Apocalyptic Rebirth : Earth"s Vast Changes
Chapter 8 - Delicious Canned Food (Part 1)
Qin Luo was anxious to know the specific conditions of the farm. In the afternoon, the three people took their briefly packed luggages and drove to the two farms in the northern suburbs.
The two farms were not too far apart, and Qin Luo planned to go to the larger one first. Since the farm also had a slaughtering workshop and a cold storage, and he heard that the smaller farms would pull the livestock there to be slaughtered altogether. If he"s lucky enough, he could also buy some raw meat and store it for later use.
Qin Ke was like a bird that has just got rid of the cage. He was asking this and that on the way. Ink found everything interesting, but he didn"t ask much. What surprised Qin Luo was that Ink seemed to know a lot about so many things, but from his way of look, it also seemed that it"s his first time to see them. This had confused Qin Luo, but he didn"t ask.
As they went out early, it was still before noon when they arrived at the farm. Under the clear sky, the green gra.s.s, the cattle and sheep strolling on the gra.s.s, Qin Luo and Ink could not help but stare at them continuously.
The person in charge of the farm was called Zat. He had received a phone call early in the morning, and he knew that the new owner was coming, so when Qin Luo"s car entered the farm, a worker informed Zat at once.
Zat is a local man. He"s tall and strong, and he kind of snored when he spoke. Fortunately, he was very kind. And he"s very practical. His only concern would be the way the new owner intended to deal with the farm. After all, if the farm had to undergo fundamental changes, he and the workers might lose their jobs. As a person who has lived on the farm for nearly two decades, this would be the least desirable and unacceptable outcome.
When Qin Luo sensed their nervousness, he first appeased Zat and the workers, and revealed that he did not intend to sell the farm nor fire them. Zat was more rea.s.sured, and he gave his workers several orders, before showing Qin Luo around the farm.
The farm was much larger than Qin Luo had thought. The slaughterhouse alone was much bigger than he"d thought. This means that he could be able to collect a lot of meat here. This made Qin Luo very happy, and he became more talkative.
At first, Zat felt that Qin Luo, the new owner, was just an ordinary foreign guy, and that he had no experience in farm management. That"s why he did not intend to tell him too much about his recent difficulties. Anyway, the original owner was not that diligent either, and Zat had to figure out a lot of things on his own.
However, after some contact, Zat"s impression toward Qin Luo had changed quite a lot. And after seeing that he"s got good senses in a lot of things, he started to introduce to him the difficulties encountered by the farm. He didn"t expect Qin Luo to give any solutions, but he was hoping to build some network at least. After all, the Donaldson family was still very influential in the UK. Since the new owner was able to inherit the farm, and it"s still a close relative, network shouldn"t be a problem.
Most of these farms were raising livestock and poultry, just because there was a medium-sized canned food processing plant nearby. The two parties had signed the contract and also cooperated for many years. The processing plant has been responsible for the acquisition of livestock and poultry from nearby farms, and the slaughterhouse that has just been a.s.signed to Qin Luo was responsible for providing the canned production plant with slaughtered livestock and poultry.
The plant was an old-fashioned enterprise. The word of mouth acc.u.mulated over the years has made them unwilling to relax in quality and processing. Compared with the cans produced from other small factories, their price was slightly higher. However, the taste and quality have won the hearts of the customers, so they were willing to pay more. Six months ago, several old customers in the plant had suffered heavy losses due to the outbreak of floods, and the number of orders was suddenly reduced. Later, due to several consecutive natural disasters, a large number of dead animals were mixed into the processing enterprises. Not only did the citizens start to resist the meat products, but the small processing factories also continuously lowered the purchase price, because they could acquire low-cost dead poultry and livestock. The processing company of this old brand finally had to consider layoffs. Due to improper internal handling, the workers went on strike, and the plant had lost a batch of orders, which made the situation even worse.
At the moment, the processing plant was facing the threat of bankruptcy. Many canned products stayed unsold. The slaughterhouse managed by Zat was also facing a critical situation. The cold storage still had a pile of raw meat and there"s no place to deal with it.
Half a month ago, several farmer owners found Zat, hoping that he would lead everyone to find a way out. Everyone was gradually having a better life thanks to the plant. The head of the plant, John, was very caring for everyone. Although everyone insisted that Old John could purchase the livestock with the original price, or that he should bring the case to court, they wouldn"t want to make things too difficult for an old man like him. However, they couldn"t afford wasting money on the livestock and poultry either, that"s why they wanted Zat to think of a solution.
Qin Luo listened to Zate explaining about the current difficulties, and he couldn"t help but smile. He thought, well, he was indeed thinking about how to tell Zat about purchasing the meat, and Zat was now handing this gift over.
Zat looked at the new owner and smiled. He realized that the young man might really have a solution. He looked at Qin Luo with a look of hope and waited for him to say something practical.
Qin Luo did not let him down. He pretended to go aside for a call. After returning, he not only promised to immediately contact the related parties to purchase all the meat in the cold storage, but also let him inform the surrounding farms, helped them to contact the purchaser. He tried to acquire livestock and poultry on all orders at a reasonable price.