188: Hire people! Order cold storage!
Chen Kai raised an eyebrow. Two point five yuan per jin? This was even lower than the market purchase price suggested by his system.
It was clear that this Old Man truly had no malicious intentions, and it was a fact that he could not sell them.
If he were a black-hearted merchant, how could he possibly volunteer a price that was fifty cents per jin lower than the market rate?
How could that be? If he were a black-hearted merchant, he would be desperate to play the pity card and ask for four or five yuan per jin, just to make him feel sorry for him.
It was basically impossible for someone to lower their own price and then cautiously ask him if that price was acceptable.
"You're even below the market price, Old Man. Can you still make a profit?"
Chen Kai asked out of curiosity, his face full of intrigue.
The Old Man's expression was a bit helpless, and he gave a wry, helpless smile.
His face was full of disappointment, but there was also a hint of small relief.
"I... sigh... although it's below market price, fifty cents cheaper per jin, the quality of my fruit is definitely not a problem, rest assured, Boss."
"I was thinking... I definitely couldn't sell them on my own... otherwise, they'd just rot in the fields. I was afraid that if I asked for too high a price, you wouldn't buy them, Boss..."
"And on the other hand, Boss, if I didn't give you a discount, I wouldn't feel right about it. You probably aren't some big manufacturer; big manufacturers always sign contracts when they purchase. You bought seven thousand five hundred jin all at once, taking every last bit of fruit from my fields, so selling them will be a problem for you too."
"So... no matter what, if I don't give you a price lower than the market rate, I'll feel guilty. If you don't help us, half of my fruit will surely rot in the fields, and then I won't even get two point five per jin."
The Old Man's face was filled with bitterness and a hint of helplessness.
Usually, it was his daughter, who had already passed away, who sold them online, and the sales were quite good.
But... his daughter had an accident, and the old couple had to go on living. After all, life goes on.
They spent the whole year tending to the loquat trees just to earn some money every summer; other than that, they had no other income.
Selling scrap on the street could hardly be called an income; it wasn't even enough to pay for medicine.
After listening to the Old Man's sincere words, Chen Kai smiled faintly.
"Old Man, what is your annual cost for maintaining the loquat trees?"
Upon hearing this question, the Old Man became anxious immediately and hurriedly defended his fruit trees.
"About eight or nine thousand yuan. Why, Boss? The quality of our fruit is definitely not a problem; the money was all spent on bagging and fertilizer!"
Chen Kai nodded silently and calculated in his mind.
If he sold them to him for two point five per jin, he would only earn ten thousand yuan a year??
That meant less than one thousand yuan a month. Fruit farmers really have it hard these days.
Chen Kai smiled faintly; he had already made a decision.
In the past, he would haggle whenever he could, but now... he would listen to the system's suggested purchase price for once.
"How about this: three yuan per jin. If that works, we'll sign a contract, and I'll help you hire people."
The Old Man was dumbfounded, his face seemingly etched with confusion and helplessness.
He had never encountered such a conscientious fruit-buying boss before!
"Th-th-this... this isn't right! Boss, it's not easy for you to buy so much fruit, will... will you lose money?"
The Old Man stammered, struggling to swallow his saliva.
Chen Kai chuckled, "Rest assured, Old Man, I definitely won't lose money. I'm just afraid you won't even recover your costs."
"Let's do it this way: three yuan per jin. Calculating based on 7,550 jin, that's a total of twenty-two thousand six hundred and fifty. I'll give you four thousand five hundred as a deposit first."
"To hire people to harvest the loquats, sixty people, how much per person per day?"
The Old Man was stunned, thanking him incessantly, so excited that his hands were even trembling slightly.
"To hire people to harvest loquats, it would definitely cost one hundred yuan a day... Boss, are you in such a hurry? If you're not in a rush, it could definitely be finished in three or four days, and I would pay for the labor."
"But sixty people... Boss, I don't think that's necessary, right? That's six thousand yuan."
Chen Kai smiled faintly, "Don't worry about that. Let's do this: I don't care how many people you hire; I'll give you the six thousand yuan, as long as you can finish harvesting the fruit and give it to me by tonight."
"And this four thousand five hundred is the deposit, twenty percent of the total. When the fruit is harvested and handed over to me, I'll give you the rest of the money. Is that okay?"
Upon hearing this, the Old Man nodded excitedly.
Actually, fifty people could also finish it. If he hired them for 120 a day, and they were quick, one person could do the work of two. He would save eighty per person, and maybe he could even make a small profit of eight hundred.
The Old Man immediately started calling people to come over, while taking the ten thousand five hundred that Chen Kai handed him.
"Boss, thank you! I definitely won't delay your business! If there aren't enough people, I'll call the whole village to help harvest the fruit. Thank you!"
"Then I won't keep you for a meal, there might not be enough time."
The Old Man whispered a bit sheepishly and let out a long sigh.
Chen Kai nodded in understanding and waved his hand faintly.
"Then I'll be off. Start calling people to pick the fruit in a while."
"I'm going to go take care of other things. I'll arrange for a truck to come tonight, and I might need to trouble the workers to help load the loquats onto the truck."
The Old Man nodded excitedly, his face full of joy.
"Mm-hmm!! Definitely no problem! I'll help you load them too!"
Chen Kai nodded and turned back to his car.
Sitting in the mercedes-benz gle, he slowly contemplated what to do next.
The next step was definitely to rent a Cold Storage... then put the fruit into the Cold Storage and quietly wait for the Typhoon to blow over and the price of loquats to rise.
By then, there would surely be a lot of fruit left unpicked; whatever wasn't picked would basically be ruined, destroyed by the Typhoon.
But there would surely be other fruit on the market. Once half of this batch of fruit was sold, the prices would probably start to rise.
Especially since local fruit was like a non-renewable resource; every jin sold was one less available, so everyone would definitely scramble for it in the early stages.
But surely some factories would think it didn't matter, thinking that other loquats would soon hit the market.
Perhaps they would never expect that this was the last batch of loquats in Jiangnan City.
By the time they started to panic, the price of fruit on the market would have already skyrocketed, leading to a situation like the one with the ginseng last time.
Chen Kai contemplated silently; he decided to take the fruit out the day after the Typhoon passed to negotiate with the jam manufacturers.
"It's settled. First, go and book the Cold Storage! Cold Storage is likely to be fully booked in the next couple of days!"