Chapter 379 - 180: Industrial Succession (Middle)

Chapter 379: Chapter 180: Industrial Succession (Middle)

After photographing the site and roughly measuring the area, they had Nine-finger stand in the betel nut plantation holding his ID to document that the land was his property.

Once all that was taken care of, they went to Nine-finger’s house.

Nine-finger’s wife had already brewed tea.

As soon as they sat down, Li Haibing got straight to the point. "Mr. Pan, you’ve chosen to plant the Small Mac Banana, but I would recommend you reconsider."

"Why?" Nine-finger was completely baffled. He had chosen the Small Mac specifically because its yield per mu could generally exceed 5,000 kilograms.

Taking a sip of tea, Li Haibing explained with a smile, "The terrain here is hilly, so even when typhoons hit, the impact isn’t too severe. The Small Mac is a dwarf variety, which helps it resist typhoons."

"That shouldn’t be a problem, right?"

"Mr. Pan, you’re overlooking a key point. The Small Mac Banana is a variety that relies on sheer volume. Its retail price won’t be very high; we estimate it to be around eight yuan per kilogram."

"That’s still pretty good," Nine-finger said. He thought the variety sounded fine. At that retail price, the farm-gate price he’d receive would be around 4.8 yuan per kilogram. With 5,000 kilograms, that would be about 24,000 yuan.

"Please, let me finish," Li Haibing said, shaking his head. "The estimated retail price for the Red Big Mac Banana is around twelve yuan per kilogram, with a yield of about 3,500 kilograms per mu. That comes out to roughly 25,000 yuan of income per mu."

"But that’s about the same, isn’t it?"

But Li Haibing just smiled and reminded him, "A Small Mac only produces about six tons of stalks and leaves, whereas a Red Big Mac produces ten tons. Furthermore, we buy Red Big Mac stalks for 1,200 yuan per ton, while we only pay 1,000 yuan per ton for the stalks of Small Mac and New Big Mac Bananas."

Hearing this, it finally clicked for Nine-finger.

"If you weren’t in a mountainous region, I wouldn’t be recommending the Red Big Mac. This variety grows quite tall, so it catches the wind much more on open plains and is prone to snapping."

Of course, Li Haibing’s advice was based on his experience with ordinary bananas.

In reality, the stalks of the Small Mac, Red Big Mac, and New Big Mac were all stronger than those of ordinary bananas.

The reason was that their fibers were stronger than a typical banana’s. When Jiang Miao was first selecting these new varieties, he had specifically focused on enhancing their wind resistance. There were only two ways to achieve this.

First, by increasing the strength of its cellulose fibers.

Second, by increasing the diameter of the stalk.

The stalks of the Small Mac and New Big Mac Bananas were slightly thicker in diameter than those of ordinary bananas, and their fiber strength was comparable to jute.

The Red Big Mac Banana’s stalk, on the other hand, was extremely thick—about 1.5 to 1.7 times that of an ordinary banana. Its fiber strength was comparable to Manila Hemp, and the stalk’s cellulose content was around 28%.

This was precisely why Hailufeng Company wanted to purchase the banana stalks.

One ton of Red Big Mac Banana stalks could be processed to extract about 250 kilograms of Manila Hemp-like fiber.

Similarly, one ton of stalks from Small Mac or New Big Mac Bananas could yield about 200 kilograms of jute-like fiber.

One mu of Red Big Mac Bananas produced 10 tons of stalks, which could be processed into roughly 2.5 tons of Manila Hemp-like fiber.

Hailufeng Company was purchasing these banana stalks to produce plant fibers. These fibers had a wide range of applications, such as clothing fabrics, burlap sacks, hemp carpets, agricultural mulch films, and ropes.

After accidentally discovering this secondary use for the new banana varieties, Jiang Miao had the Technology Division establish a special project for fiber separation and processing. The plan was to open a factory in the future to extract these fibers and manufacture various fiber-based products.

The lower-quality, jute-like fibers could be used to produce ropes, burlap sacks, and agricultural mulch films for the company’s internal use.

The company’s retail stores could then use these burlap sacks as a partial replacement for plastic bags.

Meanwhile, the higher-quality jute-like and Manila Hemp-like fibers could be used to produce high-strength cables, clothing fabrics, and reinforcing fiber fillers for resin materials.

It was becoming clear that the value of the banana stalk fibers was nearly equivalent to that of the fruit itself.

...

After Li Haibing’s explanation, Nine-finger decided to plant the Red Big Mac Banana.

The Small Mac wasn’t without its own advantages, of course. It had an extremely short growth cycle. In the tropical environment of Qiongzhou Island, it could be harvested in just five and a half months during the summer, or six and a half months in the winter, allowing for nearly two harvests a year.

The Red Big Mac, by contrast, required seven months in the summer on Qiongzhou Island and nine months in the winter.

The New Big Mac, positioned as a luxury product, was not available for contract growers. Hailufeng Company cultivated it exclusively themselves. Its growth cycle was similar to that of the Red Big Mac.

Once the contract was signed, Li Haibing didn’t leave Huishan Town. Instead, he went to visit two other farmers who had also expressed interest in a partnership.

One wanted to grow durian, the other, bananas.

Currently, on Qiongzhou Island, the Qiongzhou Branch managed its own 50,000-mu banana plantation and 80,000-mu Durian Plantation. In addition, it had gradually signed contracts with nearly 8,000 farmers, whose durian farms covered 57,000 mu and banana farms covered 73,000 mu.

A large portion of these growers were farmers who had previously cultivated betel nuts, with a smaller number having grown rubber trees.

As for the island’s various agricultural companies, both large and small, they were still watching from the sidelines.

On one hand, these companies were skeptical of Hailufeng Company’s new varieties and techniques and were unwilling to take a gamble. After all, these so-called new breeds and methods had yet to produce a single fruit, so they weren’t about to jump in blindly.

On the other hand, Hailufeng Company’s contractual controls over its plantations were notoriously strict, a deal-breaker for many agricultural businesses. This was especially true for those that operated their own chain of fruit stores, who would never agree to such harsh oversight.

Hailufeng Company, for its part, was unconcerned.

Jiang Miao had never been interested in partnering with other agricultural companies anyway. To maintain control over production capacity and quality, Hailufeng Company couldn’t possibly release its proprietary varieties to other businesses and let them undermine its own market.

Besides, agricultural products like fruit weren’t staple food crops critical to national security. This allowed Hailufeng Company to establish a monopoly without any scruples. The government certainly wasn’t going to force Hailufeng Company to release its proprietary seedlings just to help a few other fruit companies.

As for the local authorities in Qiongzhou, they were well aware of Hailufeng Company’s activities. However, they had already received certain official notices, and after learning the full story, they were all scared into silence.