Chapter 015 Market
Before he knew it, more than half a month had passed. Before the Spring Festival of 2018, Li Jinglan and his men traveled around China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
In the process of selling eel fry, he followed Li Qingye's instructions, wearing different vests, and even hired several agents in various regions to avoid the direct appearance of the Homo sapiens company.
Japan.
Naha Island, Kagoshima Prefecture.
This is one of the three major eel farming areas in Japan, with an annual eel production of about 3,000 to 7,000 tons.
However, during the eel fry fishing season from December 2017 to January 2018, the Japanese fishing company caught a total of about 121 kilograms of eel fry. Even if the more than 400 kilograms caught by Chinese fishermen are included, it is still pitifully small.
Last year the catch was several dozen tons, but this year it has plummeted.
Faced with such a huge gap, a number of eel farming companies are anxious and unable to sleep or eat.
Among them, Kagoshima's largest eel farming company, Kagoshima Unagi Co., Ltd., is feeling tremendous pressure at this time. This year, their company only managed to grab 16 kilograms of fish fry, which is not even a fraction of last year's amount.
Just when they were getting anxious.
Li Jinglan came here with several subordinates and directly found more than a dozen local eel farming companies, saying that his company had caught a batch of eel fry.
Upon hearing the news, eel farming companies throughout Kagoshima Prefecture immediately took action.
A small trade fair was soon held in a local hotel.
Li Jinglan looked at the entrepreneurs around him who were like flies, and felt an unprecedented pleasure in his heart, just like a foreigner in Lingnan, being mesmerized by the handsome men and beautiful women.
Naoto Saito, the president of Kagoshima Eel, looks like a playboy, but he is actually very shrewd. Holding a red wine glass, he soon became friends with Li Jinglan.
"Mr. Li, please take good care of me later. This is the VIP card of Kagoshima Eel Restaurant. Please don't despise it, Mr. Li." Saito smiled and handed over a gold card.
Seeing the style of the card, Li Jinglan accepted the gold card with a smile: "How can I be so embarrassed?"
The other entrepreneurs immediately cursed Saito for being cunning.
Soon, the more than 2,000 fish fry that the Zhiren Company prepared for the Japanese market were quickly snapped up by the entrepreneurs present.
In particular, Saito, who had a gold card, bought 850 eel fry for Kagoshima Eel Co., Ltd. Although he paid more than 20 million US dollars, it was good enough to buy the fry in this year's market conditions.
After all, eel fry are becoming increasingly scarce in the market at this stage, and their farms require maintenance costs, water and electricity bills, and employee wages every day, and they have to pay these costs even if they don't raise eels.
Moreover, the facilities of the farm will gradually depreciate over time until they are completely scrapped, which is almost irreversible.
Although Japan has fixed the production volume of each company due to the Agricultural Association, there is still room for maneuver.
For example, the rated production capacity of Kagoshima Eel Co., Ltd. is 3,000 tons. However, due to the annual decline in the output of wild eel fry in recent years, Kagoshima Eel produced only nearly 1,000 tons last year, which did not reach the rated capacity at all.
In this case, the limited eel fry becomes very important.
Whoever grabs it and grabs more will naturally dominate the Japanese market.
This seller's market allowed the Zhiren Company to earn more than 50 million US dollars by selling more than 2,000 eel fry to Japan.
And this does not include the various gifts received by Li Jinglan and others.
Li Jinglan, who had reaped a great deal of rewards, decided to strike while the iron was hot , so he immediately took his men and flew rapidly to China's Minnan Province and Lingnan Province. These two places were the major sources of eel fry for sale.
After all, the local eel production accounts for about 70% to 80% of the world's total annually. Although the price of eel fry has increased two or three times this year, it is still profitable for farmers.
Chinese breeding companies and farmers also quickly consumed 15,000 portions of eel fry.
Including the shares from other regions, Li Jinglan and his team sold a total of 20,000 glass eel fry to eel farming companies in various places. Each glass eel contained about 5,000 fish, and the unit price of each fry reached US$24,000.
This batch of fish fry alone generated revenue of US$480 million.
In fact, this is due to the sharp drop in the catch of wild eel fry this year, which quickly raised the wholesale price. As one of the few suppliers with fry supply, there is no need to even conduct commercial negotiations. Once the eel fry are taken out, they are quickly sold out.
Luzon.
Port of Manila.
The five shell companies opened by the Zhiren Company here transport eel fry to Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea.
There are also five shell companies set up in Hong Kong, which are responsible for shipping to the Chinese region, including the eel farming company in Tainan Island, which all ships from Hong Kong.
At this time in the port area of Manila Port.
Li Jinglan, who had just returned to Manila, had no time to catch his breath before he met Naoto Saito, the president of Kagoshima Eel Co., Ltd., who flew over from Japan.
After a few words, Li Jinglan accepted the other party's invitation and went to Takasugi Sushi Restaurant together.
Inside the box.
While pouring wine for Li Jinglan, Saito introduced the five people present: "Mr. Li, this is Gao Shanping, the owner of Gao Shan Sushi Restaurant, and this is Watanabe Yuanzhi from Furong Investment Company..."
"Mr. Li, there are not many companies that can catch eel fry this year. Could you have discovered a new spawning ground for wild eels?" Watanabe Motoshi asked half-jokingly.
Although Li Jinglan had drunk a few glasses of sake, he was not confused. He smiled and replied, "Haha, no way. Your country is the first country to study eels. Don't you know where the eel fry are? Our company's fishing boats are just lucky and happened to encounter the fry."
"Haha, I'm just kidding." Watanabe Motomo said with a smile and changed the subject.
Others also quickly toasted and started chatting.
After three rounds of wine, the dishes have five flavors.
Li Jinglan was helped away by his secretary, and Saito was very concerned about this fish fry supplier and personally sent him to the car.
The sushi restaurant is on the second floor.
Takasugi Hei and Watanabe Motoshi, who were drunk just now, were no longer drunk at this time and made a pot of tea.
Watanabe Motoshi's eyes showed a trace of thought: "According to our intelligence in various places, most of the eel fry sold in the market recently come from 11 companies, including 6 in Manila and 5 in Hong Kong."
"Have some tea." Gao Shanping filled their teacups.
"And there is a very interesting phenomenon among them, that is, these companies were founded in the past two years, and many of them are shell companies with no office locations or fishing boats."
Gao Shanping raised his eyebrows: "What do you think?"
"I suspect someone has mastered the artificial breeding technology of eels, and it is a low-cost technology." Watanabe Motomo quickly stated his reasoning.
But Gao Shanping shook his head: "It's not enough to just speculate. We need more information."
Watanabe Mototoshi took a sip of tea and said, "I know. So I will focus on this Homo Sapiens company next, because it is the only company that owns fishing boats and breeding bases."
"Then I'll leave it to you, Watanabe-kun. If we are sure that the other party has low-cost eel breeding technology, the headquarters will definitely not treat you unfairly." Takasugihira said seriously.
Watanabe Mototoshi immediately bowed: "Hi!"
