Chapter 262: 30 square kilometers of ginseng fields
Fusong, known as the hometown of ginseng, also has the world's largest ginseng trading market.
Countless wealth myths were born from this small county town at the foot of Changbai Mountain. Some people became rich overnight, while others went bankrupt and jumped off buildings.
In Manjiang Town, the most remote township in Fusong, Lin Sanqi and his delegation visited and inspected the environment accompanied by local town government officials.
The minibus has been turning around and around on the winding mountain road for almost an hour.
It cannot be said that there are no people along the way. Many buildings can be seen on the roadside from time to time. When someone approaches, some people come out of the house to observe, appearing a little vigilant.
Yin Lianyi felt a little carsick and vomited from time to time while leaning on Lin Sanqi's shoulder.
Lin Sanqi suppressed his nausea. Even if a fairy's shit was smelly, a beautiful woman's vomit would be disgusting to death.
"Mayor Luo, how far is the place we are going to inspect?"
Luo Yongbo, the accompanying deputy mayor of Manjiang Town, turned around and pointed to a hill in front and said:
"We're almost there, we're almost there. Xida Mountain is just ahead. Boss Lin, please be patient."
Manjiang Town has a large area of more than 600 square kilometers, which is as large as six Tianhe Districts, but its population is very sparse, with only 1,499 registered residents.
It has jurisdiction over 4 administrative villages and there is only one ginseng primary processing factory in the whole town, which relies purely on the mountains and the water for its livelihood.
So now that a southern company has finally come to invest, everyone in Manjiang Town is paying great attention to it, hoping to keep the southern boss for future convenience...
Deputy Mayor Luo said we were almost there, but the car actually took another half an hour to reach the destination. It was really like trying to climb a mountain and then dying.
Lin Sanqi helped Yin Lianyi get out of the car. A gust of mountain breeze blew past, and they immediately felt refreshed.
Lin Hai also laughed: "Uncle Shi, the air here is so good, I'm a little drunk on the oxygen."
Deputy Mayor Luo quickly echoed:
"Boss, you have good vision. We have the endless Changbai Mountains here, and there is no industrial or domestic pollution within thousands of square kilometers. Therefore, our Fusong ginseng is the best in the country, and our Manjiang ginseng is the best in Fusong."
Lin Tianhua did some chest expansion exercises and asked casually:
"Mayor Luo, what is the current ginseng production in Manjiang? Do you have any statistics on this?"
Deputy Mayor Luo smiled awkwardly:
"Well, we don't have specific statistics. After the ginseng is picked, it is usually transported to the county town for processing. If it is wild ginseng, the owner of the harvest is generally not disclosed to the public, so we don't know how much ginseng flows out of Manjiang Town every year."
Lin Sanqi said softly to Lin Hai:
"You know what I mean? Wild ginseng is a scarce commodity right now. Not only ordinary ginseng farmers, but even those companies are trading it secretly, fearing that others will find out. I said our plan can work."
The people in Manjiang Town don’t know, but everyone in Lingnan Hall knows what this so-called plan is.
Only Lin Tianhua was a little curious
Logically speaking, Lin Sanqi could only have so many wild ginsengs from Changbai Mountain. However, as he observed along the way, he found that Lin Sanqi was not familiar with the Changbai Mountain ginseng producing area at all and it was definitely his first time there.
So where did he get so much wild ginseng?
Lin Hai didn't care at all and said with a smile:
"Okay, I'm more confident in being a game manager now. If you ask me to do a good job, I really can't do it, but if you ask me to pretend, then I'm definitely qualified."
Although Deputy Mayor Luo could not understand what these Cantonese-speaking merchants were saying, it did not prevent him from attracting investment.
"As you all have seen, we saw quite a few houses along the way. Those were the bases for the ginseng field protection teams. These were all merchants from other places who came to contract a few mountain plots for 20 or 30 years at a time, and then closed the mountains for reforestation."
Lin Hai was a little puzzled: "Why close the mountain if we've already contracted it?"
Deputy Mayor Luo patiently introduced:
"This is mainly for the purpose of cultivating forest ginseng. After the ginseng seeds are sown in the soil, they are left to grow naturally without transplanting, fertilizing or spraying pesticides. After 10 to 20 years, they are dug out. This semi-wild ginseng is called forest ginseng.
The acres of ginseng you saw in Wanliang Town are actually garden ginseng, which has little nutritional value and requires pesticides to grow. The ginseng you see piled up like mountains in the market and sold by the pound is garden ginseng.
Forest ginseng is second only to wild ginseng in value and is very expensive in the market. To prevent people from stealing the ginseng, we need forest rangers to guard it. In Manjiang Town, we have over 300 square kilometers of contracted forests. After all, we have a good environment here, haha."
Lin Sanqi nodded. "The environment is indeed nice. Deputy Mayor Luo, which piece of Feng Shui land did you find for us?"
Deputy Mayor Luo pointed to the hills opposite and said:
"Noisy, that's the direction. The highest mountain is called Xida Mountain. The ones next to it are Xixiao Mountain, Xier Mountain, etc. There are five mountaintops in total. We have measured the total area and it is 30 square kilometers."
Lin Hai exclaimed, "Oh my god! Our Shilou Village is only 1.5 square kilometers, and this place is 30 square kilometers. That's twenty Shilou villages."
Yin Lianyi was also a little surprised when she heard this. As for finance, the biggest worry is how much the contract fee will be.
Deputy Mayor Luo rolled his eyes and continued to deceive:
"With a large area, the chances of discovering good stuff are also greater. There are countless wild ginsengs that have yet to be discovered in the vast mountains within your field of vision. As long as you contract this piece of land, all the wild ginseng within 30 square kilometers will belong to your Lingnan Hall."
Lin Sanqi thought, there must be wild ginseng, but the place where the car can drive to, even if there is wild ginseng, has already been plowed several times, so how can there be any good stuff?
Deputy Mayor Luo continued to promote his sales pitch:
"Mr. Lin, let me tell you, ginseng planting under the forest cannot be too dense, so the larger the area, the better. In ten or twenty years, you will have a good harvest, and you will really make a fortune."
Lin Sanqi is just here to put on an act and shut up the people, and it doesn't matter whether there is any output or not.
"Uncle Shi, what do you think?"
As the general manager of Lingnan Hall, Lin Tianhua knew about Lin Sanqi's plan, but he had to put on a good show, so he nodded in pretense of seriousness.
"I think this place is great. Deputy Mayor Luo, if we want to lease it for 30 years, how much would this 30 square kilometers of mountain land cost?"
Deputy Mayor Luo was delighted. Manjiang Town had no other income and was completely supported by the ginseng market. One more ginseng market would naturally mean more income.
"Well, according to our town's regulations, if we contract 30 square kilometers of forest for 30 years, it would cost a total of 30 million yuan, hehe."
Deputy Mayor Luo felt a little guilty after hearing this. After all, 30 million yuan was not even the annual fiscal revenue of Manjiang Town.
Farmers rely on the mountains for their livelihood, and so do local governments.
Lin Sanqi, Lin Tianhua, Lin Hai and Yin Lianyi pretended to discuss for a long time and accepted the contract fee of 30 million.
Compared with the current ginseng price of Lingnantang Company, 30 million is really nothing. Once the problem of ginseng source is solved, formal invoices can be issued, and the tax deduction alone will be more than 30 million.
That afternoon, Lingnantang Company and the Manjiang Town Government signed a forest contract, and the 30 square kilometers of Xida Mountain officially became the property of Lingnantang.
Coming out of the town government, Lin Hai felt a little worried:
"Qizi, how can I defend such a large territory by myself?"
Lin Sanqi rolled his eyes:
"Who asked you to guard the forest? How much wild ginseng do you think there is in these 30 square kilometers? Besides, I'm not planning on planting any forest ginseng, so why would I bother?"
Yin Lianyi felt a little sorry for the money: "Ah, if you don't plant forest ginseng, then such a large forest will be wasted, right?"
Lin Sanqi explained:
"If you plant forest ginseng, you'll need full-time security guards to watch over it 24 hours a day. For 30 square kilometers, you'll need a team of at least 50 guards, right? And you'll have to pay them salaries every month and provide them with supplies. How much will that cost per year?"
The key question is whether or not we can grow ginseng in the forest. We are outsiders, and I'm afraid the ginseng will be stolen as soon as it grows. Either the forest rangers will steal it, or a few local hooligans will come and dig it up.
So instead of going to all the trouble to guard it, it's better to just throw 30 million here. Of course, you still have to pretend. Lin Hai, you should regularly recruit a group of temporary workers to pretend to patrol the area to cover up your presence."
Lin Hai sighed, "Wow, thirty million yuan was just thrown away like that. It really feels like a dream."
Lin Sanqi thought that as his fame for exchanging ginseng for grain in 1960 grew, he would have more and more ginseng in his hands.
Some people may worry that too much wild ginseng will cross over and cause a market shock in 2013, leading to a drop in prices.
People who have such concerns completely ignore the Chinese people's worship and superstition of ginseng. For rich people, if they don't have a few hundred-year-old wild ginseng at home, they will lose face in the circle of wealthy people in the future.
According to the Hurun Wealth Report, there are 133,000 families in China with assets of over 100 million yuan. If we include Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and overseas Chinese, the number of billionaires will increase.
With such a large group of wealthy people around, they can digest any amount of wild ginseng.
Why is Lingnantang's ginseng in such short supply? Pre-orders are booked up a year into the future. That's because there's so little wild ginseng on the market, and the price is even rising every year.
Once Lingnantang becomes the largest wild ginseng supplier in the country, it will definitely not be a problem for annual sales to exceed 10 billion yuan.
Especially for Lin Sanqi, sales volume is equal to profit.
In the next few days, Lin Tianhua was busy recruiting ginseng packers, and Lin Hai was busy looking for a branch office site and license.
Lin Sanqi took Yin Lianyi to Changbai Mountain for several days.
The information of Fengshou Seed Company, along with more than 10 tons of additional grain seeds, were all packed and shipped to Huadu. After Lin Sanqi received the call, he knew it was time for him to go home.
Maybe I should travel back to 1960 with hybridization technology and seeds and give everyone a surprise.
(End of this chapter)
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