"Huh?" Lu Yiming asked, bewildered.

"How could that be! Rice is very expensive in big cities! It costs eight or nine yuan per kilogram, and rice from good producing areas can even sell for more than ten yuan per kilogram!"

"Hey, that's just the price you got there."

The price those grain dealers paid us was just over one yuan per kilogram.

Because of the hot weather, the quality of rice is poor and the price is even lower. I heard that nearby villages are only buying it for 80 cents a pound!

Even so, we still have to beg the buyers to come and collect the goods; otherwise, they won't come.

"Then why not find a different buyer?"

"No matter who it is, the price will be the same; these buyers have already agreed on it privately."

These middlemen pass through several hands before selling to supermarkets, easily fetching prices several times, even ten times, higher!

We are the only ones who put in so much labor and sweat, yet we don't earn much money!

After a year of hard work, I can't even afford to buy a new TV for the family!

As the old man spoke, he pointed to a discarded mineral water bottle on the roadside and said, unable to hide his sadness:

“My son also bought me a mobile phone, and I usually browse short videos online when I have nothing to do.”

I saw a great quote online.

A bottle of rice can't even buy a bottle of water.

My heart aches!

"This year, it's not just rice that's been affected; I've heard that vegetable and fruit producing areas have also suffered."

I wonder if they'll be able to recoup their investment this year!

Boss, I can tell from your demeanor that you're no ordinary person. Only you can listen to the heartfelt words of us farmers!

Farming is too hard for us. We can't earn much money all year round, which is why young people don't farm anymore and go to work in big cities.

Go to the big city to work, and you can easily earn more by farming. Now, only us old men are still reluctant to leave this land uncultivated and insist on farming.

If we were to pass away one day, I really don't know what we would do.

If everyone goes to the big cities, who will grow the crops?

"Without food, so many mouths are waiting to be fed!"

...

After their conversation, Lu Yiming left behind a pack of fine cigarettes and, with a heavy heart, boarded the car back to Shanghai.

He has gotten the answer he wanted.

"Alas, that's just how it is. Industrialization is developing too fast now, and agricultural income can't keep up with the pace of the times at all."

"Yes, my land has been lying fallow for several years. Nobody farms it. Even if I gave it to someone for free, nobody would want it."

"Actually, the prices of agricultural products we buy in farmers' markets and supermarkets are not low! The key issue is that the middlemen are too despicable."

With just a simple transaction, they can earn more money than farmers could earn in a year of hard work!

"There's no other way! These middlemen control the sales channels. If farmers don't have these middlemen, it means they have no sales channels and can only watch their crops rot in the fields!"

"Alas, if the generation that experienced the famine back then could see this situation now, how heartbroken they would be!"

...

Viewers in the live stream expressed their feelings.

"Mu Xia!" Lu Yiming made up his mind and said:

"I've made up my mind! We're going to open a large chain supermarket in Shanghai!"

"Huh?" Mu Xia was dumbfounded.

She had considered what Lu Yiming might do.

For example, we can buy fertilizer for farmers and encourage canteens to purchase more ingredients from farmers.

But I never imagined that Chairman Lu's thought process would be so novel!

"I've thought about it carefully. If we want to increase farmers' income and solve the problem of food safety for ordinary people..."

The most basic requirement is to have your own supply and sales channels!

On the one hand, we can control the supply side and go directly to people's homes to purchase goods, which can significantly increase people's income!

At the same time, food safety testing is conducted according to the world's strictest standards!

If pesticide residues are found to exceed the standard, we will return the product to the farmer intact, covering the fuel and travel expenses, so it will not affect the farmer's resale!

On the other hand, we can use this method to drive down the price of healthy organic agricultural products!

To ensure that ordinary people can enjoy healthy and safe food!

Even if we don't make any money, we must keep doing this!

Looking into Lu Yiming's resolute gaze, Mu Xia quickly memorized his words and firmly stated:

"Chairman! Don't worry, I'll take care of it as soon as I get back!"

...