Zeng Fei, Sales Director of Yunnan Dian Guo Chushan Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd
Li Chao (the legal representative of Yunnan Dianguo Chushan Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd.) still doesn't have time, but he has flown thousands of miles from Guangxi to rush back to Daluo. When we drove from Zhejiang to Yunnan during the Spring Festival, we picked him up in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, and on the way, he chatted with Rao Xinghong about the operation of fruits in 2023, including apple dates from Xishuangbanna. His team lost nearly a million dollars.
"What was the main problem last year?" I asked. Unlike the "Sunshine Rose", which also lost money, Xishuangbanna's apple jujube is an emerging product in the fruit market that is on the rise, and there are no problems such as involution or market inversion.
"The main thing is that we have too many ideas and want to make a lot of money on this single product a year......"
Xishuangbanna's emerging fruit - apple date
"It's so greedy!" I tracked this item last year. Zeng Fei's team adopted the method of pricing the garden, and immediately contracted nearly 1,000 acres of gardens in Taluo and its surroundings, becoming the largest fruit merchant in the entire Xishuangbanna apple and jujube purchase.
"Definitely. Zeng Fei admitted: "Coupled with our lack of understanding of the attributes of this single product, since the Spring Festival last year, there has been a backlog in the warehouse, and in the end, the entire warehouse only has storage data and delivery data, and it is not clear how much inventory there is, because many goods have rotten." ”
"How much is the loss?" I asked.
"The final figure was not counted, at that time they said how many tons, anyway it was very high. Zeng Fei said: "Anyway, a lot of problems are in the library." ”
Growers simply sort them at home and transport them to the warehouse
"How long can apple dates last in the warehouse?" I asked again.
"I don't know, anyway, we don't have specific data. We only know how much money we lost in the end. Zeng Fei said.
I smiled helplessly. This is quite like the evaluation of Zhang Feiyu (head of the Yunnan Business Department of Jieshi Agricultural Science): Rao Xinghong will pay attention to the process, and Li Chao will only focus on the result.
"How did you adjust this year?" I asked. What I know of is that they moved their sorting and packaging workshop for apple dates to Shilin County, 700 kilometers away, because it is the main production area of their main product, ginseng fruit.
Sorting scene at the new plant in Shilin
"First, there is no garden, second, it is sorted by machine, and third, it is reduced in area. Zeng Fei introduced: "This year, we are based on the garden of Longjiang and the four brothers, which is about 200 acres. These 200 acres are all based on the systematic nutrition program and product ......"
I understand the origin of this. Because after Rao Xinghong used Jieshi products such as "Wujin Green" last year, the main loss of the back-end of apple jujube production - the phenomenon of "red (rotten) butt" was greatly reduced, so Li Chao and Zeng Fei wanted Zhang Feiyu to provide nutritional solutions to improve product quality and reduce loss.
"What's wrong with this basic plate?" On the way to Yunnan together, Zeng Fei had already mentioned that Li Chao, who was in charge of the production area, only picked part of the goods from Longjiang, and the goods of the four brothers did not even pick at all. On the contrary, Rao Xinghong took a fancy to the goods of the four brothers and said that he would come to pick them in the next few days.
Zeng Fei (2nd from right) and Long Jiang (middle) and others discuss the standard of receiving goods
"It's still a matter of taste and 'rotten ass'. Zeng Fei said helplessly: "In the early stage, it may be the reason for the more rain, the goods of the four brothers felt a little 'bubble', so they didn't pick them; After the quality is stable, we will pick their goods, probably because of our strict selection standards, and they are not very willing to give us. ”
During dinner last night, Zeng Fei also made a special appointment with Longjiang to talk about continuing to cooperate. I listened to some of them, and the core problem was that they did not achieve the "good fruit and high price" that Longjiang hoped for. For example, the purchase contract stipulates a price for a single fruit weighing more than 80 grams, and a price for small fruits below 80 grams, but the proportion of large fruits with more than 100 grams of apple dates in Longjiang is very high, and this part of the large fruit can be sold at a higher price at the sales end, but it is still according to the market price of more than 80 grams at the procurement end. From Longjiang's point of view, I felt that I had suffered a loss.
Large fruits can be sold at a higher price in the market
"How did you set the purchase price this year?" I asked about the pricing method. In this respect, the grower is clearly at a disadvantage, because the initiative to "cut the sausage" is in the hands of the fruit merchant, and all the grower can do is not sell it to you.
"For a leader like Longjiang, we will give an extra 1 yuan/kg, and others will be at the normal market price. Zeng Fei said.
"That is to say, there is no premium for using the apple dates made by Jieshi products?" I think this is also one of the problems. From the perspective of growers, the use of inputs should not only see whether they have any effect, but more importantly, whether they bring more benefits.
The JES team was on site to guide the nutritional program of apple dates
"Because we held an order fair in Mampa Village before picking fruits, and selected a group of fruit farmers who were willing to cooperate with us, we purchased more than 200,000 yuan of Jieshi products and distributed them to improve quality and prevent 'red butts'. Zeng Fei said: "This money is ours." ”
"You are spending more money, but from their point of view, you don't feel that you are selling more. "I don't think it's a good way to do it.
"Yesterday, Longjiang also said that whether it is a retail investor in Mampa or a big family like them, the last apple dates grown have an outflow, because of our high fruit selection standards. Zeng Fei said.
Workers picking apples and dates
This means that your selection criteria are higher than others, but the price is not higher than others. "I already know very well what the real problem is between him and the growers. In contrast, the effectiveness of JSZ products has become a secondary issue.
Just like Rao Xinghong said, he cooperates with precise customers, and he is rushing to get married when he falls in love; Zeng Fei's teamwork is only intended customers, a bit like the trick of a scumbag pickling girl, give some gifts to see if you can get on it, and if you can't get it, it's not a big loss.
"How to solve the problem that Long Jiang mentioned last night?" I am still concerned about the problem of how to reasonably "cut sausages" between growers and fruit merchants. Compared with those retail investors who "make people for knives and I for fish and meat", Longjiang, which has planted 180 acres of apple dates, has more weight in negotiation.
Zeng Fei (right), Long Jiang (middle) and Zhang Feiyu discuss technology
"From my point of view in charge of sales, 'good fruit and good price' is definitely achievable. Zeng Fei said: "Yesterday Longjiang also mentioned a key point, that is, our fruit selection site is located in Shilin this year, and the goods pulled over are calculated according to the results of sampling and sorting, what is the proportion of large fruits, what is the proportion of small fruits, what is the proportion of secondary fruits? These are not visible. If the sorting machine is in Taluo, the rules of the game will be clear, so he suggested that we pull the sorting machine down and sort locally. ”
It's a bit like a grower sending the goods directly to the wholesale fruit market to sell on the consignment, and what price does it end up selling for, and how much does it cost? These questions are not transparent to the grower. Unless you keep up with it.
"What is the role of your sorting equipment this year?" When Zeng Fei and I went to Yunnan together, the first stop was to go to his factory, which had a new set of sorting equipment. Because apple dates, ginseng fruits and Guizhou's "bee sugar plum" are all small fruits, so they are universal, which is why they set up a sorting workshop in the stone forest.
Sorting equipment that can screen the sugar content
"By sorting, my fruit can be sold at a corresponding premium. Zeng Fei said: "This year, our apple dates are bounded by 12% sugar content, which is divided into two categories: high sugar (12%~15%) and low sugar (10%~12%). For example, the same 3A (80~100 grams) fruit, the high sugar is now sold for 10 yuan/jin, and the low sugar is sold for 8.5 yuan/jin, a difference of 1.5 yuan/jin. ”
"It is equivalent to saying that the products you ship have achieved 'excellent fruit and good price', but when you receive the goods, you have not achieved the real 'excellent fruit and good price', you only have the difference between size and size. "I understand this fault line as "information gap", and as a businessman, I earn money from "information gap".
"When we harvest the fruit, we definitely ask for ripeness, but this is completely empirical, there is no data standard, and the real standard is after we go to the sorting line. Zeng Fei admitted: "After getting on the sorting machine, another advantage is that you can sell the fruits with a sugar content of more than 15% separately; If there is a bad fruit in a box of gifts, the whole shipment will be disposed of cheaply. ”
Zeng Fei is checking the quality of the packaging
It's no wonder that I went to his factory and brought back a box of apple dates with a sugar content of more than 15%, and within a few days, the phenomenon of "rotten butt" appeared.
Therefore, the sorting machine must be very valuable, and it can save more than 1 yuan per catty of labor alone. Counting several of our single products together, we can get this cost back in almost half a year. Zeng Fei finally concluded: "The best way is to build a high-standard post-harvest processing plant in Xishuangbanna, and truly make 'excellent fruit and high price'." ”
"Take the machine as a yardstick. As early as the beginning of 2017, I wrote the article "Beauty is beautiful, but it has nothing to do with fruits", and I made it clear that in the face of the planting status of thousands of households, sorting equipment that can detect internal and external quality is the best entry point to realize the standardization of China's fruit industry.
Anti-hail net of apples and dates at sunset
"Yes, if they see the pricing system of 'high sugar and high price' and 'low sugar and low price' and real data, they will strictly control their workers and improve the quality of picking. You say how many workers can he train like Lao Rao. Zeng Fei said with a smile.
While we were chatting, Rao Xinghong was rushing to Taluo from Olive Dam with the workers he had trained, ready to purchase the four brothers' apples and dates.
February 29, 2024