Chapter 290 Going to the Mainland
"A Day in the Life of Ning Yan" was broadcast on HTV's Lifestyle and Entertainment Channel.
On TV, Yue Ning demonstrated her skill of braised sea sheep, but she also admitted that she succeeded eight times out of ten, but failed twice. This is not a skill that can be mastered overnight, and requires hard work and practice.
However, she also demonstrated a technique that will never fail and that ordinary people can also scoop out a complete dish - grating.
Seeing this, Liu Yi on TV shouted happily: "So there is such a way!"
He asked again in confusion: "If it can be so simple, why do we have to spend so much effort to learn that kind of technique?"
Yue Ning explained to him: "Master chefs have mastered the skill of flipping the wok in order to accurately control the subtle heat. Later, more and more people came to learn the skill, and the requirements for the skill became higher and higher. Flipping the wok became the assessment standard for Shandong cuisine master chefs."
Chef Wu Zhihai was also in charge of the Ningyan banquet that day, and his skill in flipping the wok was perfect.
Liu Yi stood aside and watched carefully, his eyes wide open. Nicholas came over and said to Liu Yi, Da Fan Shao is amazing, but his good friend Fan Xiuqin's skill is even better, Fan Xiuqin can pull the noodles thinner than a hair.
As soon as this was said, Miyamoto Takuya immediately agreed. Everyone asked Fan Xiuqin to demonstrate. Fortunately, the menu of the day happened to include baked carp noodles, so Fan Xiuqin performed it for everyone.
Now, Liu Yi felt that Master Zhou was no longer attractive and wanted to switch to Baohualou.
His wish will soon come true. Yue Ning and Zhu Liling publicly stated that the two companies will cooperate in the future and send employees to learn from each other. Zhu Liling also revealed that the first batch of students they sent to Ningyan to study were Sun Yuke and Liu Yi.
After all, there are now four French chefs, two Japanese chefs, and two American chefs, Sun Yuke and Liu Yi, in the kitchen of Baohua Building. The newspaper even used the phrase "a gathering of foreigners, comparable to the United Nations canteen" to describe the kitchen of Baohua Building.
However, no one expected that the biggest beneficiary of this film would be Yuan Zai Instant Noodles. The audience caught a message from the film: Li De Food has the newest and most comprehensive food testing equipment in Hong Kong.
Reporters heard the news and interviewed Cui Huiyi, who took the reporters to visit the laboratory of Lide Food.
She said that the borax incident and the subsequent hygiene problems of Cuiji Flavor Industry made her deeply vigilant and determined to control product quality, so Lide established this laboratory. Currently, this laboratory is jointly used by Baohua Building, Cuiji and Lide.
In addition to routine daily inspections, these companies also send samples to laboratories for analysis.
The reporter, wearing dust-proof suits from head to toe, followed Cui Huiyi to visit the production line of Lide Food. Only then did everyone know that Lide not only produces instant noodles, but also helps Yue Ning's Ning Xiaochu process fresh rice noodles and noodles, which are also supplied to Hongan's stores.
This interview brought back the public's memories of the borax incident, and the Hong Kong Food and Environmental Hygiene Department once again conducted a major food safety inspection. The results were not optimistic, as borax noodles and borax fish balls appeared again and were still very common.
People once again flocked to the mall to buy noodles.
This incident made a lot of noise for several days. Lu Peide and Su Fei also came back. Su Fei had a great time and excitedly said that she had the opportunity to experience the State Guest House. However, Lu Peide's heart disease was still not resolved. Lu Yude and his second uncle had a complete falling out and moved into the dormitory of the new unit.
Because of this incident, his second aunt also quarreled with his second uncle, and even the married daughter came back to persuade him, but it was useless. The second uncle was only concerned with teaching his youngest son Lu Mingde. Lu Peide said that Mingde had been an apprentice in Yangzhou for four years and was very good at cooking Huaiyang cuisine. The second uncle also planned to find an opportunity to send Mingde to the port city to learn. Hearing this news, Lu Yude felt more and more that he had become an abandoned child in the family, which made the already tense relationship even more difficult to repair.
What can be done? It was Uncle Lu who asked Lu Yude to come, but Lu Yude didn't want to, so Lu Peide came. He was also given a chance in the selection competition, but he added MSG to the soup, which made the taste unbalanced. In the end, it was because his cooking skills were not good enough. But even so, he blamed all the mistakes on others. At this point, Yue Ning could only advise Lu Peide to relax.
After Lu Peide came back, Yue Ning packed his luggage and led the team back to the mainland.
The trip was only half a month long, and the export companies that had contacted them were mainly concentrated in Guangdong and Shanghai, with only one client in Beijing. However, Yue Ning felt that since they were here, they should go to Beijing and take everyone to climb the Great Wall and visit the Forbidden City, which could be considered a vacation for everyone.
After passing customs early in the morning, Yue Ning first took everyone to Qiao Junxian's Yimei factory to stay for two days, allowing everyone to get to know each workstation one by one and have an intuitive understanding of the entire operation process of the factory.
A new factory building was being built behind the Yimei factory, which was used to produce microwave ovens. After Qiao Junxian had achieved success in rice cookers, he completely gave up his original idea of making radios.
Last time his brother got married, his eldest cousin asked them for help, and Qiao Junxian helped contact PN. He hosted a banquet for the general manager of PN's Hongcheng in Ning. They were already familiar with each other. In addition, although Hong'an had transformed from a department store to a famous brand discount city, its hypermarkets were very prosperous and had business dealings with PN. After three rounds of drinks, the Japanese executive who was stationed in Hongcheng became more talkative.
The executive analyzed with them the difficulties faced by the seemingly prosperous PN, and mentioned that the company's top management had been putting pressure on these employees stationed overseas to explore new markets.
He said: "Since the mid-1970s, the domestic home appliance market in Japan has been nearly saturated and growth has stagnated. We have a large backlog of products, and companies are in urgent need of opening up new markets to absorb excess production capacity. Originally, the European and American markets were our important strongholds, but in recent years, the United States has set up many obstacles to our home appliance products. In 1977, the United States forced us to accept voluntary restrictions on television exports, stipulating that the annual export volume of televisions to the United States should not exceed 1.75 million units from 1977 to 1979. This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to our color TV industry. A large number of production lines were forced to idle and corporate profits fell sharply."
While pouring wine for him, Qiao Junxian curiously asked, "What happened next? Were you always restricted like this?"
The Japanese executive smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's not that simple. The United States has an endless supply of trade protection measures. In addition to export quantity restrictions, they also frequently launch anti-dumping investigations. Take color TVs for example. Once they are ruled to be dumped, they will face high anti-dumping tariffs, which has caused our product prices to soar in the US market and our competitiveness to plummet. Not only that, the US government has also strongly supported local home appliance companies in terms of policies, providing subsidies, tax incentives and many other benefits, further squeezing our market space. Today, our market share in the United States is shrinking, and life is getting more and more difficult."
The United States’ countermeasures against Japan’s home appliance industry are closely linked, making it difficult for Japanese companies to defend themselves.
Qiao Junxian took the opportunity to ask: "Since the European and American markets are blocked, do you think emerging markets like China will be the future development direction of PN Company?"
The Japanese executive nodded slightly, with a hint of expectation in his eyes: "The Chinese market has huge potential and a large population. With the development of the economy, the demand for home appliances will surely show explosive growth. Our company's senior management is also paying close attention to the Chinese market, but there are still some concerns. On the one hand, the Chinese government's policies are still unclear. There are Chinese factories that want to buy color TV production lines from us, and the whole process is very complicated. We have also consulted, and China currently only accepts joint ventures, and they must be controlled by the Chinese side; on the other hand, we still lack a deep understanding of the demand preferences of Chinese consumers, and we may face many risks if we enter rashly."
Qiao Junxian took the opportunity to propose to the other party: "I have an idea. I think you know our relationship with the Chinese government. I am currently running a small home appliance factory that produces electric fans and rice cookers. Can we cooperate and set up a joint venture in Japan? You transfer the technology to the joint venture, collect technology royalties, and then the joint venture entrusts Yimei to produce and distribute it?"
Qiao Junxian's proposal almost made the other party laugh. The other party lamented that Qiao Junxian was young, probably because he saw their boss set up a joint venture with an American electrical company, PN charged technical guidance fees and operating guidance fees from the joint venture, and then the company relied on the technology transfer of the American electrical company, PN took off and became a home appliance giant, so he wanted to do the same.
There is an old Chinese saying that goes "show off one's skills in front of a banyan". Since the joint venture is located in Japan, doesn't that mean it is under their control?
PN was originally very interested in Qiao Junxian's factory, not only because of his sales channels in the mainland, but also because of Yimei's sales channels to the United States and Europe.
Cooperating with Qiao Junxian can avoid the restrictions on the origin of Japanese products, and can also learn about the market sales situation in mainland China through Yimei. They plan to acquire Yimei after cooperating with Qiao Junxian for a few years.
Qiao Junxian's proposal was like a pie in the sky for them.
When the executive reported back, PN immediately agreed to the plan. Qiao Junxian also happily provided a building in Tokyo's Akihabara Electric Street, and rented the three-story office on the building to the company at a low price after renovation.
This building was purchased by their real estate company. The rent of the shops on the first two floors can already cover the mortgage loan of the house. The three upper floors of the office building were originally vacant and were intended to be rented out. Now that they are rented to the company and earning some rent, it is better than nothing.
The Japanese thought Qiao Junxian was really a "stupid man with a lot of money". Since he was so easy to talk to, they also asked him to endorse other products, and Qiao Junxian readily agreed.
This is a later story. They spent an hour visiting various workshops.
After lunch, several people were divided into three groups: production, logistics and comprehensive. Each group spent half a day to understand the operation.
Qiao Junxian assigned Yang Xiuxiu to be in charge of logistics. Xiuxiu is now able to connect with foreign countries, report the progress of orders, solve problems that arise in orders, and is also responsible for coordinating with workshops.
Xiuxiu took Zhao Jiaying and Pang Qiang to the workshop.
Yue Ning asked everyone to study hard, and she went to Yang Yonggen's farm, which had been open for half a year.
With the support of the university team, and the fact that Ge Yueqin and Yang Yonggen were engaged in this business in the northwest, the farm operated exceptionally smoothly.
They have successfully fattened the mule geese that were bred by crossbreeding ducks and geese, and notified Yue Ning to come and try the quality of the goose liver.
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