise among them was a pet food company, with a gross profit of around two to three million per month.

Fang Yi, the head of the Feed Division, had been working out of Meilong Town for the better part of the past year. He had just sorted out an issue with the factory’s fish oil softgel production line. As soon as he sat down, he noticed that the Shanmei Fish and Meat Products Association had sent over a few membership applications.

He looked at them for a moment, his brow furrowing. He immediately made a phone call, asking Lin Dadong, the Secretary-General of the Shanmei Fish and Meat Products Association, to come see him.

「Half an hour later.」

Lin Dadong knocked and hurried inside.

"Manager."

"Dadong, these three companies have applied to join the association. Where are their factories?"

"They aren’t built yet, but they guarantee they won’t violate the association’s regulations," Lin Dadong hurriedly explained.

Fang Yi, however, did not agree. "No. Rules are rules. Tell them to build their factories and complete the necessary preparations and procedures first. Otherwise, who knows if they’re genuine investors or just trying to flip the membership?"

He had been burned once two months ago. A small factory had secretly sold its association membership to an out-of-town fish product company, which prevented Hailufeng Company from monitoring that company’s processing operations.

Left with no other choice, Hailufeng Company had to expel the member and cut off its surimi supply to that company.

Clearly, someone had spotted a loophole and was planning to play the same shell game.

But Fang Yi wasn’t afraid of these people. "Dadong, if anyone is pressuring you, tell them to come see me directly, or go straight to the boss. As long as the boss approves it, I’ll grant their applications immediately."

"..." Lin Dadong broke out in a cold sweat.

After a few seconds, Lin Dadong gave an awkward smile and nodded. "Okay, I’ll tell them to build the factories first."

"Mm, you can go now."

Watching Lin Dadong’s retreating back, Fang Yi’s expression instantly darkened. He then made a call directly to the head of the Supervisory Department, telling them to investigate Lin Dadong.

Then he called Jiang Miao.

Jiang Miao, on the other end of the line, couldn’t help but sneer after hearing Fang Yi’s report.

"Interesting. Too much petty cleverness isn’t a good habit to have. You just carry on as usual over there. Leave this matter to me."

"Understood, Boss."

Jiang Miao hung up and immediately made a few calls.

Fang Yi, for his part, also put the matter out of his mind.

After all, here in Shanmei, there was basically no one who could threaten Hailufeng Company.

This business of reselling memberships was most likely being plotted in the shadows by some small-time players who were going nowhere.

After all, people like Li Jianming, whom Jiang Miao had dealt with before, knew just how powerful Jiang Miao was now and would never be so foolish as to cross him over something like this. It was the nobodies, fearless in their ignorance, who dared to pull the tiger’s whiskers by messing with Hailufeng Company.

Fang Yi picked up an R&D file again. It was a proposal on developing pet food, as the Market Research Department had discovered that the profit margins on premium dog food in the domestic market were enormous.

In recent years, with the rising standard of living and the growing number of cat and dog owners in cities, the market size for pet food had been increasing year after year. Therefore, the Market Research Department had recommended that the Feed Division take this industry seriously.

After reading the report, Fang Yi thought again of that pet food company in Meilong Town. They were making a gross profit of two to three million a month just by selling cheap pet food. This industry truly had great potential.

However, Fang Yi had no intention of producing low-end pet food. That kind of hard-earned, low-margin money was better left for the small factories to make.

He looked at the imported pet food brands. For example, subsidiaries of the ABCD companies had a presence in this area, with ADM and Louis Dreyfus being the leaders among them.

Take dog food as an example: Solid Gold’s muscle-building, high-protein, complete dog food, an original import from America: 58.6 yuan per kilogram.

Canidae’s four-meat imported all-breed dog food: 22.79 yuan per kilogram.

Acana’s Ocean Feast dog food: 65.87 yuan per kilogram.

Perhaps that didn’t paint a clear picture.

But if you converted the prices to per-ton and compared them to ordinary pig feed, you could see the world of difference.

Complete pig feed currently costs around 3,300 yuan per ton. In contrast, among these imported dog foods, the cheapest one was still 22,000 yuan per ton, while the most expensive reached 65,000 yuan per ton.

According to the Market Research Department’s analysis, the amount spent annually on imported pet food in the country was currently 3.5 billion yuan.

Fang Yi reviewed the Market Research Department’s report and other materials while writing his own report.

His idea was to first establish a pet food laboratory to research and develop high-end pet foods, and then launch a line of products.

As for Jiang Miao, he wouldn’t oppose this, but he also wouldn’t personally get involved in developing pet food. Mere pet food was not worthy of his direct intervention; he needed to focus his energy on more important research projects.