Chapter 378 - 180: Industrial Transition

Chapter 378: Chapter 180: Industrial Transition

The amount of nutrient accumulation in the roots of the genetically modified floss silk tree determines the scale of the durian harvest.

If you aren’t concerned with the quality of the initial harvest, you could even use flowering agents as early as the fourth month after grafting the old durian branches. However, this batch of fruit would have a lower yield, and both its sweetness and flavor would be affected.

To guarantee quality, it’s best to wait until the thirteenth month after planting the genetically modified floss silk tree before inducing flowering. When the trees flower and fruit at this stage, the yield, flavor, sweetness, and stress resistance will all be excellent.

So, when Fatso said they would harvest the year after next, he wasn’t actually wrong.

If they bought and planted the saplings in August, they could induce flowering next September and harvest the first batch of high-quality fruit in January of the year after next.

Of course, if one were in a hurry to harvest, adjustments could be made. However, you could only leave one fruit per old branch, meaning one tree could only produce about eight durians. For the Durian Plantations planned by Hailufeng Company, a standard plot has 20 trees per mu. This means an initial yield of only 160 durians, or roughly 400 to 800 kilograms per mu.

Once they reach the official high-yield period, a tree is typically left with 80 fruits, resulting in a yield of 1,600 durians per mu—roughly 4 to 8 tons.

Moreover, Hailufeng Company plans to push the retail price of durian down to about 20 yuan per kilogram, which means the farm-gate purchase price will be 12 yuan.

This means that for a grower, the revenue per mu would be between 48,000 and 96,000 yuan. After deducting costs, the gross profit would be around 28,000 to 76,000 yuan, with the exact profit depending on the grower’s management skills.

...

"I’m still not feeling confident about this," Nine-finger said, his expression full of indecision.

Taking a sip of rice wine, Fatso suggested, "If you’re scared, I suggest you plant bananas instead."

"Bananas? You can’t make jack shit from those!" Nine-finger blurted out.

"You could sign up for contract farming with Hailufeng Company. They’re also rolling out some banana varieties, and the farm-gate purchase price is the same: 60% of retail."

"That..." Nine-finger began to do the math in his head.

He had grown bananas before. Around Qiongzhou, banana yields were typically over three thousand kilograms per mu. The buyers’ farm-gate price was about 2 to 3 yuan per kilogram. After costs, one mu of bananas only earned you 2,000 to 4,000 yuan a year.

Besides, bananas don’t have strong resistance to typhoons—they’re much worse than areca palms. As a result, a considerable number of banana plantations in Qiongzhou suffer heavy losses from typhoons each year. This was another reason many local farmers opted to grow areca nuts instead.

But Fatso just grinned and shared a piece of insider info. "I think you should consider it, because for Hailufeng Company’s banana varieties, they’ll also buy the stems and leaves after the harvest."

"Are you kidding? What would they want with banana stems and leaves?"

"That I don’t know. But I heard from my cousin that the purchase price is pretty high, around a thousand yuan per ton."

"Will that be in the contract too?"

"Of course. Hailufeng Company won’t allow its contract growers to sell the bananas or the stems and leaves to anyone else."

Nine-finger finally made up his mind. "Fatso, ask your cousin for me. I want to grow Hailufeng Company’s bananas. What do I need to do?"

"Simple. Download the official Hailufeng Company app on your phone, then register and log in..." Fatso took out his own phone and showed Nine-finger how to download and register.

Once Nine-finger was registered, Fatso continued, "Open the Hailufeng Member Center."

"Okay, it’s open. Now what?"

"There’s an ’Agricultural Cooperative’ section in there. Find it?"

"Got it."

"You’ll see the Egyptian Catfish Farming Cooperative, the Durian Growing Cooperative, and the Banana Growing Cooperative. Click on the banana one..."

"I see it." After opening the Banana Growing Cooperative page, he found all sorts of detailed information, as well as a customer service contact for contract inquiries.

The page included partial descriptions of three banana varieties, details on the purchasing process, and the penalties for violating the terms of the agreement.

After reading for ten-odd minutes, Nine-finger grew a little worried about the descriptions of the new varieties. ’Mini Big Mac Banana? Red Big Mac Banana? New Big Mac Banana? Why do those names sound so familiar?’

"They’re new breeds improved from an old variety."

Hearing this, a memory seemed to stir for Nine-finger. He asked, a little uncertain, "It wouldn’t happen to be that ’Big Mac’ that got wiped out by Panama disease, would it?"

Fatso said, while picking up the last of the Typhoon Shelter-style fried crab from the plate, "I think that’s the one. But they’ve been improved, so it should be fine."

"Really?" Nine-finger pondered for a moment. ’If Hailufeng Company dares to roll them out, then there probably aren’t any major issues with these new varieties.’

With that, he quickly filled out his information on the partnership application page to schedule an in-person meeting to sign the contract.

A little over ten minutes later, he received a phone call. After asking Nine-finger a few questions, they agreed to meet that afternoon in Huishan Town.

「Around three in the afternoon.」

A pickup truck arrived at the agreed-upon location.

Nine-finger stood on the roadside, looking left and right.

"Mr. Pan Shibao?"

A young man holding a set of printed contract documents leaned out of the vehicle’s window.

"That’s me! Are you from Hailufeng Company?"

"Hello! I’m Li Haibing, an agent from the Qiongdong Office of the Hailufeng Company Qiongzhou Branch. Please get in, Mr. Pan! Let’s go take a look at your land first. Did you bring the relevant documents proving land ownership?"

"I did." Nine-finger opened the door and got in.

With Nine-finger giving directions, they arrived in the mountainous area north of Huishan Town and saw the 10-mu areca palm plantation he had mentioned.